November 23, 2015 Show with Christian Astronaut Col. Jeffery Williams

The Christian Astronaut and His Book on God’s Creation from Space

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's our host, Chris.

Arnzen. Good afternoon Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity who are living on the planet Earth listening via live streaming. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 23rd day of November 2015 and I am very very excited about today's program.

I know that I say that a lot, but this is multiplied a hundred times. Today is a program that I'm doing in loving memory of my father, Harry E. Arnzen, who all his life has been in the aviation or aerospace field.

Since his passing in 1998, I've been looking for the perfect moment to pay tribute to him on Iron Sharpens Iron and this is certainly it, because in the late 60s and early 70s, my dad worked for Grumman and he was a part of the team that designed the lunar module.

He had been a pilot in World War II for the Army Air Corps and then after retiring worked for Republic Aviation and then later for Grumman and I can still remember sitting in my living room with my brother Bob as a young boy watching on the black-and-white television set the first men landing on the moon and feeling such a powerful connection because of my dad's work on the lunar module.

But today's our guest is Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is an astronaut and he's the author of the book, The Work of His Hands, A View of God's Creation from Space. Colonel Jeffrey Williams grew up on a farm in the rural community of winter Wisconsin.

He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1980 and then served more than 27 years in the US Army. Williams became an astronaut in 1996 and flew on the 10-day space shuttle mission STS -101 in 2000 before beginning training for the 183-day Expedition 13 in 2006.

Williams holds a bachelor's degree from USMA, master's and aerospace engineering degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and a master's degree from the Naval War College. He and his wife Anna Marie reside in Texas and are members of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas.

They have two grown sons and according to the foreword of his book by Dr. John MacArthur, one of my most beloved heroes of the modern day, he says that Colonel Williams took more photographs of Earth than any astronaut in history.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you to Iron Sharpens Iron for the very first time,.

Colonel Jeffrey Williams. And I know that there are a lot of children who are.

Anxiously waiting to hear their questions asked. I have advertised that this program would be taking place weeks ago and a number of Christian schools from different parts of the country of different Christian denominations and fellowships responded enthusiastically with a whole bunch of questions from the students of varying grades and ages and I'm just so delighted that so many of them are excellent questions.

I've got to start actually recruiting children to write questions for me more often because it makes my job a lot easier and I think I'm going to perhaps steal some of these questions and pretend that they're my own today because some of them are very good.

Coming to Faith in Christ and Serving as a Christian in Space

But before we get into the the questions from the kids, Colonel Williams, tell us something about your personal faith in Jesus Christ and if this was something that you can remember ever since being a little boy or was it something that came about later in your.

Life? It actually was something that came about later in life, it rebuilt the way. Well praise God for that. It's never too late as long as you have.

Breath in your lungs to start over and come to Christ and have a fresh new life, let alone the most important thing having eternal life. How did you come to know John MacArthur and our mutual friend Phil Johnson who is the executive director of Grace to You Ministries?

I've had John on my program once and Phil on many times. He's probably been interviewed more than anyone on this program with the exception of one or two who are neck-and-neck with him, but.

How did you get to know them? Well, when I came to faith in Christ in the 90s, at nine o 'clock every evening, one on the space show, and I think... Now that you have.

Become a Christian, a very strong Christian, Bible-believing Christian creationist, how has that affected your life in a field? I'm not sure what the typical makeup of religion or faith is amongst astronauts, but if you watch television and watch documentaries, you're going to very quickly come to the opinion that astronomers and those involved in all sorts of fields of science, including space science, are predominantly evolutionists and people who would deny creation and so on.

How does that come to play in your new life as a Christian in this very important field that you're in? Well, I think it's... Oh, that's good to know. That's a pleasant surprise, actually. I'm going to give our email address out, even though most of our questions today are going to be coming from Christian students from kindergarten through 12th grade who submitted their questions to their teachers who forwarded them to me from various parts of the United States, but I still want to give our listeners the opportunity to chime in if we have time here and there to address one of their questions.

Our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com, that's C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com, and please include at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

It's chrizarnsen at gmail .com. And the teachers who submitted their students' questions, most of them include the entire child's name, but some of them only include either the first name or the first name and last initial, and I'm just reading them as I've received them.

Questions from Christian School Students About Becoming an Astronaut

I'm going to start off with a question that several different students asked. We have Ellis Scalise, who's an eighth grader from Coventry Christian School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Alicia Wolfe, a fifth grader from Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Kieran Larrison, a fifth grader from Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York. And Nora Williams, who is also from Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York. And Christelle E., who is an eighth grader at Smithtown Christian School, Smithtown, Long Island, New York.

And Brian Hanna, who's a seventh grader from Coventry Christian School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. They all asked the question, what inspired you to be an.

Astronaut and when did it start? I think as a child I was always interested in science, which is something you probably want to do nowadays. And I tried to even make a rocket. But anyway, I was always fascinated with it.

At that age I never never didn't even know the Army had, I think, more aircraft. And I got to know some folks that had just come back from Vietnam. They were helicopter. And they inspired by Tom Wolfe called The Right Stuff.

Yeah, and all that. Alicia Wolfe, a.

Fifth grader in Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know how did you get picked to be an astronaut? That's.

Most astronauts. I got to NASA in 1985, or a magnitude in ten people, 1996. Wow. We have.

A eighth grader, I'm sorry, a tenth grader from Providence Christian Academy in Scotland, Pennsylvania. I didn't even know there was a Scotland, Pennsylvania, in that. Hannah Garner asks, how does your worldview affect your approach to your work?

That's a good question. The world, everybody has a worldview. Everybody has presuppositions and how they regard all of it. And I believe exploration and discovery is just a component of that commission.

And I try to point out, and when we could be God honoring. And we have.

Jonah, who is a third grader at Lutheran Day School in Northport, Long Island, New York, asking the same question as Eva Leatherman, a sixth grader at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Were you scared of taking your space flight?

We spent a lot of the launch, the work that we do on orbit, the spacewalks, and the entry. And a lot of that time is spent now in the international space.

Well, sometimes I wonder about that about myself, because I'm very frequently scared just using the studio equipment here to conduct a live radio show. It's kind of humiliating knowing that you're less frightened or not frightened at all, operating a spacecraft.

But we do have another listener from, let's see, we have Stephen Kim at Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, Long Island, New York. How long and what did your training consist of before going into space?

Oh, the training is we train how to operate. We have to fix it up. Another example is we, you know, we can't go to the doctor if you didn't get injured. So we get medical training might come up when we're at many more.

Nathan Smith and Alicia Wolf, both in the fifth grade at.

Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, both asked, do you control the space station? And if not, who does?

Well, we sent in Japan. When you say control, it's changing the orientation. It's not explained, but you have to go. We're going to be going to a quick station break and we'll be right.

Back after these messages and more of your questions for Colonel Jeffrey Williams, the astronaut. Don't go away. Attention, coin collectors and investors. Long Island Galleries of Wading River, New York, has brilliant uncirculated 19th century Morgan silver dollars for only $54 per coin with free shipping and handling for a limited time.

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The Book, Earth Observation Photography, and a Listener Question About Feeling Closer to God in Space

Welcome back. If you've just tuned us in, our guest today is Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is a Christian astronaut. He is the author of The Work of His Hands, A View of God's Creation from Space. And we are reading to Colonel Williams the questions of Christian students in varying Christian schools and church Sunday schools from different parts of the country, whose teachers submitted them to us when this program was advertised.

So we're delighted to read them to you. Before we even go into more of the children's questions, tell us something about this gorgeous, full-color, coffee-table-sized book that you've got, that you've written here.

When I came back from the Expedition 13 flight in 2006, I had to say to that vantage point, when I got back, the folks that pay attention to what we call Earth observation photography here at Johnson Space Center in Houston, I went back and didn't take a whole lot of it.

But then other people started mentioning it, because I was still, after about a year or so, I put it together and submitted a manuscript, and then it took them a couple of years to put it together. In the meantime, I was out in May of 2008, and it's released.

The book, in particular...

Well, it's a gorgeous book, and the first six schools who submitted questions from their students to us are receiving a free copy of this gorgeous book that will be shipped out to you, God willing, this week.

So we thank you so much for submitting these questions, which we still have many of. We have a question from Jessica Weber in the sixth grade at St. Paul's Lutheran Church Sunday School in Amityville, Long Island, New York.

She asks, do you feel closer to God in space?

That's a good question. I get that question. My closeness to God comes by His grace. I haven't said that.

Amen. Madison Fryman, who is a sixth grader at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, New York, says her mom wants to know if you'd be willing to take her dad out into outer space forever. No, I'm just kidding.

That was a joke. I happen to be a friend of Pastor Josh Fryman, who is Madison's dad. Madison actually asked if the American flag is still on the moon.

It is, so they've got some... But he gave a presentation in 1969, and it was sort of... And on the right side of the screen, the trajectory is going down as clouded dust on the right side of the screen.

We enjoyed it, and it was an honor to be there to have Neil narrate.

We have two different students who asked the same question. Kaylee Gloxian, who is a second grader at St. Paul's Lutheran Church Sunday School in Amityville, Long Island, New York, and also Jenna Buchhamer, who is in the sixth grade at Providence Christian Academy in Scotland, Pennsylvania.

They both want to know, what do you eat or drink in space?

We have a wide variety of food and drinks. We're dehydrated, although not all of it is dehydrated. Obviously, we don't get a lot of fresh food up there, but the food is meats and vegetables, everything that you have come up.

We have a couple of students who asked the same.

Question. We have... Let's see here. We have Valentina Flores, who is a sixth grader at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, and Tharon Alamuri, who is in the ninth grade at that same school.

Do you believe in extraterrestrial life? I do not. I get that.

Question often as well. In fact, I am documented in some program on one of the cable news channels as rich from the space. So unfortunately, I don't want to believe it. And there's a... So I do not believe in it.

Now, this is a question of my own. Do you think that.

Your faith compels you to be certain that extraterrestrial life does not exist? Or is there another reason why you do not believe in it?

I don't think that we'll find life anywhere else. But practically, look at the purported evidence that suggests it's practical. I think, you know, going back to the earlier worldview question, and you know, all these things are throughout ever since the fall, I guess you could argue, that don't want God to be there because they don't want to judge.

They don't recognize that they cannot stand justified before a God. Well, in the last couple of hundred years, of course, there's been great headway made in Western civilization to get God's humanism and naturalism and materialism and has come out of that.

And that's the most obvious component of it, the Darwinian theories and all that. Well, that says that I'm here, too, because we can look out as far as more and more and more. And so certainly there is in all probability.

And well, I don't know why I get a kick out of this question. But I love this question for some reason. Nora Williams, a fifth grader at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, asks, Have you ever argued with your astronaut friends?

Have I ever argued? Well, I never got into a heated emotional argument. Certainly we have discussions and we have debates in conversations. We have, that happens, and I've been in orbit with, I think, up to 45 or 50 people now, different people, either that have been on the cruise that I have been on or have been on other crews at Space Shuttle when I was there.

And I've never gotten into. And Maya Martinez, who is a fifth.

Grader at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, asks, If you were on a mission and something went wrong, would you ask God to help you with it? And also, Nora Williams, again, of Our Savior New American School, asks if you pray to God to help you along the way.

Absolutely. In the provision in the little things, I like to say our Creator.

Ruth Hiney in the seventh grade at Coventry Christian School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, asks, Have you ever ministered to one of your fellow astronauts and they were later saved?

Ah, you know, I'll broaden the question of things. Many discussion in regards to encouraging that, in that we haven't said all that. It's our job just to be for that, that people come to a saving faith.

It's by the grace of God that they come to a saving faith. We're just called to be obedient.

Amen. And by the way, Isabella Reisinger in the sixth grade at Grace Baptist Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, asked the same question. I didn't want to leave Isabella out there. Olivia Myers in the sixth grade at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, asks, Who noted the speed limit sign?

Is there a speed limit in space?

Ah, what they probably saw was the speed limit sign that we have in the space station one, and it says 700 miles an hour. And there might be another one that says speed limit 25. That is the speed, as I said earlier.

Marcus Busalio, I'm sorry, Marcus, if I'm mispronouncing your name, Marcus Busalio in the fifth grade at Our Savior New American School in Center Reach, New York, asked, Does time go by faster in space?

As far as I can tell, as far as I, you know, subjectively experienced time, some days go fast, other days go slow. By the way, I also wanted to let you know that.

Elena Dudley in the 10th grade at Coventry Christian School in Potsdam, Pennsylvania, also asked a question that we earlier asked about, Does God's creation in space deepen your relationship with Christ in any way?

So I just wanted to make sure she wasn't left out on that. Uh, we have. Marcus Rivera, a senior at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long Island, New York, wants to know the following. Can you tell me what time zone you adhere to in space?

And do you wear an Omega Speedmaster watch in space? Obviously,.

Marcus's dad works for the Omega Corporation. Omega Speedmaster. I've got one on my wrist right now. Um, just because we, we use it in training. So where it is, if not before, typically live on Greenwich.

We have a kindergartner, Jack Graff at Long Island.

Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long Island, New York, wants to know what it feels like being so far away from Earth. Obviously, that's a very general question, but it's a good question.

It's a great question. Yes, at 50 miles or so a day, I can call. We have to go to a break right.

Now. If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, feel free to email us at ChrisArnson at gmail .com. ChrisArnson at gmail .com. We have plenty more questions from kids out there, and I'm hoping to get to as many as I can before the program is over.

Don't go away. We will be right back with Colonel Jeffrey Williams, the Christian astronaut, right after these words from our sponsors.

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And if you just tuned us in for the last hour, we have been interviewing Colonel Jeffrey Williams, who is a Christian astronaut, and he's the author of The Work of His Hands, A View of God's Creation from Space.

And Colonel Williams is actually preparing right now for another space launch in March. He's going to be on the space station for six months. Before we return to our questions from the kids, tell us something more in detail about that and what you'll be doing.

Well, the fall of 2000, early March, and then I'll launch in mid-March. The space station is the 2020s. Right now, the agreement is younger than that. So really, what I'm preparing to do is just get back into the mix, but different.

Russian Training, the Big Bang, Mars, and Seeing Earth from Orbit

I'm going to take this opportunity to take one of the questions from our regular listeners. Andy in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know, have you learned to speak Russian fluently, and what has it been like working with the Russian cosmonauts?

Yeah, what I just said is it's necessary to speak Russian. We use Russian and English. Looking back, the hardest thing, people ask about what's hard about the training. Obviously, there's a lot of different training, the scope.

For me, I always have an inclination toward through the 2000s, in my experience, 1980, the heights of the Cold War. We have two questions that are the same from Smithtown Christian School.

In Smithtown, Long Island, New York. Megan P. and Matt C. both ask, do you think that the Big Bang Theory actually happened? And since you're a Christian astronaut, do you believe that it's possible for someone to go into space, see all the wonders and beauties of it, and then say that a big explosion caused it all, instead of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent,.

Intelligent designer? Well, I had a whole lot of time to study the possibility of God. You exclude the possibility of the supernatural, and all things have to be explained in nature, and it can't come up with some that...

And by the way, Megan P. is in the 8th grade, and Matt C. is in.

The 10th grade. I think I failed to mention that. Elise G. in the 10th grade at Smithtown Christian School on Long Island, New York, asks, do you believe that people will live on Mars one day?

That's a good question. There's a lot of focus on going to Mars. It's always been that way. Even, you can even go back to here. By the way, I just wanted to correct the pronunciation of.

One of the students' names. It's Bryn Hanna, who was in the 7th grade at the Coventry Christian School in Potsdam, PA. Sorry about that, Bryn. Aaron Rivera, who is in the 3rd grade at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, would like to know if you have ever seen any satellites while in space, and if you've ever seen the Hubble telescope while you were up there.

Well, the Hubble.

Telescope, I have not seen meteorites. Here's an interesting question from Sophie Wise in the 10th.

Grade at Coventry Christian School in Potsdam, PA. Did you notice anything about Earth when looking at it in space that you had never realized when you were on the planet Earth?

Ah, good question. I think I realized it before going there, but one of the things most astronauts, when they go there for the first time, is the diameter. So, I think that's one of the... This is from one of the teachers, Mrs. Liz Graff, elementary teacher at Long Island.

Baptist Academy in Holtzville, Long Island, New York. She asks, according to NASA transcripts of the Apollo moon missions, several astronauts reported hearing music in space. Have you ever heard it, and can you explain it?

Thank you for your kindness in taking our questions. Please don't tell me it's disco, though, if you hear the music.

That's an interesting comment. I have to say, I don't remember ever hearing about that.

Oh, okay.

Folks heard music. I could be explained the oxygen through the suit.

Well, that's in the craft, though. In outer space, there is no sound. Am I right on that?

Sound has to travel through a medium, and we hear sound because sound will not travel through a vacuum.

So, if something exploded in space, unlike in some of the movies where you hear it, there would be no sound. Haley Ackle, a ninth grader at Long Island Baptist Academy in Holtzville, New York, would like to know, what do you do in your spare time in space?

Well, there's not a lot of spare time. The days are pretty full. Sundays are when we do get those free. So, that's how I would link to my wife, as I said.

Well, you did actually remind me to announce that this program today is being especially sponsored by our friends who published the New American Standard Bible, and this year marks their 73rd anniversary.

So, we want to thank everyone at the publishing headquarters of the New American Standard Bible for their faithful sponsorship of Iron Sharpens Iron, and we congratulate you on your 73rd anniversary of publishing God's Word.

We have Riley Minor in the ninth grade at Coventry Christian School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, who asks, of all the steps in preparing for a mission, during the mission, and recovering from a mission, is there any part you would omit, if given the choice?

If so, which ones?

Oh, boy. We have our category of those up there as well. So, that kind of stuff.

Isaiah in the fourth grade at Lutheran Day School in Northport, Long Island, New York, asks, has an asteroid ever hit your space shuttle while you were in space?

No, asteroids have been. We do get hit. Either are. Isaiah in the fourth grade also asks, is it hard to walk around in your space suit on earth? You cannot walk around in your space. Wow. Leah in the fourth grade at Lutheran Day School.

In Northport, New York, asks, if you had children, would you bring them into space with you?

I beam down for the weekend sometimes. And I want to apologize for Diana Barbara.

Sina, because she also asked, what would you do for leisure time in space? She's with Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York, in the eighth grade. We have a question from Alexa Aurelio in Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York, also in the eighth grade.

What is the most fun thing to do in zero gravity?

Oh, well, we throw a food run at each other and some video, take some water bubbles. Everybody turns into a kid again.

And that question was also asked by Isabella Norton in the third grade of Our Savior New American School in Center Ridge, New York. We have a question from Christian Rogers of Grace Christian Academy in Merrick, New York.

He's in the eighth grade.

What was your job on the shuttlecraft? On the space shuttle STS -101, that was two modules. And I don't know if you've answered that question, but Brianna Rivera in the ninth.

Grade at Our Savior New American School in Center Ridge, New York,. Wants to know, what.

Are your most recent projects in space? Most recent projects, genetic plant research going on. We've got multiple studies of the human body. I mentioned earlier that that's one of our primary categories to try countermeasures for future exploration.

It's like a lot of research hospitals. We have a, again, for design of future systems on board. And there are many, many other things that are going on. Your listeners could certainly go on the NASA web.

Luke Van Grouw in the fifth grade at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know, what differences do you face in space other than zero gravity?

Well, you are in supply ships only. All right, we're going to go to our final commercial break.

Right now. So we're going to be right back after these messages with more of your questions for Colonel Jeffrey Williams, the Christian astronaut, right after these messages. So don't.

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Mars, Medical Concerns, Spaceflight Conditions, and Life in Zero Gravity

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron. For the last 90 minutes, we have been interviewing Colonel Jeffrey Williams, a Christian astronaut who is preparing for another space launch in March of 2016.

He's going to be spending six months at the space station. Obviously, we would ask all of you to pray for his safety and for him to be a powerful witness for Christ and his gospel in all that he does as an astronaut.

I also want to thank again the publishers of the New American Standard Bible for making this program with Colonel Williams possible, and we want to congratulate them again on their 73rd anniversary of publishing God's Word.

If you have any more details you'd like to find out about the New American Standard Bible, go to nasbible .com. That's N-A-S, which stands for New American Standard Bible dot com. N-A-S Bible dot com.

Going back to our student questions, Ethan Eisenberg, in the fifth grade at Grace Baptist Church Christian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, wants to know, if you could go to any planet, where would you go?

Oh, good question. If I could live in any climate, was that the question?

No, go to any planet.

Planet. Planet. If I could go to any planet. I don't know. I kind of like the Earth.

I guess he means visit.

Yeah. Well, I did have a hope early in my career of getting the opportunity, maybe, of going back to the moon. The moon would be a fascinating trip. Going to Mars, I'm not sure I've personally ever warmed up to that idea.

It's never been realistic within my career, but that's a long ways away, and that's the closest point for us to get.