Barry “Butch” Wilmore was one of the NASA astronauts who recently returned to Earth after being stuck in space for more than nine months.
In a press conference this week he said maintaining virtual fellowship with Providence Baptist Church — his home church in Pasadena, Texas — was “vital” while the originally planned eight-day trip to the ISS dragged out for 286 days amid technical issues.
Wilmore, an elder at the church he has attended with his family for 17 years, led devotionals and joined fellow astronauts in singing “Amazing Grace”.
During the Monday press briefing, he said he also streamed services from Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where one of his friends is a pastor and elder.
When asked why he attended services from space, he said, “The Word of God continually infilling me, I need it.”
Noting how people’s lives are “bound up in many things,” Wilmore said, “For me, it’s faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the end-all, be-all. He forgives us.”
He added, “He teaches us when He says in His Word about being content in all situations because He’s working out His plan and His purposes for His glory and our good, and I believe that because the Bible says that.”