A Little Bit More About Me and When I Was Called to Worship
I wanted to talk a little bit more about my story today. My story is pretty long, so for the sake of time I will condense it. But I thought it might be nice for you guys to know a little bit more about my background and some of the things that have made me who I am today.
I grew up in a Christian family and the only life I've really known is with the Lord. I got saved when I was 4 years old and I've been following God ever since. I spent most of my life in the missions field living in Ukraine. A lot of people have asked me if I felt like I was missing out on the life that all of the kids in America had. My answer to that question is rather the opposite; I feel like very few of the kids that grew up in America can say that they have had the unique experiences that I've been able to have because of my life in the missions field. An example of that would be Auschwitz; I have been to Auschwitz two times, whereas most kids have only seen pictures in their history books. I have been given a rare opportunity to experience history and visit a place like Auschwitz.
As I've mentioned before, my main calling is to teach the Word of God. I am studying at Calvary Chapel Bible College and I absolutely love it! It is a great experience and I feel like even after just 2 weeks of studies that I'm already growing in my knowledge of the Word.
But I am also called to worship and I enjoy worship very much. Worship is really what brought me closer to the Lord in a more personal way. When I was 14 years old I was at a Christian conference that we have every year for all of the Calvary Chapels in Ukraine. One night, as we are all singing the songs that I grew up with, I experienced worship for the first time. I think that we all remember at least one time when we began to truly worship and the Lord just brought us to our knees. That night I had that moment; I fell to my knees and I worshiped God and it was personal for me. It wasn't because my father was a pastor, it wasn't because my family were missionaries, it wasn't because I'd been in Sunday school my whole childhood; it was a personal time of worship with me and my Savior. I call this time the time when my religion became my relationship.
So after that night I decided that I wanted to be involved in worship. However, I didn't play any instruments and I couldn't sing to save my life, so I decided that I would try to learn an instrument. The first instrument that I tried to learn was the harmonica. I do hope to one day master the harmonica; unfortunately, at that time in my life the harmonica didn't really work out for me. Then for a brief time I thought about maybe trying guitar, but after trying to play a few chords and feeling the pain from the strings, I decided that maybe guitar wasn't my thing either.
So at this point, I was pretty discouraged and I felt like maybe I wasn't going to be able to play on a worship team. We were back in America and one night my friends, the Lyons, invited me to stay the night with them. They are great friends of mine and I love them very much and so of course I agreed.
But before we went to their place we went to a home fellowship, where we just worshiped and read the Word. It was a very informal meeting, and as we worshiped people would start handing out shakers and things like that for people to play. But at one point someone handed me a djembe and I just about panicked. I had never played a drum before and I had no idea how to play it. The fact that I hardly knew anyone at the meeting also made me embarrassed and by the end of the night I said that I'd never play a drum again. But we got into the car and Mrs. Lyons told me that I had a real potential and she strongly encouraged me not to give up on drums quite yet. Mrs. Lyons...I am forever in your debt! Because playing drums is so much of my life, and when I play drums I feel like that is when I am completely free to be me.
So I started to learn drums. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fast; there were times in the middle were I was ready to quit, I felt like I wasn't learning anything. But something inside me kept pushing on and now I am so glad that I did. I love being able to play drums and it is so much fun; but being able to play them for Jesus, and being able to lead other people to the throne-room through worship is even better!
So here we are, a band now. We just had an awesome photo session that is most likely going to be album artwork for the new album that we are working on. We are hoping to have our second album done by the end of winter, before I leave for Bible College. But fitting time in for recording can be difficult between all of the concerts and practices that we have; and not to mention that I am studying and that also takes a decent amount of time to finish each day.
But we are really enjoying this time and we ask that you pray for us. Please pray as we go to different cities to do concert and worship nights; please pray that the people would listen and that they would open their hearts. That is really what worship is all about; opening our hearts to Jesus.
We recently went to a different city and did a concert for a Christian camp. Then we led the kids in worship and offered them the chance to accept Jesus into their hearts. I'll never forget this because after we said the prayer and the night was over, a little girl came up to us. She's a little Ukrainian girl and she said, "Thank you for opening my heart to Icyc(Jesus)." We were so blessed to hear her say that and we hope to hear many more as we travel around Ukraine, leading worship.
Before I finish, I wanted to touch on one more thing and that is the position of a drummer. Maybe some people are curious about what it is like being a drummer. We were recently interviewed on TV and one of the questions that they asked me was, "Do drummers get less attention then the guitar does?" Honestly, a lot of the time, the answer to that is yes; but I don't see that as a bad thing. There certainly are many people that notice drums, especially other drummers. But the guitar/vocals are generally considered the leaders of a band and they are usually looked at as more pleasant instruments.
I was talking with Leif, Jeremy Camp's drummer, and I asked him some questions about this topic. I asked him how he responds to people if they don't notice the drums, or how he responds to people who only notice the drums if there was a mistake. And I love the way he answered this! He told me, "Well, of course I want people to like me and for people to notice me. But if someone complains about the drums or something, I try to say this careful so as not to offend them, but I usually say, 'I'm sorry that you didn't like it, but I wasn't really playing it for you in the first place.'" I just love that! We can get so caught up in the crowds and the people that we lose sight of the fact that we play for the glory of God. The fact that Leif, Jeremy Camp's drummer, had such a humble answer, really encourages me! So, for anyone that is interested in drums...don't give up! If God has given you the gift to play drums don't let fear stop you. Just be patient as you develop your talents so that you can play for God!
God bless you all,
~Alex R. Pratt
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