SteveJamieson.com

I think I have found the ultimate Christmas present for me. The other day Jed sent me a link to a story on CNN.com about a company in England that makes inflatable churches. That’s right, how cool would I be if I had a portable, 47 ft long × 25 ft wide × 47 ft high church building complete with plastic “stained glass” windows and inflatable organ, altar, pulpit, pews, candles and gold cross? It’s every seminarian’s dream. If I can’t find a call when I graduate, all that I’ll have to do is find a nice open space, start up the fans, and, after a few hours, I’ll have my own church ready to go. The novelty will attract people right away, so I can immediately start holding services. Boom! Instant church plant. Okay, so maybe that whole scenario isn’t all that realistic. Still, it’s an inflatable church! What pastor wouldn’t want one?

I was almost 7 years old when, on January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off. I vaguely remember that tragedy. Today, as I’m almost 24, I witnessed the third tragedy in NASA history—the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia during re-entry.

When I woke up this morning, it seemed like a normal Saturday. I slept in. When I got up I got a shower. I got a bowl of cereal and sat down in the living room to watch some TV. When I hit the power button on the remote, however, the day changed dramatically. As the screen turned on I saw a bright, clear blue sky, with a white streak down the middle. My immediate thought: “Uh oh… What am I looking at? What happened?” As I soon discovered, I was looking at some of the first broadcast video of Columbia breaking up. I spent most of the morning watching the story develop as new footage from different angles came in, and the first pieces of debris were found.

This is a story of particular interest to me because I have for a long time had an interest in the space program. As a kid I attended all three levels (available at the time) of the Delaware Aerospace Academy (which introduced me to model rocketry, btw). There’s just something special about space travel that captures the imagination.