Astronaut Completes Journey of MAF Plane Part from Space to MAF
Patrick Forrester Took Part of Nate Saint’s Piper PA-14 on Shuttle Discovery
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With the aid of several students who attended the chapel service, Forrester demonstrated where the earth was in relation to the moon, and where the International Space Station and space shuttle were positioned above the earth.
NASA Astronaut Patrick Forrester shares a video of his recent space shuttle Discovery mission during a special MAF chapel service Dec. 2.
MAF President John Boyd presents Forrester with a rubbing of the actual name plate from the Piper PA-14 flown by Saint.
Forrester returns to MAF President John Boyd the piece of the battery box from Nate Saint's Piper PA-14 that flew with him during the two-week, 5.7-million-mile, orbital mission. Forrester also presented Boyd with a certificate authenticating that the part had travel with him in space.
Space shuttle astronauts were allowed to take one book with them on the mission. Forrester chose to take a copy of "Jungle Pilot: The Gripping Story of the Life & Witness of Nate Saint, Martyred Missionary to Ecuador," shown here floating in the shuttle's zero-gravity environment.
Nampa, ID—12-02-09—MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) celebrated an astronaut’s return of a relic from missionary history, hosting a day of activities commemorating the occasion and remembering the five Christians martyred in 1956 by Waodani Indians in Ecuador. Astronaut Patrick G. Forrester aimed to honor MAF missionary pilot, Nate Saint, Saint’s family “and all missionaries around the world” when he carried the Piper’s battery box on the space shuttle “Discovery” for its two-week orbital mission that started Aug. 25 to equip the International Space Station.
“Nate Saint could have never imagined we would have had the opportunity of seeing this vital piece from his aircraft travel to a space station,” Forrester said. “Nor could he ever have understood how God has used him in the 53 years since the missionaries’ martyrdoms to inspire generations of Christians to follow their courageous example of obedience and spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”
“This simple MAF aircraft used by the five martyrs to bring the Gospel to the Waodani now holds a two-fold place in history,” said MAF President John Boyd, who presented Forrester with a rubbing of the actual name plate from the Piper PA-14 flown by Saint. “We are humbled by this powerful opportunity to retell to a new generation the story of sacrifice made by Saint and his team of mission workers.”>
MAF will display the battery box part and certificate at its headquarters in Nampa, Idaho. MAF videotaped the day’s events and an interview with Forrester to distribute to all its field staff overseas.
Forrester’s day at MAF headquarters began with a ceremony that included chapel services and his presentation to MAF leadership of a certificate authenticating that the airplane part traveled 5.7 million miles in space during Discovery’s STS-128 mission. The astronaut shared a video about the shuttle mission that accomplished 217 orbits of the earth and returned to land Sept. 11 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Forrester, 52, a 1979 West Point graduate, served as an aviator for the United States Army prior to his service as a NASA aerospace engineer that began in 1993. In his 16-year career as an astronaut, he served on three shuttle missions.
While many dream of a career like Forrester’s, the astronaut himself said he considers serving as a missionary aviator to be a calling even higher than space travel. Forrester said he learned of Saint and the Christian men killed by Waodani spears at a Stephen Curtis Chapman concert. The story inspired Forrester, who has served on short-term missions and plans to continue mission service in some capacity for the rest of his life. Forrester is pleased that his platform as an astronaut can bring attention to and renew interest in missions.
For biographical information on Forrester, go here
Founded in the U.S. in 1945, MAF missionary teams of aviation, communications, technology and education specialists overcome barriers in remote areas, transform lives and build God’s Kingdom by enabling the work of more than 1,000 organizations in isolated areas of the world. With its fleet of 130 bush aircraft, MAF serves in 55 countries, with an average of 242 flights daily across Africa, Asia, Eurasia and Latin America. MAF pilots transport missionaries, medical personnel, medicines and relief supplies, as well as conduct thousands of emergency medical evacuations in remote areas. MAF also provides telecommunications services, such as satellite Internet access, high frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.