Our Concert in Medelin Cafe on the 4th of October

  Hey everyone! Ready for blog post number two? I know I am! Well, Friday went very well! I see God speaking to people now through it! A few people that came to the concert are going to come to a couple of our ministries here in New Horizons! The people said that they really enjoyed the music and said that the night inspired them! I've been praying for one girl in particular! She talked with me a little at the concert and she has kept in touch since then! She says that she is going to come to Koinonia on Saturday! 

     The night went well overall. We sang alot and my voice is hurting right now! I shared about Carry Me and about Jesus' love for us! We talked about trying to give someone you love to someone that hates you. It is hard to imagine giving someone that means so much to you to someone that goes out of their way to hurt you! God truly showed us true love by giving us His ONLY Son!  Ever since Friday night the spiritual warfare has been pretty intense! Satan is trying to make me tired and sad about things when God wants me to be Joyful! Well, I'm not giving up! God has a great plan, and it is just beginning! 

        Friends, family, strangers, and dear readers. I want to start off by giving you a little background information on me! My name is Joshua Pratt. I live in Lviv, Ukraine! I have been a missionary since I was 3 months old! We moved to Ukraine the first time when I was three months! We moved back and forth from Ukraine to America several times! I have lived in Ukraine for 14 years and counting! I have the honor of leading worship for our church here (New Horizons). We are basically a Calvary Chapel, we just changed our name due to the way it sounds in Ukrainian! People hear the word Calvary and think that we are a cult or satanists or stuff like that! Anyways, I lead worship here and serve in the church where I can! I lead the youth group with my brother Alex! Alex plays alongside me in my band!
         I want to share my vision in music! What I do when I get on stage in front of people is a ministry. A ministry that God has called me to pursue. In this ministry we are called to be bold, to not fear, to be prepared, and to share the Gospel! God gives us all talents and it is important that we use those talents for His glory, not our own! We have been doing concerts for a few years now but just recently I feel God speaking to me about things I can do better and we can do through our music. It says multiple times in the Psalms to praise Him! It says to praise Him with instruments, dancing, and in song. So, what are we going to do? We are going to praise Him! A verse on my heart right now is Psalm 119:164 "Seven times a day I'll praise You, because of your righteous judgments." How many times a day do you actually praise God? Maybe once when you get up, once for each meal, and once before you go to bed? Seven times a day I'll praise You! Seven is just a small number compared to the numbers that come after it! We can praise God more than seven times! We can praise God when WE chose to! Praising God should not be forced! When we do concerts we pray and hope that they be more of a worship time! We share the Gospel with people and often people accept Jesus as their Savior! For me as a worship leader this vision, ministry, and job is the best thing ever! I get to worship God, to shout His name, to hear others worship alongside us, and to share about Jesus! This is truly a gift from God!

        This is us! I play acoustic guitar and sing, Alex Pratt is my drummer, and Evan Ledford is my bassist. We've known each other for about 4 years! I really enjoy spending time with my band members! They are great guys and they both grew up in Ukraine as well as I did. We are in this phase as a band where we have no clue what will happen tomorrow. What do I mean by this? Evan might be leaving to go to the states or Israel. Alex is planning on going to Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta, Hungary. I might be by myself soon! So, right now we are just praying about God's will in our lives! Alex and I have played music together for about 6 years! We started leading worship in the States for a youth group and now we are playing in churches and cafes around Ukraine! Alex and I have a bond in our lives! We have always been close to each other growing up, always there in good and bad times, and we have a one-mind kind of music bond! We can be playing a song like we practiced and then randomly out of the blue we feel like there should be a pause here or there. The only thing is, I don't tell him anything! We just know each other so well and know how we play that we just let the music flow through us! I love having Alex in my band because he is busy with life and video games and I feel like God is speaking to him through our music! I feel like God is showing him things through our trips and concerts! Overall, I really love my brother.

        What I want to say about Evan is pretty funny i think! We play music together, we play Call of Duty together, we love paintball, we make manly videos, and we met at an opera! AN OPERA!!! The day I met Evan he was standing close to his parents and barely could even say hi. He was pretty shy around us. We had him and his family over for dinner one night and Alex and I decided to show Evan a song. We went upstairs and played him a song. He was amazed at our playing and singing. This was 4 years ago so we have all kind of changed and grown up a little. We have gone through hard times together. We have gone through great times together. What I love about Evan is that he is loyal to his friends and family. He is one of the first people that i know will get my back if something bad happens! Evan is pretty new to our band now. We just got him involved! I'm enjoying having him here and I can't wait to see what God will teach him and how God will use him.

        For me concerts aren't about getting on stage, singing the songs, playing music, watching people smile and love you, or even hear people shout our names! To me concerts are a place to serve God!  When we do concerts we give the night our all! From the moment we start, we give all we have in us to making each concert the best night of our lives! We pray for the people that come and are already there in the crowd. We pray for their salvation and for their sincerity in their walk with God! We are decently active in our concerts! We enjoy seeing people happy and enjoying the concert! One thing we do is we have the people help us with some songs! We will teach them either a chorus, a bridge, intro, a part to shout to, or a rhythm to keep. We share with them about God and about His perfect love for them! We share with them the truth! We give them the opportunity to pray with us and to talk to us more about who God is and why we are living in Ukraine! Please pray for people here in Ukraine! God is doing an amazing work here! 

          We just had a concert in another city in Ukraine! The city is called Harkov! It is the second biggest city in Ukraine! It was an amazing time for us as a team to get to know the missionaries there! We played for Calvary Chapel Harkov! It was a great time of worship, fellowship, and ministry there! We stayed with one of the pastors while we were there and we had several good conversations!

At the concert we were able to share about Jesus and His love for us! We gave people the opportunity to pray with the leaders of the church to accept Jesus as their savior! Please pray for this guy right here! His name is Sasha! He came to Nate Medlong (missionary and one of the pastors serving there) with tears in his eyes and wanting to receive Christ! I later was able to talk with him for a few minutes and pray and encourage him in this next stage of his life! Pray for Sasha from Harkov! He is 20 years old!

       Please pray for the church there in Harkov! God has some awesome people there and the work He is doing is great! We made a video for our video blog, this way you can see what happened with your own eyes! We had a great time in Harkov! We had a lot of fun, great time of worship, and great fellowship! We got to carry a big soviet couch down 6 flights of stairs, do a concert, lead worship and share a little about Jesus for a christian school there, and have sweet time of fellowship with the members of the church there!

We have a concert coming up on the 4th of October! There is a possibility that 150+ people could come! It is a Friday night so who knows how many people will end up coming! Please pray for the people who will attend! Pray for their salvation and for us as we share the Gospel with them! So, that pretty much sums up this blog post! May God bless you and please keep us in your prayers!