Fifty years ago today Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin set foot on the moon. While Armstrong's first words on the lunar surface might be well known, what's not as well known is that the first liquid poured and the first food eaten on the moon were communion elements. 

Buzz Aldrin celebrated communion upon landing on the moon at the same time his church back near Houston, TX was also taking communion. And right before he took the elements he read a carefully selected verse from Scripture.

Aldrin wrote a special piece for Guideposts in October 1970 detailing the account.

"For several weeks prior to the scheduled lift-off of Apollo 11 back in July, 1969, the pastor of our church, Dean Woodruff, and I had been struggling to find the right symbol for the first lunar landing," Aldrin wrote.

"We wanted to express our feeling that what man was doing in this mission transcended electronics and computers and rockets."

Aldrin and his pastor finally decided that communion would be the perfect symbolic act, "symbolizing the thought that God was revealing Himself there too, as man reached out into the universe. For there are many of us in the NASA program who do trust that what we are doing is part of God’s eternal plan for man."

They also settled on John 15:5 being the perfect verse. Aldrin wrote the passage on a slip of paper he carried with him. After the Eagle landed on the moon's surface, and just before he and Armstrong left it and walked on the moon for the first time, Aldrin read the passage. "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me." (TEV)

"I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.

"And so, just before I partook of the elements, I read the words which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ.

"I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere."