Moon walking
My life has fallen into a few stages.
As a child, I lived in Box Hill when it was village. I then became pastor to the slums of inner Melbourne for eight years. I was then a country parson and a teacher at a one teacher bush school out at Jackson Creek in Western Victoria and then for 13 years, I was a suburban minister in one of Australia’s largest suburban ministries.
And then, for more than 27 years I’ve been Superintendent in Sydney of Wesley Mission, Australia’s largest church ministry.
I’ve told you stories of people in each of these places.
Tonight I want you to come with me into the heart of the city.
From the time I was a boy, I was always fascinated with the face of the moon. I had a large map of the surface of the moon on a wall in my home. I had spent many a night with the biggest telescope I could afford looking at the surface of the moon. In the 1950’s the moon was on everybody’s mind. There was a great deal of talk in scientific circles about whether or not it was possible for a man to go and walk on the moon. My grandmother had declared quite soundly that it was absolutely impossible and that it would never happen in our lifetime. However that was to change dramatically.
In May 1961 President John F. Kennedy who had inspired the United States with his freshness of approach, challenged the nation to land a man on the moon before the end of the 60s. It was to be a race with Russia who was ahead in the “space race”. American people everywhere were captivated with the idea. It dominated American thinking throughout the 1960s in a way that no other creative scientific idea has ever captured the imagination of a nation previously. The goal of landing a man on the moon involved tremendous logistical support. More than 20,000 American companies took part in making sure it happened. Hundreds of thousands of people were actually employed at a cost of more than $25 billion. But before the decade had ended, on July the 20th 1969 the rockets of Apollo 11 shot of with the destination: the moon.
The moon landing itself was a stunning achievement that commanded the world attention. It was one of those occasions when people can always remember where they were when the moon landing was telecast on earth. Every person with access to television was glued to the set. Shortly after Apollo 11 landing on the moon we saw on our grainy black and white television the view of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buz Aldrin speaking to earth. Then the hatch opened and Neil Armstrong slowly descending down the ladder from the moon module. As he took his first step onto the surface of the moon he said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” President Richard Nixon rang from the White House on what he called, and “interplanetary conversation” – “The most historic telephone conversation ever made.”
Shortly after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon his co-astronaut Buz Aldrin came down the steps of the command module and together they planted an American flag in the lunar dust. As almost a celebration Buz Aldrin started to check his mobility by walking on the moon surface. Because of the lack of gravity he bounded in great kangaroo hops. The Americans had made a giant leap for mankind but they had also won a frantic race against the Soviet Union to be the first on the moon.
Neil Armstrong had stepped into history. Wherever he went in the world he was met by huge crowds who applauded deafeningly his accomplishments. Armstrong was the ideal of all American boys. He was a US Navy fighter during the Korean War and subsequently a test pilot in the early days of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He had flown the X15 rockets up into the very fringe of space and had served as command pilot of the Gemini 8 mission which had circled the earth. In moving out of the earth’s gravitation he became the first person to achieve the dream of centuries of walking on the moon. After his historic journey he became a Professor of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati and in 1979 visited Australia. The American sales and marketing guru Ron Tacci bought Neil Armstrong to Australia to be a keynote speaker to 2500 businessmen in the Sydney Opera House. He also organised similar large-scale presentations in Melbourne and Brisbane with Neil Armstrong speaking to the Australian crowds.
As the newly arrived Superintendent of Wesley Mission I had been speaking at a number of important sales conferences around Australia at the invitation of leading companies and Ron had heard me speak. He needed an Australian on the platform to speak before Commander Armstrong. This was an incredible honour. Any public speaker in Australia would have jumped at the invitation to speak at the same occasion as Neil Armstrong. I spoke and received the most tumultuous standing ovation ever. The scene was set, now for Neil Armstrong to give his first address in Australia. What happens next will long stay in my memory.
Sitting and talking together before the convention in the Opera house opened, Commander Armstrong was very disappointed at an article about him on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. Although it applauded all of his achievements, the heading and the article was written with a typically cynical Australian view. The headline started “Astronauts Flabby and Unfit”. And it started by saying that the first man to have been on the moon was here nine years later confessing to a reporter’s question that he was not as fit as what he was as an astronaut and in fact had been rather flabby. This was a typical cheeky question by a report who then majored the story upon this fact. Armstrong, who looked as fit as any man I have ever seen in my life, was deeply hurt by the cynical article.
Ron Tacci introduced him to the audience and the expectations was sky high. Neil Armstrong walked out onto the platform to a standing ovation. Then as the audience was seated he calmly took off his coat and hung it on the podium where he had placed his notes. He then walked to the centre of the platform where I had previously spoken and in a movement that surprised everyone fell flat on the platform and placing one hand behind his back started to do push-ups with one hand. Anybody who does push-ups knows that one-handed push-ups are extremely difficult. He pumped away on the floor raising his body with one arm again and again. People chanted as he reached 50 push-ups then without pausing began to do two-handed push-ups clapping in mid air when his body was raised off the earth. After 25 clap push-ups he calmly got up, walked over to the podium and put on his coat. The audience erupted with cheers and applause. Neil Armstrong then said, “The techniques involved in Lunar landing…” There was again tremendous applause. Few people could have performed such a remarkable feat of physical fitness without even being puffed. I had the fortune to travel with Neil Armstrong and to speak again as the warm up to his wonderful presentation. We developed a friendship that meant a great deal. For 20 years in my office has been a photograph of us together and one of him signing and magnificent pencil sketch of him making that first small step for man and giant leap for mankind on the moon surface. On the photograph of the two of us, he wrote: “Gordon it has been an inspiration to work with you.”
The American conquest of the moon didn’t stop with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
There were continuous Apollo flights to the moon and another 4 lunar landings. The fourth took place between July the 26th and August the 7th in 1971 when Colonel Jim Irwin brought the lunar module down safely on the surface of the moon. Jim Irwin had been a test pilot in the United States Air force with more than 7000 hours of flying. In 1961, just when the American space program began, he crashed an aircraft. Fortunately the plane did not burst into flames. He was seriously injured with broken legs, broken jaw, many teeth knocked out, concussion and multiple lacerations. He awoke in hospital with the doctors telling him he would never fly again. After all the preparation as an astronaut this was a crushing blow. Jim Irwin called out to God in despair “Why did this happen to me?” As he lay in bed he invited Jesus Christ into his life to be Lord and Saviour and he accepted God’s will for him and no matter what. To his amazement his recovery was incredibly rapid and God made it possible, he said, for him to fly again. So it was in 1971 he led the team to the moon for the fourth manned lunar landing. He achieved instant fame by driving the first motor vehicle called the Lunar Rover around the surface of the moon. Jim Irwin collected 180 pounds of moon rock and spent 19 hours 46 minutes on the moon surface. While he was there he looked up and saw not the sunrise but the earth rise coming up over the horizon of the moon. He quoted from the Bible “I will lift up to mine eyes unto the hills from whence commeth my help”. This was the first time that the Bible had been quoted outside the earth. He had a prayer on the moon and left and microfilmed prayer from his church for peace in space.
Jim Irwin also came to Australia. Encouraged by Neil Armstrong he came straight to Wesley Mission where he took part in services, spoke at a special dinner that we organised in the Round House of the University of New South Wales and joined in a number of Mission Programs. I made a video of him in his hotel room which was supported by some NASA film footage from the moon which made a tremendous programme on Turn “Round Australia. Jim Irwin was a remarkable Christian whose faith had seen his body recover and whose skill had enabled him to walk on the moon. He told me that scientists have said that on the surface of the moon, where there is no wind at all, his footprints in the moon dust could last for more than a million years.
He told me that from the moon the earth does not to look big. When it rises over the horizon of the moon, the earth is only the size of a marble. The earth from outer space looks blue. It is the only blue planet in the solar system. It is blue because of the amount of water covering the earth.
Jim Irwin told me: “I was aware of the power of prayer on the moon for people who were praying for our safety. The days I spent on the moon were very exciting. Not because I was there but because God was there. I could feel his presence. There were difficult times when I prayed and the answer was immediate. I have told many people since coming back to earth “God was there because of your prayers.”
On one occasion while he was walking on the surface of the moon collecting lunar rock, he said “ I suddenly saw a rock different from any other rock, free from dust and gleaming in the perpetual sunlight. It seemed to me to be saying “Here am I, take me!” It was magnificent rock. It was white and we have called it “The Genesis Rock.”
Jim Irwin brought the Genesis rock with him to Sydney and I held it in my hands. It was extremely heavy for its size, as if made of lead. Scientists had examined it closely to determine its most unusual origins.
Jesus walked on earth but Neil Armstrong and Jim Irwin walked on the moon. Both were outstanding gentlemen whom I have been pleased to call friends.
The city of Sydney would grow to be one of the world’s great cities and Wesley Mission would grow to be one of the world’s great churches and I was privileged to spend each day in the heart of both.