The Ethiopian And The Astronaut

Figure 1: a representation of Mengistu Mentie as a young man herding his father’s cattle in Ethiopia. I met Mengistu 1981 at our first year at Grande Prairie College, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.
Figure 2: Is a photo of James B. Irwin in 1971. He was the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 15 (July 26 – August 7, 1971). I met Colonel Irwin in March of 1982, when he gave the gospel message at my church, Grande Prairie Alliance. That is the morning when I accepted my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Why Am I Here?” As I started my tenth grade English class, my teacher explained that this would be title of a 3,000 word essay we would be doing that semester. I took out my #2 Pencil, and started writing that day; but soon found the topic, “Why Am I Here”, to be a lot deeper than I had first anticipated. Up to that point in my life, the greatest depth of my thinking was how much gas I would put in my car the next week.

A couple of weeks zipped by, and struggle as I might, I was simply no closer to coming up with an answer to this profound question. Then I had an epiphany; I should give my oldest sister a call, she was in College so surely she would know. After talking to her, I came up with; “We are here to fulfill some sociological function to the betterment of mankind.” I did well on the essay, but was really troubled that for the first time in my life, I realized that I did not know why I was here.

I decided that I needed to learn more about this topic. But where could I go to find out more? Then I had my second epiphany; my other sister had claimed she had understood why we were here, as she had found it in the Bible. I started reading the Bible in Genesis, worked my way through Ezekiel, got totally confused and jumped ahead to the New Testament. This is where I first learned about Jesus. The more I read about Him, the more amazed I became. It was a start for me, but God knew that to truly understand why I was here I would need more help. That is when He placed both an Ethiopian and an Astronaut in my life.

I just started my first year of College when I met a student from Ethiopia. After developing a bit of a friendship, he invited me to come to his church and for some reason I agreed to go. I had often wondered what went on in these church buildings, as I had not been in one since I was about six years old. As we entered his church I was surprised to learn how friendly the people were, and further surprised that there was going to a special class before church; it was called Sunday School and it was a total mystery to me.

When the class finished, we headed to the sanctuary. I found I was very nervous, as I really had no idea of what to expect in a Christian service. Would there be animal sacrifices? Would they call me to come up front and explain where I had been all these years? After some singing and some announcements, the pastor opened his bible and started to talk to us about God and Jesus; and how much they loved us. At the end of the service, he invited anyone who wanted to know Jesus as their Personal Savior, to come up front. Several people went up, but I just hung on to my seat, because I still had a lot of questions. Frankly, at that point I was just relieved that the service was over, and that I had survived.

My friend and I attended the church over the next several months until the day that the Astronaut landed in my life! It was on March 7, 1982, and we picked Colonel Jim Irwin, Astronaut of Apollo 15 up from his hotel that morning, as he was our guest speaker. In 1971, Colonel Irwin was the 8th of a total of 12 men who walked on the moon. He was there as a Christian, to share about some of his experiences. Of everyone that was in that church that morning, only God and I knew a secret that I had. When the first astronauts travelled to the moon in 1969, my brother and I tried calling them on our walkie-talkies. We tried desperately to reach them, but the only response we got was from local cab drivers. All these years later, an astronaut, Colonel Jim Irwin was finally answering my call, explaining:

"In the three days of exploration, there were a couple of times when I actually looked up to see the Earth. That beautiful, warm living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God."

That morning was when God reached me through an Ethiopian and an Astronaut and answered the question, “Why Am I here?” I had learned, as many before me that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” That is the day I became a Christian.