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By David F. Dawes
Vancouver Island grandmother got a long distance call from her son a while ago. “Bob called to check up on me,” she said. Routine for any dutiful son, no doubt – but this particular phone call was made from a space station orbiting the earth.
Speaking from her home in Cobble Hill, Eva Thirsk said:“It has been a dream of his, to have a mission. He’s been in the program since 1983.”
Two days before astronaut Robert Thirsk took off, they spoke. “I asked him: ‘Do you have any concerns, so I know how to pray for you?’ He said: ‘It’s in God's hands.’”
On May 27, Eva was in Baikonur, Kazakhstan to watch Robert became the first
Canadian to fly on a Soyuz spaceship. He is currently on the International
Space Station, as a Mission Specialist for Expedition 20/21.
In a NASA press release, Thirsk said the trip “will be the supreme thrill of my life. Throughout the mission I will examine the
long-term effects of zero gravity as both a test subject and a physician. My
findings will undoubtedly contribute to the future understanding of space
station living.”
Adventure runs in the family. His great aunt was Jean Buchan, who served as a
medical missionary in India for five decades.
“Bob always admired her greatly,” said Eva. In the early 1980s, Robert was sightseeing in India, and decided to
visit Buchan. “He helped her set up her dispensary. [She] had a great influence on all her
nieces and nephews. We all caught a glimmer of the love she had for others.”
Asked how her son came to accept faith in Christ, she told Options it happened in the mid-1960s. “Robert was seven. His older brother, who was 10, came to the Lord – and witnessed to him. He told Robert: ‘You need to do this.’ His family and his church also influenced him.”
And how is this faith helping her son with his work? “He depends on the Lord for extra strength, and to help him make the right
decisions.”
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Robert Thirsk is scheduled to return to this world on November 27.
Another high-profile Christian Canadian – this one born at the opposite end of the country, in Newfoundland – has also had a close encounter with outer space this year. Independent musician
Matt Maher's first major-label CD, Empty & Beautiful, orbited the earth in May.
According to ChristianToday.com, the CD “was a carry-on item for astronaut Mike Good on NASA Mission STS-125.” The purpose of the May 11 – 24 space shuttle Atlantis trip was to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
In an email to Maher, Good wrote: “I wanted you to know that I was praying for you and your band while orbiting
above God’s beautiful creation . . . It was awesome looking out into space and back at
earth, while listening to your beautiful music – really inspiring.”
Empty & Beautiful was also taken into space by astronaut Ron Garan, in 2008.
mattmahermusic.com
August 2009
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