InterVarsity’s Highest Flying Alumnus

One of the four crew members of this month’s final space shuttle flight is Mission Specialist Rex Walheim, a University of California-Berkeley InterVarsity chapter alumnus. As a Mission Specialist, Rex has a variety of responsibilities, including space walks and photography.

As an InterVarsity student, Rex was already heavenly-minded; he had his mind set on becoming an astronaut after graduation. However it didn’t work out that way at first. He failed a flight-test physical and ended up with a desk job at a missile station in North Dakota.

As he told us in a 2008 interview, “it all worked out in God’s way and his time.” He didn’t give up and continued to trust in God. Looking back now, he’s able to see how God led him through the disappointment and further applications to the space program until he achieved the job that he believes God prepared him for. He’s thankful for the foundation of faith he received from InterVarsity at UC-Berkeley.

We all have dreams and we all face disappointments. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “When times are good, be happy. When times are bad, consider God has made the one as well as the other.” God does not guarantee our dreams will come true, but He does promise to be with us every day.