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"Touchdown!"

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The NASA team, along with many of us watching the event from home, welcomed all four Artemis II astronauts home this past Friday at 7:07 CST after completing what seemed to us to be a flawless reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The heat shield of the Orion capsule protected its precious cargo through 5,000 degrees of intensely dangerous heat at speeds of 25,000 miles per hour. Many of us whispered our prayers for the crew’s safety. Image: petapixel.com Described frequently as a “dynamic and dangerous mission,” this incredible journey to the moon did not disappoint! I was one among many other space travel enthusiasts who were wowed by the pictures the crew took, and enjoyed their cabin antics over the ten-day mission. This epic and dynamic flight, out and around the moon, required the execution of so many crucial steps and changes. Experts kept reminding us in this historic mission that “a lot of things had to go right” for this to be as successful as it appeared to be. And who could de...
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"Go For Launch!"

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I have been a space enthusiast for as long as I can remember. When I consider the actual numbers, I have been watching launches since May 1961, when Alan Shepard and the Mercury capsule lifted off powered by a Saturn V rocket for that first American suborbital mission from the Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I was barely ten years old, but I was thrilled to join millions of others, from my generation, in following the space program through radio and television coverage. When I moved to Sharpstown, Texas, in southwest Houston to pastor in 1984, I lived in the same suburban community where the seven original Mercury astronauts were given starter homes back in their day. Our kids went to Ed White Elementary, the neighborhood school, that honored the memory of Edward Higgins White, born in San Antonio, who lost his life along with two fellow astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The terrible accident happened in 1967 when a fire broke out in the cabin during a pre-launch te...
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The KitKat Kaper!

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The Easter Bunny may have to substitute certain candies for the beloved KitKat bar during this season. According to reports from the   Nestlé   home office in Vevey, Switzerland, there has been a mysterious and perplexing heist in recent days that may disappoint many kids expecting to see copious bars of their chocolate-covered wafer in their Easter baskets come Sunday morning! Credit: gettyimages.com Newsweek reported that a whopping 26,455 pounds of KitKat deliciousness was stolen. That was a staggering 12 tons in weight equal to two grown elephants! Wowzers! That’s some serious chocolate! How does a thief fence that much stolen product? Ha! Are there that many hungry kids with that much cash? You can imagine how the late-night talk show hosts are capitalizing on this unfortunate event during their monologues! Our grands are past the days of suspenseful in-house searches for their Easter baskets and for surprise-filled eggs during the afternoon hunts outside! However, they...
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The Sunday Invitation!

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Our thirteen-year-old granddaughter, Eloise, is blossoming into a beautiful young lady. She has a smart mind, intuitive emotional make-up, and a loving spirit with her siblings. She is a good friend to several girls in her class and is growing in her spiritual life. She attends church, participates in the youth program, and regularly volunteers her time for service opportunities. Her favorite summer service is teaching younger children during Vacation Bible School! Her daddy, Mimi, and Poppi, too, are proud of the Christian young person she is becoming! The Sunday Invitation! Image credit: pinterest.com This precious grand keeps connected with her friends at school, during track practice, and after-school phone calls. But, she really enjoys those frequent in-person social events that include sleepovers. She recently had a sleepover at her dad’s house with a special friend. The girls spent Saturday night in the downstairs game room with technology and comfy lounge couches. Then, they ...
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A Surreal Season!

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When was the last time the little weather rodent from Pennsylvania got it right? Well, this time! Ignoring our hopes for an early Spring, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on February 2 nd and predicted six more weeks of winter! I woke up to winter this morning! Just before daybreak, I looked out my window and saw a half-inch of blowing snow, white-out conditions with reduced visibility, winds at 35 mph, and temperatures well below freezing! Yikes! Will this ever end? By contrast, yesterday, we cautiously drove to church in a fierce thunderstorm of driving rain and pea-sized hail with temperatures in the mid-fifties! By the end of the week, the forecast is calling for temperatures of 72 degrees on Friday and Saturday. No wonder the morning news led with a breaking story about, “A New Round of Extreme Weather! 30 million are under a winter alert!”   For the middle of March, yes, it’s extreme! But it also feels surreal to me. It is disorienting and unbelievable! One of my mentors a...
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Spiritual Do-Overs

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I seldom play golf anymore. I used to enjoy getting out on the links with friends. But truth is, I am terrible at the sport! I tend to swing a club like I would a baseball bat. That is not the best way to address a golf ball! I couldn’t play competitive golf because I shank the ball across the whole course and into the rough, bunkers, and any nearby fairways when available! No one can compensate for that much bad technique! I’m tired of yelling, “Fore!” 😊 Visual Credit: NBC News My sorry golf game depends on copious mulligans! These are the extra strokes or “do-overs” allowed by gracious friends who are anxious to move the game along. There are types of mulligans or second chances in many sports outside of golf. Tennis has the second serve after a fault. You can throw a bowling ball a second time to knock down the remaining pins. In basketball, there is the one and one at the foul line, and  you have another chance after a false start  in a competitive swim or track meet when...
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The Daily Reset

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Since my teenage years, I have loved to get up early to see the morning sunrise! It started with those 3:30 am wake up calls by my squirrel hunting neighbor, Jim. He was around my dad’s age and served as a mentoring influence to teach me everything about hunting and gun safety. Jim would lightly tap on my window on Saturday mornings to rouse me. I was a light sleeper and would usually be anticipating the prompt. I would quickly get dressed, grab my rifle, and report to the truck. A Sherman Sunrise! We would go to a nearby 24-hour day restaurant for a bowl of cereal and then get into the timber in time to be set and in place when the squirrels began their early cutting of hickory and walnuts. It was always a treat for me to look out on the horizon and see the daylight peeping through the treelined woods. As the moments of sunrise progressed, the light would form into beautiful and brighter layers of purples, blues, oranges, and yellows until the rays were so brilliant I could not look d...
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