Astronaut Patrick Forrester is taking a piece of missionary aviation history onboard the space shuttle 'Discovery', scheduled for lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center this Friday. The item comes from pilot Nate Saint’s Piper PA-14, which is on display at MAF’s Nampa operations in Idaho, USA.
Nate Saint and four other missionaries were martyred on a sandbar in Ecuador on 8 January 1956 by a tribe of Waorani Indians. The incident sparked international news coverage and renewed interest in missionary service. Several of the tribesmen that killed Saint and the others later converted to Christianity as a result of the later outreach by the martyrs’ families.
Forrester asked MAF to provide a part of Saint’s plane for the shuttle mission. He states: ‘My deepest intent is to honour Nate Saint, the Saint family and all missionaries around the world,’ and acknowledges that 'Bringing attention to and renewing interest in missions would be a great result of this experience.’
Forrester, who will be making his third shuttle flight, has logged more than 4,500 hours in over 50 different aircraft and has been with NASA 16 years, yet his dream is to assist in missionary aviation.
'I’ve always had a heart for missions,' says Forrester. 'When I visualise what I might do after I end my career at NASA, always in the back of my mind is going into the mission field in some way.'
If I could go tomorrow and be a pilot with an organization like MAF, I think that’s what I’d doPatrick Forrester, astronaut
Forrester heard about Nate Saint at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, and recalls how the ‘story just fascinated me’. He went on to read the book Through the Gates of Splendor and from which he gained an understanding about MAF’s work.
Whether you are an astronaut, a missionary or something else, Forrester has a simple approach to discovering what career journey you should take. 'There are so many needs out there,' Forrester said. 'People need to figure out where their passion and their talents intersect with God’s plan for the world.'
The aim of the two-week orbital space mission is to equip the International Space Station. Forrester will take the Piper’s battery box with him, having received approval from the NASA after conforming to strict size and weight restrictions.