This week we recognize our graduating seniors in our church. It has turned into a super special day and we tend to pull out all of the stops. This is a strange year to plan something amazing. Early in the shut down, we knew we had to shift gears. We have been praying and waiting and watching, trying to figure out what we could do. The theme, “The Moon”, was locked in last year. It is a job we always do on the Monday after Senior Sunday. We were working on the bible reading calendar and at that time Acts 2 was the text for the day (it has since changed and we read this a few weeks ago, but when we were picking it was on that Sunday).
We knew we had deep moon resources in Texas and were planning to go south. We also had Tex Ward in our church who knew all of the Apollo astronauts and helped train them for their missions as well as a long career in NASA after that.
As the restrictions began to open a little, we hatched a new plan. One, the film team would try to go film somewhere interesting. Two, we would do an in-town Senior Adventure.
Where could we film? NASA, in Houston, was closed. We thought of the Cosmosphere in Kansas. It’s the premiere space museum in the country, if you want to look at the space race. It was closed. I decided to write them anyway. I crafted a letter and asked if they might be opening. If they were, could we film? After several days, they wrote me back. They were not opening, but they might let me come and film. They needed more details.
I wrote and told them the whole story of Senior Sunday and what I wanted to do. They said, “Yes!” So, Steve Gowan, Logan Henderson, and I drove 9 hours on Tuesday, filmed on Wednesday, and then drove back. The Cosmosphere staff bent over backwards to help us and even sent gifts for the graduates. They went way over and above the call of duty. They really helped make our day a special day. I hope, if you are ever in the area, you will stop in and see this fantastic museum and tell them thanks for caring about a group of kids from Athens, Texas.