Tears on the Church House Floor

by Dan Pratt

Overview

In Tears on the Church House Floor, author Dan Pratt shares a deeply personal story about the grief that he and his family experienced in a traumatic year of their lives, losing a grandson, a mother, and beloved pet. But more than that, it is a story of the incredible God who did not just stop and turn to aid them in a moment; rather, God wove himself into their lives over a fifty-year period to prepare this family for a season of grief. Your tears matter to God. Each tear is collected by his Holy Spirit because he values you and will not leave you alone in your sorrows. While we may not see the whole story at each step in the journey, there is a coming day when we will see clearly all that God has done in our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781973623038
Publisher:	Westbow Press
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Dan Pratt is a husband, father, and grandfather. He and wife, Nancy, have been married for 41 years; together they have two sons and two grandsons. Pratt has a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and Master of Science in engineering management from the University of Tennessee, and he has been in the heavy industrial engineering and construction business for over 40 years, building industrial plants in the United States and abroad. Pratt has also served in church leadership for over 30 years, teaching Bible classes to both children and adults at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he serves as an elder.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement ix

Foreword xi

Introduction xiii

Tears on the Church Floor 1

The Duplex on Fifth Avenue 9

Cedar Waxwing 19

Bill Thomas 31

Mama Jeannie 41

Ole Black Dogs 49

The Rest of the Story 57

Hey, Bill 73

A Heart That Goes Out 79

Let No One Lose Heart 87

The Call of the Morning Star 97

Do More by Doing Less 105

Epilogue 113

Editorial Reviews

2018-08-08

In this debut memoir, an engineer revisits his family's most difficult moments and shares realizations about God that helped him through.

"Our neighborhood was fit for a Rockwell painting," Pratt writes. "We were a typical early '60s family." But, like so many other "typical" families, they endured hardships and difficulties; Pratt's father left the family for another woman, the author writes; his mother had difficulty, as a divorced single mother, finding work and even housing. They and the author's sister ended up in a simple duplex on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Springfield, Tennessee. Despite this, Pratt writes that he saw God working within his life, eventually bringing his father home and later introducing the author to his own future wife. Pratt would go on to become a successful engineer in Texas; his work took him all over the world. But the author focuses on the idea that when everything is going well, things can fall apart: "The season of dancing would yield to a season of mourning." Tragically, his son Joshua's first child was stillborn; the same year, the family lost the author's mother-in-law as well as a beloved pet. While relating these tragedies, however, Pratt takes the opportunity to explore the story of Job, the nature of God's help, and the way his family eventually healed. Overall, the author does an excellent job of imbuing seemingly ordinary events with meaning by weaving in numerous biblical references. For example, he blends the stories of Ruth, David and Goliath, and Paul with various memories, such as when Pratt's mother called the police on him for leaving the house without permission when he was 9 or when Pratt's disabled son prepared to navigate the Atlanta airport by himself. The main focus though, is on the year of losses, which leaves some other accounts underdeveloped, such as Pratt's time in Spain. However, for Christian readers, Pratt provides excellent examples of his conviction that "With God there is always a rest of the story."

A concise overview of how strong beliefs helped a family through trying times.

Kirkus Reviews