Catching up with the Pratts

Before I go on about the life we are living in 2018, I think it's good to get caught up with our family, so here it is, a brief recap of our different year, our year of change 2017.

2017 started off as normal, bringing in the New Year with our church families.  We then survived a cool and foggy January.The next couple months went by in a blur, while we planned an Annual Bible Conference, worked hard to finish up the school year, and got Alyssa ready to move overseas.
Yes, that's the biggest change we faced last year, and we are still to this day adjusting to it.
As probably most of you know, we spend the majority of our time on the mission field.  The last time the whole family traveled to the US was in 2013. In 2017, Alyssa finished 12th grade. So, we decided to do things differently for her sake this time.  In April, the three older girls and I flew to the US, and the rest of the family followed us in May.

Graduation in Pensacola

Contrary to what we have done in the past, this time the kids and I stayed in Maine with family for the majority of the time we spent in the US.  This was a deliberate decision that was needed for our family.

4th of July with family

Alyssa and Naomi got a job for the summer, and learned about living in the US and adjusting to the different mindset and customs of Americans.  You read that right. Most of their years growing up were spent in India, a place with a vastly different culture and mindset from the US.  India is what they know and where they feel comfortable, they consider it their home. So the summer months were ones of adjustment and learning, and also of rest.  It was a time where we could connect with family and really know each other.  We spent a lot of time relaxing, having bonfires, driving back roads, eating junk, and harassing each other (you gotta know my family!)

A day at the fair

It was an amazing time of memories.

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The end of August we drove south to get Alyssa settled at college in Florida.  It was the time we'd been looking forward to, and dreading!  To say it was hard, doesn't even touch the emotions involved in leaving her, knowing that in a few short weeks there would be an ocean between us.  I feel that a lot of these sentences could have a blog post all their own, but for now, here it is. And for those of you who are wondering, No, there are no pictures of the goodbyes. No photo evidence needed of that heartbreak. Moving on...

In October we returned home to India, a happy and sad group, that was adjusting to one less member.  I can't tell you how many times I recounted passports.....six...only six...where's the....oh right.

And life doesn't slow down.  Naomi and  Melody suffered with dengue fever and Brian suffered with pneumonia. In between we traveled to the far corner of India on a ministry trip for two weeks, and lived the crazy, never dull days that make up our life here.

And Alyssa, she's faced her ups and downs, but has learned to love her life in college.  Nothing about it has been especially easy, but she's doing an amazing job of thriving in her new life.

That was our 2017, a long, blessed, difficult year.

Always a stranger

I moved with my family to a new country, and did everything I could to settle there.  I learned to live, shop, get around the city, make new foods, and eat new foods. I learned to get along with the neighbors and even began learning the language.  So I didn't understand why, even years later, sometimes I still felt strange, I still felt uncomfortable, I still felt out of place, I still felt insecure.
Then I came across a verse that changed everything for me. 
Exodus 23:9  Also, thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The Israelites had been in Egypt for over 400 years. The people that Moses was talking to at this time were not the first ones to enter Egypt as strangers. They had been born in Egypt, and lived there their whole lives. Yet still, they were considered strangers.  They had the heart of a stranger, even when the land was no longer as strange, even when it was comfortable, they were still strangers. Their background, their lifestyle, their religious practices, their family structure was fundamentally different from the people of the land they were living in. They were living in a place where they would always be seen as strangers.

And as I sat there thinking about this verse and thinking about the children of Israel who were still considered strangers after 400 years, I had a breakthrough that changed me.  I was that stranger. I had that heart.  It was ok to be me. It was ok to be ME. See, I had always had a feeling deep inside that there was something wrong with me, because I always felt a little out of place, always felt a little lonely, always felt a little uncomfortable and insecure. I wondered if I really could ever belong here.  I wondered if I was doing it wrong and should just give up.  It was my heart. The heart of a stranger, and it is just as it should be. It was ok to feel uncomfortable and strange in a place that's so different from my own. It didn't mean that I wasn't doing well, wasn't doing enough, wasn't adjusting, or wasn't where I should be.  I have the heart of a stranger. The heart given to me by the One who took me from the place that was familiar, to this strange land, because there was something He wanted me to do, and ways He wanted me to change.  It's not about being comfortable and secure in the place, but I can be secure in the One who called me, because He called me here, knowing I'd always have within me, the heart of a stranger.
And I know that there are many who feel like giving up their strange land, many who feel they are ineffective or unnecessary.  There are many who have given up, because it it uncomfortable and insecure, but it's supposed to be!  God knows exactly where you've come from and how different it is from where you are.  The backwoods of Maine is nothing even remotely like the fields of Punjab, but here I am, and there you are, and if we can just embrace the heart He has given us, the heart of a stranger, we can endure, we can survive, we can thrive, right here in our strange land, and maybe, just maybe, if we endure, it can somehow become home too.