New Beginnings
"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." ~Ecclesiastes 3:1 This is one of my life verses, and it is very important in my life right now. I am about to take some very big steps towards my future, and one of those steps is coming up in one week. I realize that it has been a long time since I have blogged, so I thought that it was past time that I write to let you guys know what is going on in my life right now.
First of all, I have a few weeks left and then I will be finished with my freshman year of Bible College. This first year of Bible College has been one of the best times of my life, even though I have had my fair share of trials in the midst of my studies. I want to thank you guys who have supported me and my dream to study at the Bible College. Without your support I would not be able to continue studying to achieve my ultimate goal, which is to one day become a pastor. If you have a desire to help me at all financially, you can do so here! Really, even the littlest amount that you guys send is a real blessing to me and you are supporting a missionary by doing so.
The next thing that I have to announce is pretty big...I'm going back to America! In just one week I will be flying back to Indiana where I will study for one semester at Calvary Chapel Bible College Indianapolis! While I am back I will work at a camp called Camp Indy, I will work part-time at the church while I study at the college, and I will work on getting my own bank account and driver's license. I will continue studying with the Bible College as I gain credits to earn my bachelors degree in theology. After taking one semester in Indy I will then fly back to Ukraine just in time for Christmas, before moving to Hungary to complete the rest of my studies there.
The truth is that I am very excited about moving to America, and at the same time I am very torn. I love Ukraine; I love everything about it! I love the language, I love the people, I LOVE the food, I love the music, I love the buildings, and I absolutely love my friends! The last few days I have been having a hard time as I have been noticing all of the things that I won't have in America that I have here.
The truth is that I am very excited about moving to America, and at the same time I am very torn. I love Ukraine; I love everything about it! I love the language, I love the people, I LOVE the food, I love the music, I love the buildings, and I absolutely love my friends! The last few days I have been having a hard time as I have been noticing all of the things that I won't have in America that I have here.
But then I remembered that this is not goodbye...this is "see you later!". Yes, my passport tells me that I am an American, but my passport can't tell me where my home is. Yes, of course my ultimate home is found in Heaven, but while I am on earth my home is a wonderful country called Ukraine. I was thinking about the men that tried to build the tower of Babel; they were trying to get as close as they could to Heaven. The truth is that those guys had it all wrong...if they wanted to get as close as they could to Heaven, all that they needed to do was come to Ukraine!
I am sure that most of you have heard the expression, "You can take the fish out of the ocean, but you can't take the ocean out of the fish.". Even when I am in America, I will still have Ukraine. Praise God for the easy access that we have to the internet today, so that I can stay in touch with my friends in Ukraine very easily. I also believe that I will have many opportunities to pray with people for Ukraine and the situation that it is in right now. Even while I am America, my full support goes out to Ukraine!
I want to thank you guys again for reading my blog and I want to give a huge thank you to those of you who have supported me throughout this first year. I want you guys to know that I am still studying and your support is still needed and appreciated. But I am so grateful for you guys and you have made the first years of the rest of my life possible, so thank you!
I also continue to make poi videos and here is a new one if you want to watch it! I stayed out until about midnight with my friend Tanya, and then I came home and worked on editing this video until 4 in the morning. But I have put a lot of time into learning how to spin poi well and I have so much fun doing it. I hope to be able to use these to help with many evangelism outreaches and I have already been able spin poi at outreaches here in Ukraine. I am so happy to be able to do this and so happy that I can glorify God even in simple things like spinning poi.
Well, that's it for now! The next time that you read this blog I should be in America! I know that since the beginning of this year I have not been extremely consistent with my blogging, but there has been a lot going on around here. In fact, you are probably looking at my pictures and saying to yourselves, "Wait a second, how long has it been since he had a blog post?! Look at his beard! Has it been that long since he updated his blog?!". However, I plan on doing much more blogging now, so stay tuned and there will be another blog post soon. And remember...airplane rides leave great stories to be told...
God bless you all,
~Alex R. Pratt
