Crafting Liturgies for Life Abroad: A Guide to Processing Cross-Cultural Life Through Written Prayer

by Heather Fallis

The person who has experienced life abroad often finds themselves feeling a bit "tongue-tied" as they try to find words to express the unique experiences they've had. There is much to celebrate about the cross-cultural life, and also much to grieve. When we don't have the words or tools to express these things, we end up with unprocessed emotions that can make us feel even more like an outsider.

Using liturgies to process and pray through cross-cultural experiences can be a powerful tool for the expat. Many fellow wanderers have found liturgies to be a welcome companion to their journey abroad. Not only are liturgies written by others helpful, but learning to craft your own is a beautiful and introspective practice that invites the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and draw out those experiences and emotions that need to be brought before the Father.

In this book, Heather Fallis, creator of the social media account Liturgies for a Life Abroad and co-author of Liturgies and Laments for the Sojourner, walks you through the simple steps of beginning to craft your own liturgies. Part memoir, part guide, and part journal, Crafting Liturgies for Life Abroad invites you into Heather's personal journey into writing liturgies, breaks down the practice of writing them, and includes space for you to craft your own.

Inside you'll
- A description of what liturgy is
- Why liturgy is helpful for those living abroad
- Heather's personal story of embracing liturgies
- Why learning to lament is essential for emotional healing
- A step-by-step process to follow to write your own
- Example liturgies
- Downloadable journaling pages to write your own prayers

What readers are saying about the book:Heather Fallis courageously invites us into her life as a Global Worker and into her heart-level conversations with Jesus. With emotional honesty and spiritual depth, she shares her struggles, her perplexing questions, and the discovery that crafting personal liturgies became a transformative way to process her experiences and draw closer to Christ.

Through vivid personal stories, Heather shows how choosing conversation with Jesus—over the exhausting loop of internal self-talk—opened a path to healing, intimacy, and renewed purpose. Her approach is both practical and profound, offering tools and methods that any reader can adapt into a sustainable spiritual discipline.

Every Global Worker, and every Spiritual Director who walks alongside them, will find in this book a deeply relatable companion. But this isn’t only for those overseas—anyone longing to live more honestly and closely with Jesus, wherever they are, will find guidance and grace in these pages.

Read slowly. Practice often. Be transformed deeply.

-Christine Stanfield, member care and Spiritual Director

"Crafting Liturgies for a Life Abroad" by Heather Fallis is a beautiful companion for anyone drawn to liturgy, whether you're a seasoned writer or simply seeking sacred words for unfamiliar places. With deep approachability, Heather shares how she started writing liturgy and walks the reader through the process so you can write your own. This must-have gem is a liturgy-workshop-in-a-book for those navigating life abroad with faith and intention.

-Amy Young, author and Founder of Global Trellis

103 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2025

Reviews

[Rebecca Adelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like most of my five star books this year have been on rather niche topics that maybe 3% of the population (aka less than one person who follows me on Goodreads) would find slightly interesting.

This book is the same. I would recommend to anyone, but you will find it especially enjoyable if:

1) you pray
2) you like liturgy
3) you find delight in words
4) you live away from your first home
5) you are passionate about learning to grow in the midst of suffering and longing

The power of liturgy & lament is slowly becoming one of my soapboxes, though, so I’d go out on a limb and say that anyone could find this book helpful.

[Eva Burkholder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather Fallis invites us to “experience the presence of Jesus in the midst of every moment” by writing our own personal liturgies. Her simple six-step process and the liturgies included as examples clearly guide us to craft written prayers we can pray as part of our regular routines. Fallis assures us this book is for pray-ers, not only writers, so I know this will be a valuable tool for the cross-cultural workers I minister to and for me as well.

[Ruth Potinu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a needed book. I love how the practical steps in this beautiful book helped me craft my own prayers centering my heart as I processed and reminding me that my own struggles and pains have a place in the larger narrative of faith.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you follow @liturgiesforalifeabroad on Instagram then you’re already familiar with Heather’s unique ability to put what’s in the heart into words for prayer.

In this book Heather teaches us all to do this. It’s simple and yet life changing.

She outlines a few simple steps to unburden your heart while simultaneously reminding your heart of what is true about God.

While this book is written with the expat in mind I think any believer could use these steps to write liturgies and enrich their prayer lives.

Planning to bulk older these for my friends overseas.

[Carrie Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find yourself a sojourner in this world, saying goodbye to the familiar to embark on a journey that takes you to the unfamiliar, you know the joys and struggles of that experience. You may find yourself struggling to create home in a new land, bumbling with a new culture and language. If you are responding to the call of Jesus on your life, you may find yourself living with grief, anger, frustration, and anxiety, feeling that to express these complex emotions would demonstrate a lack of faith. You need this book.

Heather expertly guides us through the practice of crafting liturgies from the depths of our hearts. Following the pattern laid out for us in scripture for lament, she provides a step by step guide that helps us express our deepest longings and feelings—the complex emotions we have been reticent to give voice to—but doesn’t leave us in the depths of our despair. Liturgies allow for honesty of expression, but then cause us to turn to the truth of God’s presence with us. We are able to turn our laments into praise, trusting even when it feels hard.

Heather not only offers the step by step guide, but she generously shares liturgies she has written as beautiful examples for us to follow. The book comes with journaling pages built in, so you can begin writing in the moment.

Crafting Liturgies for Life Abroad is an invaluable resource for everyone who finds themselves living a cross-cultural life. Heather lays out beautifully a practice of crafting liturgies with the intention of expressing our hearts to God and acknowledging the truth of who he is. If you find yourself overwhelmed in this life of cross-cultural living, I encourage you to get this book. Implement this practice. Glean from Heather’s experience to find your words. In so doing, you will find yourself drawing closer to Jesus.

[Amanda Mary Akgul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m immensely thankful to Heather, who put this book out into the world. We are 10 months into our overseas move and learning how to craft liturgies in this way has made me an emotionally healthier expat. Reading her words and following her examples has reoriented my heart and changed the way I approach the hard moments of every day life overseas. To be able to creatively process and put words to all that life abroad entails has been so helpful. My children have also followed the guide to craft their own liturgies and laments and it has been a special gift to see them process in this way. So thankful ❤️.

[Carlienka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book includes many of Heather Fallis' beautifully written prayers just as I expected, but what surprised me was how she then goes a step further and invites us to write our own liturgies - showing us her process step-by-step and thereby encouraging us to reconnect with God in our own words and prayers. A wonderful resource which I am passing on to friends who also live overseas.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to a seminar from Heather last fall about how to write liturgies. Writing liturgies has truly been one of the biggest spiritual blessings of my year, and I am SO glad she shared this in book form. A quick, easy read that will change your prayer life forever. Already buying more to gift to all my friends who live overseas 🌍

[Ana Moyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a foreigner and living and working abroad by choice is a delicate balancing act.
You are an ambassador of your nation, even when you are embarrassed or proud of your homeland.
You “willingly” leave your family and friends behind and miss their important life events.
While what you are doing is your dream and your calling, it can be a profoundly lonely experience.

You don’t feel that you can complain because your life is often better than that of those you are serving.
You don’t necessarily want to return to your home country because you genuinely love what you're doing.
You can’t really confide in anyone, it feels, because your people at home are just waiting for the opportunity to try to get you back with them.
The people you have with you in your current country may not understand your issues either, because their lives might appear to be more complicated than yours.
You don’t feel like you can complain to God because He is the one who brought you to it, and you don’t want to be ungrateful or untrusting.
So, you're stuck in that feeling of loneliness and not being understood… then you find this book.

It is like a flower breaking through the cement sidewalk of my heart.
I feel seen, I feel understood, and more so than that, I lean on this book as a guide to help me sort through my feelings and express myself better. I can then take what I’ve worked through and dig deeper with my therapist and loved ones to feel reenergized, to wake up, and continue with this life I’ve chosen to lead, one that God has asked me to lead. I can do so with a full heart and the tools on how to refill it when it comes depleted again.

While this is a shorter book, it took me a long time to finish, as each page either prompted me to think, write, pray, talk, or simply reflect for a day or two between each lesson or sample liturgy. As someone who is actively going through what this book is helping the reader do, it is not just a book you read once. Rather, this is a lifelong companion that you can keep next to your Bible and can transform the way you navigate the events of your life and heart, as well as guide you on how best to talk to the Lord about what you’re experiencing. It is like a fine chocolate bar that you need to savor over time, taking a piece at a time and letting it ruminate in your heart and keep coming back to it as your life takes on new adventures and complexities. I am beyond grateful for what I have learned in these pages, and I’m sure you will be too.

[Emily Massey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing my prayers has always helped me pray through what's on my heart. In this life overseas, I've often found myself without words, rather unsure what to write or pray, not certain what I am feeling or why. When I found Heather's liturgies, they gave words to my heart's deep feelings and helped me bring those things to Jesus. Now, this book gives me the keys to write my own prayers and process my feelings with Jesus in a Biblical way, allowing him to bring healing and forgiveness, drawing me closer to him on this journey. The process outlined in this book not only draws me deeper in relationship with Christ, but also gives me clear steps to help my children process the emotions of a life abroad in a healthy way and bring them to Jesus. What a powerful way to be rooted in Christ and His word when we feel like we are uprooted and tossed to the wind!

[RG]

Heather provides a practical, step-by-step approach to guide processing and reflection of one’s cross-cultural life in the form of written prayer. Heather’s own prayers have been such blessings to me in my time living overseas (we pray her Liturgy for Thanks-Giving around the table before sharing in our feast), and I appreciate getting to see the scriptural basis of her practice. I think this book is especially helpful for those who don’t consider themselves writers or who feel intimidated by the process; may it be a blessing to you in your spiritual walk and may Jesus meet you as you walk toward Him in prayer!

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a valuable resource and gift. Heather shares her personal process for writing liturgies and presents steps to bring the reader along to enter into their own writings. These borrowed prayers, rooted in scripture, and her process of releasing them help to give light and air to my own emotions that have been buried without words. This book will be a welcome addition to my library and a go to gift to friends for many years to come.
I look forward to utilizing this resource and creating my own liturgies and prayers, to process, praise, and offer gratitude.

[Madison Dugger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the potential to be such an amazing resource to anyone who is navigating the complexity of emotions that come with living abroad. So often we have a lot of big and small emotional experiences that we don’t take the time to process through, and eventually those lead to a bigger reaction later or even the decision to leave our new country. This book gives the reader the resources to process well and give space to their experiences in a country that is not their own.

[Rosi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather has given us a practical, helpful, and encouraging devotional tool for learning to write your own prayers in liturgy form, with the global worker in mind. Anyone can use the process, which is simple and easy to follow, but global workers will most benefit from Heather's anecdotes and prayers. I appreciated how the steps for crafting a liturgy serve as a method for devotional study.