HOUSTON (BP)--Astronauts Rick Husband and Michael Anderson were remembered in their home church Feb. 2 as men who fervently lived for God more than having achieved their childhood dreams of space flight.

Husband, 45, commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and payload commander Anderson, 43, were among the seven astronauts killed Feb. 1 when the spacecraft broke apart and disintegrated over north Texas just 16 minutes from their landing in Florida.

Both astronauts attended Grace Community Church, an interdenominational church in the southeastern Houston suburb of Clear Lake.

"Rick and Mike were men who fervently lived for God," senior pastor Steve Riggle told thousands of mourners at three morning services Feb. 2, the AP reported. "We celebrate they are in the hands of the Lord."

Husband, father of a son and a daughter, sang in the choir at Grace Community and led a weekly prayer group for fathers called "Dads in the Gap," executive pastor Garrett Booth told The Washington Post. He had been a member for eight years.

Anderson, married with two daughters, had been at the church for four years. Although described as "kind of quiet," The Post reported that Anderson -- one of a few African American astronauts -- was aware of his status as a role model. The newspaper said he often spoke at schools, encouraging students to follow their dreams.

Video tapes of both men recorded before their Columbia mission were played during the Feb. 2 services at Grace Community Church.

"If I ended up at the end of my life having been an astronaut, but having sacrificed my family along the way or living my life in a way that didn't glorify God, then I would look back on it with great regret," Husband said on the video. "Having become an astronaut would not really have mattered all that much.

"And I finally came to realize that what really meant the most to me was to try and live my life the way God wanted me to and to try and be a good husband to Evelyn and to be a good father to my children."

Anderson's tape included a mention that both he and Husband had faced a lot of challenges during their training.

"Rick and I both feel we were put on this mission for a reason and we have tried to meet all those challenges with prayer," Anderson said in his video.

"Through these days of tragedy there comes, somehow, the light of triumph," Riggle told the congregation, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I don't think you have one without the other, unless when tragedy comes, you quit."

Recounting visits with the wives of both victims the evening the disaster occurred, Riggle told of Evelyn Husband showing the pastor documents her late husband had to sign in case of something tragic happening on the mission.

At the bottom of the documents, Husband wrote a special note to his pastor which said, "Tell them about Jesus. He means everything to me," Riggle recounted.

Members of the Grace Community choir had an especially difficult time dealing with the absence of their famous member, posting a picture of Husband in his uniform in the choir room and sharing brief remembrances before turning to the task of comforting the congregation, the newspaper reported.

© 2003 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press