In 1961 the Soviet Union shocked the world by sending the first man into space. One month later America followed with a 15-minute space flight by Alan Sheppard. Everyone was excited, but that was only the beginning. On September 12, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a bold, almost unbelievable announcement, calling every American to a noble idea many would think impossible: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”
From Gene Gregory’s Sermon: The Mission Before Us