new year, new semester, new life

Dear Friends and Family,

Three down, one to go:

We have successfully finished our third semester. Only one more to go before we graduate this coming May! This past semester was a challenging one not necessarily because of the workload (though it wasn’t light!); but because of how our thinking and worldview were challenged as we studied through the books of Romans, Hebrews, James, Galatians, Ephesians, and others. Our classes facilitated a lot of examination of our own hearts and actions as we worked through homework assignments and talked to fellow classmates as well as staff. Karalise has really enjoyed being able to be involved in a small group book study that is meant to help you work through both the knowledge and application part of what we are learning here in our second year. “It has really helped me to better understand and apply what I’m learning in class, I’ve really enjoyed the friendships that I’ve made with the 6 other women in my group.”

Please be in prayer for our finances as we are still in major need for this semesters down payment, Malachi has been able to work enough to stay up on our monthly payments but we have not been able to put money away toward next semesters $1,700 down payment or the $400 more of semester fees for our senior semester.

Christmas Break:

We are currently on our Christmas break which will last until January 17^th. So far it has been a time of much needed rest, Karalise has been able to catch up on housework and Malachi has stayed busy with work. We will be staying here at school, in Jackson except for one trip up to Grand Rapids for Christmas and possibly a dentist appointment in Plymouth, IN that had to get postponed because Malachi was sick and missed his last appointment.
We enjoyed being able to celebrate Christmas three different times this past week. The first was with a few friends from our church in Albion who opened their home on Christmas Day and shared their wonderful dinner and fun games with us. The second was with Malachi’s family on the next day and it

was really cool, as all four of his brothers were able to be there. It was a fun day full of re-connecting, lots of yummy food and a nerf-gun war. Our third celebration was the following day and was combined with a birthday party for TJ, Kara’s oldest brother. Her family came, along with a good friend and squeezed into our tiny apartment, again the celebration included another nerf-gun war and lots of food. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with both our families and friends these last few days, but we are also looking forward to just relaxing at our house when Malachi is not working.

We are also excited as Kara’s youngest brother Micah, will be coming and hanging out with us for about a week in January. It will be fun to have him around!

A baby on the way!

Our exciting news, if you haven’t heard yet, is that we are going to be having a baby this summer, the middle of July to be exact! So far Karalise is 12 weeks along and based on the Doctor’s visits and ultra-sounds, both she and our baby are healthy and doing well. Karalise has been having quite a bit of “morning sickness” and all the aches and pains that go with a pregnancy, so please pray that she will soon have some relief. On Kara’s last Doctor’s appointment she was able to hear the baby’s heartbeat, which was super cool! Right now our baby is about the size of a lime.J Her next appointment is January 20^th.

Malachi:

Malachi has stayed busy so far during our Christmas break with work, we are so thankful for his job and that God is meeting our needs in that way. Pray for strength for Malachi as he has been working hard both at work and various odds and ends here at school. He’s also been doing quite a bit of cooking because of Kara’s nausea. His latest was a delicious cheesecake for a friend’s birthday. He has also applied for a second part-time job to go along with the one he already has, as his hours will be decreasing soon. Please pray as he will be attempting to juggle both jobs and still find time to get caught up on late work from last semester.

With love: The Pratts

We are going to have a baby!

In case you haven't heard the news yet, we wanted to let you all know that we are expecting a baby to arrive on the scene somewhere around July 15th!

Right now Kara is 8 weeks along (9 this Saturday) and so the baby is still super tiny, only 1/2 inch long, about the size of a blueberry. So far Kara and the baby both seem healthy, we are very thankful to have been approved for Michigan Medicaid, which will cover all the Doctor's visits, ultra-sound, testing, etc. We also are thankful that we have a Doctor right next door to us, his office is in the hospital, so we are able to just walk over there for our appointments, and will be able to get just about everything done all in the same building.

Last week we had to get an ultrasound done and we got to both hear and see the baby's heartbeat, so that was super cool, and it was encouraging to know that the baby was growing as it should and there didn't seem to be and problems from what the doctors could see.

Please be praying for Kara as the "morning" sickness is lasting all day and she is also having quite a bit of abdominal pain. Because of this, she isn't going to be trying to work over this Christmas break. Please pray for strength for Malachi as he has been continuing to stay busy with school, work, cars, etc, and now he has also been helping with a lot around the house when Kara's sick. He's been pretty exhausted lately.

We do have another exciting thing, Malachi just found out a few nights ago that he has a temporary raise at work for during the Christmas season. He has worked very hard, so its neat to see this raise work out.

This past weekend we went down to Indiana for what we hoped would be Malachi's last dentist appointment. Unfortunately, he broke part of his wisdom tooth in his sleep last week, so he still has one visit left to go. Thankfully that should be the last one!

We were able to spend some time with Karalise's brothers including see the little doe that Shane shot, and make some really good pizza with Micah.

We also were able to go to our church in Mentone and it was really good to be able to see and reconnect with friends that we hadn't seen for a while! It was also good to hear Pastor speak...it has been a long time.

We finished off the weekend by Malachi helping out some friends with their cars, Kara washing a mountain of dishes, and finishing up our homework assignments for Monday. We were very thankful that we were able to go their and back safely, even with the problems that our car has been having lately.

This is Malachi and Grandma making apple crisp for dessert.

bittersweet time with the fam.

This past weekend we went up to Belding, Michigan, for my cousins funeral. It was a somber affair. not exactly the circumstances on which I would have liked to re-unite with cousins I haven't seen in 3 years, but the time up north was over all good. Kara was able to get to know my family on a level she would have otherwise not been able to, and we were able to show the love of Jesus to a heart broken group mourning the loss of a loved one, Johnny will be missed. Please be in prayer for my family as they wrestle with the loss of someone so young. Please pray that we would be able to answer any questions about life, death, and eternity that might come out of this grieving process.
Thank you for your prayers

Malachi

Fourth Block of classes

CLASS:
We just started our fourth block of classes this morning. We finished up studying Family Relationships and Angelology and started Galatians and 1st&2nd Peter. We are still studying Romans and Malachi is taking Christian Apologetics.

FRIENDS:
The picture on the left is from when one of our new friends, Andy took us to dinner last week so we could get to know to each other. It was really cool to be able to share with each other what God has done in all of our lives. We also enjoyed talking about Missions in general, and then what God has been doing in New Tribes Mission and how He has challenged our lives through our recent speaker and missionary from the Siar tribe in New Guinea. Needless to say we enjoyed our time of fellowship and chinese food together!

Please pray for us as we both have not been feeling well for a while, because of this we have both really been dragging and it makes it really hard to stay on top of things.

Thanks!
Love,
Malachi and Karalise

Where do we live?

Some of you may still be wondering exactly where we live, Hopefully this will help!

We live in Jackson, Michigan. The estimated population for Jackson in 2008 was a little over 33, 000 people. Jackson seems to be famous for its prison and being the birthplace of the Republican party, though it is far from being conservative now. The economy here is not very good, making it difficult to find work.








We both live and go to school in the same Building, New Tribes Bible Institute. We live just outside of Jackson's downtown, next door to the hospital.

We live on the second floor of our three-story building. Our classroom is on the first floor, which is very nice if it is very cold or wet outside.

Here is a video of our apartment, if you would like to see our little home.




We are really enjoying being just across the hall from the bathroom this year, its so nice to not have to walk down to the other end of the hall in the middle of the night or when we are sick. Also, being on the second floor and right above the main entrance we do have to carry the trash or our groceries very far.
If you would ever like to come and visit us, we do have an empty couch!

halfway through the semester...

Class:
Its hard to believe that we are now halfway through our third semester here at New Tribes Bible Institute (NTBI). We just finished up our 2nd block of classes last week and have started taking Romans; Angels, Satan, and Demons; and Family Relationships. Malachi will also be taking Christian Apologetics starting this coming week.

Work:
Malachi is continuing to stay busy with work and the Lord is providing enough hours for him, though its hard to keep up with everything else on top of work, we are thankful that the Lord has given Him this job. Karalise will be looking for work again this week as her last job ended the end of last month, so please pray that she will find something that will work with Malachi's schedule as we will be sharing a car.

Church:
Our church in Albion just had its Missions Conference last weekend and we really enjoyed getting to reconnect with some Missionary friends we met this summer. We were able to ask tons of questions and now have a better idea of what we are hoping to get into on the Mission Field. We also were able to reconnect with some friends who were students here at NTBI last year and have moved on to the MTC, the next phase in New Tribe's Mission's training program. They also answered many questions for us and it was good just to catch up with what the Lord is doing in their family.
We are continuing to teach childrens' church, 1st-6th grade, please pray for patience and wisdom for both of us and especially Malachi as he is working to make the lessons understandable and applicable to a large age range. We have been having around 20 kids in our class for the last few weeks, so that has been exciting to see more families getting involved in our church.

Dentist:
Last weekend we were also able to make a quick trip back to Indiana for Malachi to get some more work done on his teeth. He found out that he only has one more visit left, on November 12th instead of two, He has really enjoyed eating without pain! Thank you to all of you who have helped out with this!

We also got to spend a very short time with our firends David and Jenny, they were a huge encouragement to us and it was great to see them and get to reconnect and share in their excitement of a baby soon to be born!

We also got to see Kara's family for the evening and catch up on hunting stories, work, school, and things that are going on at FBC in Mentone. Though our time was short, we enjoyed it!

This weekend:
This weekend we plan on doing quite a bit of homework and Malachi has to work, so we are thankful for the little bit of time to catch our breath's before we start back into a full week of school.

Prayer Requests:
Please continue to pray for Kara as her headaches have been pretty bad these past few weeks, making homework a bit more difficult.

Please pray for strength for Mac as he has a lot on his plate right now and he has been really worn out this week.

Please pray for understanding for the kids in our children's church class.

Please pray for safety on the roads as our car has been giving us some problems along with funny noises and smells.

Thank you for you prayers!

Malachi and Karalise

sick :(

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for the family who lost their mom/grandma! The daughter seems to be doing well under the circumstances. Hopefully we will continue to have opportunities to encourage her!

Please also be praying as Malachi and I are both sick right now, so that is no fun!

Also, Malachi is pretty overwhelmed right now as he has not been feeling well for a while now and it has been rough trying to keep up with homework, classes, work, responsibilities here at school, and for us to still be able to spend some time together.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
~Karalise

Bad news....
Please be in prayer for us and the family as the woman that Kara helps care for passed away yesterday afternoon. Kara assisted the daughter in taking care of her mother, and it was the mother who passed away. Obviously this is hard on the family, though she has not been doing well for the a long time, so it was also good that she died. Pray for both of us that we will be a blessing to their family and that the daughter will completely trust in Christ to save her and not her good works. We will be involved with funeral stuff on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Good News...
Now for the good news, Karalise had some medical testing done this summer and we applied for some financial assistance to help cover the cost and the hospital just decided to cover the 100% of the bill. God definitely provides! :)

Finished our 1st block of classes

School:
We have just finished up our first block of classes. The end of last week we started studying Romans, 2 Corinthians, The History of the Church and Missions, Jude, and the Islamic religion. We are still taking the Ruth/Ecclesiastes/Song of Solomon class, that one won't be ending until the end of this month. This weekend we had a ton of homework, but thankfully it has been very thought-provoking and I have enjoyed it as there has been a lot of reading.

Church:
We are still teaching the 1st-6th grade children's church at First Baptist in Albion, MI. Today we were very thankful to have some friends from school there as we had 23 energetic kids in our class. We usually have 10-14, but our church was doing a community outreach today and praise the Lord that so many people showed up.

Time Management:
Please be praying for us that we will manage our time better as we have been taking on a little more this semester than last year. We have both been working, a huge blessing, but it also takes up quite a bit of time.

Q: What has 4 tires, 4 legs, and a sprained foot?
A: Us getting hit by a car.
We had a close call this past Monday while we were taking a little bit of time to be able to reconnect and spend some time together. We went for a walk around downtown Jackson, and as we were strolling along, someone didn't see us and managed to hit Malachi with their car, pushing us about 6 feet. Thankfully the only damage was a sore rear (Mac) and a sprained foot (Kara). A local doctor checked Kara's foot for free and now almost a week later we are mostly healed.

Thanks for your interest!

Back at New Tribes Bible Institute!

Classes Start on Wednesday
Today was our first day of Orientation for our 2nd year at Tribes Bible Institute. We are back in Jackson Michigan for our final year of our first phase of New Tribes Mission's Training. This Wednesday we will begin our classes with studying: Hebrews, James, Jude, Ruth, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. We are both excited to get started and after serving this summer are very ready to be poured into again and to have plenty of time devoted to study God's Word. During our last week of camp the Lord used someone from our hime church to provide $1,150 for the rest of our downpayment. God is continuing to teach me to trust Him as He keeps providing, even up until the last minute! It is exciting to see Him use His people to accomplish His plans!

This past week...
This past week between our summer ministry at Pine Ridge Bible Camp(PRBC) ending and our school semester starting; we went back to Indiana. While we were there, Malachi was able to get some more dental work done including finishing his root canal, a tooth pulled, and several fillings. He is now at 6 dental visits out of 9. Thank you if you have helped to make this possible!!!

While Malachi was recovering from a sore mouth and intense headache, we relaxed at Karalise's parents house and had some time to evaluate and process this summer: all that went on, what we learned, and how we could grow through the struggles and frustrations we faced. We also had time to reflect on what God had done in the lives of the teens that we worked with. We praise Him for what he has done and allowed us to be a part of.

Karalise's Aunt and Uncle were back visiting from North Africa and it was wonderful to reconnect with their family along her parents and brothers and some of our friends. It was such a huge blessing to just relax and spend some time with family!

Another blessing we had was that Chelsea, our good friend (from PRBC) came and helped us move in and get settled in our new apartment at New Tribes Bbible Institute. We still don't have running water or a bathroom, but I am very thankful as we are now just accross the hall from one. :)

Work
Praise the Lord for providing work for both of us!
Malachi got his job back at Hot Topic, a store in the mall which he started today. Karalise will continue to do homecare for a local lady near school, starting tomorrow.

Church
We were warmly welcomed back to our church in Albion, MI and we are excited to continue to connect with our church family there. We are teaching childrens' church again this semester and it was fun yesterday (Sunday) to reconect with "our" kids.

Please continue to pray for us and also praise God for miraculously providing for us to be here again this semester.
Love,
Mac and Kara

HS Staff

This is our last week of camp and its crazy to think how fast this summer has flown by. We have had many challenges as well as a lot of encouragement. We have had 25 teens come and work with us this summer. It has been exciting to watch those that have been growing. Please be praying for these teens as they are all at points in their lives where they are figuring out what they believe and then how to live out their beliefs about God and why they are here in this world. Our GFS students have worked hard, studied hard, and have had to learn to work together lovingly in a close, hot, and fast-paced environment. They have done a good job!

halfway

I just realized today that we are already half way through the summer. That means that a ton has got to happen in the next 4 weeks. But before i talk about whats got to happen let me talk about whats already been happening. First of all i would like to talk about camp. The LORD is doing big things at pine ridge this summer, in fact just this week we have had around 10 decisions for Christ on our ridge camp alone, and the week isn't even over yet. That also doesn't include campers we have down on the oasis camp(the larger of the two.) The High school staff program that we work with doesn't usually see many people come to Christ, as it is a program that is geared for teens that are already believers. But we have seen some tremendous growth in some of our teens this summer. One of our teens wrote up the testimony of what God has done and is doing in her life and one part of it stood out to me. "Right now, I would say that I'm going through a period of discipleship/development. I've accepted Christ as Savior, I know who He is, I'm plugged-in in a church, and now I feel that for the last few months the Lord has really just been training me so that I can effectively show Him to others. That training has come from my small group, Pine Ridge Bible Camp, and just getting in the Word and interpreting it as it was originally meant to be interpreted. I know that that training will continue for the rest of my life--I'll never stop growing and learning--but right now, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I'm just trying to learn the basics so that I might be a sharp tool in God's hand." She wrote this to me in an email after her three week session with us this summer. This is what we are here for. Teens want to be Godly but don't always know how, they want to know how but they cant understand what the bible is saying. This is were the high school staff program at pine ridge comes in. We teach them how to properly interpret the bible, as well as some tips and tricks for wrestling through those issues that teens wrestle with most. But most importantly of all we love on them. We attempt to show each one of these kids how much of a valuable part of the body that they are, and we let them know how much we care. and you would be surprised what kind of response you can get from a teenager when they know how much you care.

Next i would like to talk about my dental work. The LORD has blessed us in big ways this summer as people have really gathered around us to help get this taken care of. we have been connected with a dentist that is doing the work for less than half the price that the first dentist had suggested. We have also had a lot of people that have helped to pay for this still hefty bill. we arent out of the woods yet but we are starting to see how things are going to wrap up. I still need a few more visits for fillings and getting some teeth pulled, but i got my first root canal done and I have another visit this coming monday. Thank you for your prayers on this. If you would like to help with the cost of these procedures it would really help to share the burden of those others who are currently making payments for us. thank you again

Now that you are a bit caught up on whats been going on lets talk a bit about what needs to happen. We need another 8,000 ish to finish our schooling in jackson. We need around 2,000 of that by august first in order to get back to our studies this fall. We should be able to earn about half of that between now and then. This puts us yet again in a place that has become all to familliar, waiting to see what God will do. I am confident that the LORD is wanting us back in jackson this fall. If you feel led to help with that aspect of our training we would love to make you part of our team. Another thing that has got to happen is that we are going to need a little help moving. If you have a truck and trailer that you would liek to volunteer for the 12th through the 14th of august that would make our life a lot easier. Also we are yet again in a position were we will be in need of some text books for this semester of classes. If you would like to aid us in that we will be including a book list in our next prayer letter.


thank you all once again for your prayers and support.

The Pratts.

Week 3 of camp...

Right now:
This is now our 3rd week of camp this summer and it has been neat to see how God has worked theses past 3 weeks.
Karalise has been learning a lot in the kitchen about how to cook for large groups as she assists the cook. She has also been learning a lot about supervising our high school staff as they work in the kitchen most of the time.
Malachi has also had many opportunities to learn and develop his maintenance skills as he works under the camp's very skilled maintenance guy, Caleb.
We have enjoyed our evening Bible study time with our 6 high school staff these past couple weeks, tonight we3 will be studying Psalm 103 for our chapter on "poetry". Our highschoolers have been amazing! They have worked very hard, even on jobs that aren't the most fun... would you still be smiling after 1,180+ dishes? They usually are! They have been faithfully studying God's Word daily and then asking some pretty tough questions during our evening group Bible study. God has really blessed us with a great group of teens for the past few weeks!

This weekend:
This Friday we will be traveling down to Indiana for Malachi's dental work/oral surgury. Some friends hooked us up with a dentist in Plymouth, IN and these friends are covering the cost of the dental work. They wish to remain anonymous but if you would like to help them out, You may do that by sending us a check and putting "dental" in the memo and then we will send it to the dentist. Please pray that Malachi will heal quickly and thet hae will not have a lot of pain as we are only off for the weeked.

This is our memory verse for today, hope it is an encouragement to you!
Psalm 103:11-12
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so grreat is His (the Lord's) love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Have a wonderful day!
~the Pratts

one for the books

This week was the first real week with campers, which was exciting.The excitement wore off for me about half way through day two when i was called in to clean up a mess in the bathroom left by a sick camper. But the Lord is good and he provided some major encouragement for us this past week as he has put it on the hearts of some of our brothers and sisters in Christ to pay for the dental work that needs to be done. This came right about the same time as we received the disappointing news from yet another doctor that he cant find any reason as to Karalise's health problems. Please be in prayer for us that we would finally find some answers and be able to take a more proactive role at here recovery. After the rough start to the week things really started to pick up. we got our first group of high school staff on Monday and by about Thursday they were really starting to open up. Friday night they had so many questions that twenty minutes before curfew i finally had to cut things short so that they could get ready for bed. working with these teens is such a blessing to us. The Lord uses our interactions with them to further reveal himself to us. They test our patience, they test our bible knowledge, they test out self control...etc but in the end it all comes down to the testing of our faith, and theirs. we spent this whole first week studying the book of James, and these kids just ate it up. we gave them a list of helpful questions to ask the text and they came back and asked for something a little more challenging. we worked them for 10 hours a day and they still found an hour a day to study the bible, and then another hour and a half to talk through the proper interpretation of the passage. It was incredible. needless to say even though we are there teachers and there supervisors we are very humbled by the quality of these kids.

God is at work at pine ridge bible camp. stay tuned for more updates on how he works in and through us this summer.


In His Love

Mac and Kara

1st Anniversary

• Yesterday, May 2nd, 2010 was our one year Anniversary! We were able to celebrate by going out to dinner for some authentic Mexican food and them watching a movie. Malachi surprised me with some orange, pink, and white roses. :) We thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and neglected all our homework.

We have started teaching Children's church for the elementary age group at out church. We are on a rotation with another couple until we leave in a few weeks. We have really enjoyed getting to know the kids and also be able to connect with their parents. We love our new church family in Albion, MI and have had fun getting to know them through Sunday School, Dinner, and helping with their kids.

• Our Spring Semester ends the 13th of this month, just under two weeks away. Currently our classes are: Hermeneutics 2 (How to Study the Bible), 1 Corinthians (for 2 periods), and Partnership Development. We have been busy with lots of reading; and this week we have to complete several big projects. I have been learning a lot about how the different time periods in the Bible fit together and how the covenants are related to each other and how they apply.

• In three weeks we will be heading to Pine Ridge Bible Camp in Cedar Springs, MI for the summer. We will be leading and discipling the High School service teams by teaching them to serve joyfully and guiding them in personal Bible Study methods. We will accomplish this through serving alongside the teens in aiding in the day-to-day functions of the camp (ie. maintenance, kitchen, grounds keeping, etc). We will be teaching daily sessions on Bible Study and interpretive methods.

Thank you for your continued prayers!
~Mac and Kara

New Job!

Today was Malachi's first day at his new job. He is a Q.A.C. clerk for the US Census at an office here in Jackson, MI. This is such a huge answer to prayer as the hours will work perfectly with school and he will still have some time in the afternoons to get homework finished.

We had a wonderful time this past weekend as we were able to host a couple who are currently at NTBI's Waukesha campus in WI. They were an encouragement to us and we enjoyed just hanging out with them and watching the "NTBI Spring Tribal Cup" as the two schools competed in various sports.

This past Tuesday, our Korean friends who we help out with English invited us over for dinner. We had a tasty Korean meal, learned a new game, and had an amazing time with our friends. We have learned a lot from them as they are adjusting to a new culture and language, in not too many years we will be in the same boat they are in. It's been exciting to see their progress in our difficult language and persevere even when things aren't easy. We are so thankful for their friendship!

Please continue to pray for us as we will be starting our 4th block this coming Monday and will be getting three brand new classes. Please also continue to pray that the Lord will provide a vehicle.
Love,
Malachi and Karalise

Happy Almost Spring!

The Good, and The Ugly

Well a lot is going on for us as usual. We are enjoying getting involved at our new church in Albion, Mi. We are about a week into our third block, which means that we are almost halfway done with this semester already. In class we are studying Christ. We have two courses, The Life of Christ, and Christology. Its been so good to finally get into the New Testament, and to be able to focus on the life and works of Jesus Christ. The more we study the more we realize what a great and mighty savior he really is. We both have grown so much in the past 7 months, we are so glad that the LORD provided for our training here and that he continues to do so. One of the ways that he has provided for us is that I have finally found a job. I will be starting march 16 working in the local census office here in Jackson. This will provide me with 6 -7 weeks of work. If you do the math you will find out that it takes us right up until summer. We will be serving this summer as the high school staff supervisors at Pine Ridge Bible Camp, were we will be helping to implement a brand new teen discipleship program. This is very exciting for us as it will be a chance to live out some of what we have been learning, and it will help us to save money for next year here in Jackson. Please be in prayer for us as we are in serious need of a new vehicle. The one we have is pretty worn out and each day gets a little less reliable.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.


In Christs love

Malachi and Karalise Pratt

Please be in prayer for Malachi as this has been a rough week for him; he has been sick since Monday and it is now Thursday afternoon. He's been feeling so bad he has had to miss class, language helpers, and some homework. Please pray that he will recover quickly and be back to normal soon. Please pray for some relief from the constant headaches, stomach aches and thathe get his appetite back soon. Thanks for your prayers!

sophomores at last.

Well a lot has happened since our last update so I'm not sure where to start. I think I will just have to start back at our last update and go from there. It was the night of January 3rd and as far as we were concerned the next morning would mark the first day of our last week at NTBI. we needed a minimum of $1700 to start the semester and we only had $400 in the bank. So we just assumed that the lord was telling us to change directions for the time being, and we were ready and willing to do just that. Malachi had made some calls and arranged some vehicles for the move and we were stockpiling boxes to put stuff in but we had put of packing until we were absolutely one hundred percent sure that we weren't going to be at NTBI this semester. Lucky for us, because the next morning while I was at a meeting in the business office I got a call that changed everything. The Lord had provided in a big way. we got an $1100 dollar donation from someone in Indiana. But it doesn't stop there, the next day we got another $750 dollars most of which was from a single anonymous giver. So in a little over 48 hours we went from $400 to $2250 in our school account; which enables us to cover our down payment and books, as well as some of our first monthly payment. After that we found out that Karalise had an appointment with a neurologist, but it was 2 days after her insurance ran out and we couldn't get anyone to talk to us and try to get it re-scheduled. Then one day after making around 7 calls to the doctors office over the course of 3 weeks, and after being told that there was no chance of getting her a closer date, I called one last time to see if they could get her in at any other hospitals in southeast Michigan. They put me on hold for a really long time. But when they came back not only could they get her in the next day, but it was at the hospital across the street. The Doctor prescribed a new treatment that now after 3 weeks still seems to be working. She is not entirely pain free but she is a whole lot better than she was. More good days equals better overall standard of living which makes for a much happier life. God is so good and he always takes care of us. There is a lot more that I would like to update you all on, but I'm out of time for now so please keep us in your prayers.

In the love of Christ,

the Pratts

again He provides

Praise the Lord, we have enough money to start the semester! thanks to all who have supported us, both in prayer and monetarily. please continue to pray as we try to get our feet under us and head into this semester prepared. This semmester promises to be a little bit harder than the last, as we will both need to work to pay the bills, and our budget will be stretched paper thin. please pray for strength as Kara is still dealing with pain on a daily basis, and we are getting the run around from the doctors. also pray that we would make time for each other in the midst of all the stress and busyness. thank you again, The Pratts