This photo says it all.

This photo was taken early on the morning of January 12 as we prepared to leave for Doko, a day that held so much anticipation. Steeve had gone into the office to buy our bus tickets, and I walked over to Neg Mawon. The morning was cool, the streets were almost empty, and all seemed right in Haiti. It was a new year - full of hope. Full of potential. We had so many plans. And, soon, we would delve once again into the deep meaning of this verse:

I’m glad we don’t publish A Year in Anticipation for everyone to see. How humbling it would be to come to the end of each year and see how different our plans were from God’s clear direction in the midst of it.

On Christmas Eve this year, Steeve, on behalf of the staff, wrote me this message:

It was an amazing Christmas.

Thank you for loving Haiti with all of your heart. I know 2019 was not the way you expected, but I believe it was the way God had planned it.

“2019 was not the way you expected, but I believe it was the way God had planned it.”

I have been pondering that because I know it’s true. And yet why, at the beginning of each year, do I think I know what God has planned for us?

I’m glad I didn’t know some of the sad things that were coming this year before they came. Although they brought unexpected grief and sorrow, to have anticipated them, to have had to wait for them would have been so difficult.

This year we lost people who were close to us. Some we lost through death. Some we lost as they moved on to other things. Either way, we grieved. And we miss them.

But God knew. And though we lost friends and family, we gained new friends and family, as well - new board members, new children in the sponsorship program, new visitors to Haiti Awake, new sponsors . . .

This year we lost the first half of the school year due to the political unrest that intensified sharply in the fall. It was hard watching the country being shut down and damaged in devastating ways by a handful of individuals when the majority of Haitians just wanted to get back to work and school. Again, we grieved.

But God knew. And though the children could not go to school, our understanding of what they needed for their education expanded as we had more time to spend with them one-on-one in their studies, to see how better to help them learn. And because the neighborhood children could not go to school, we gained a beautiful time of learning together each week in English class.

As we look ahead to 2020, we trust that nothing will take God by surprise, though we ourselves will surely be surprised by numerous events as they occur.

Despite the difficulties of 2019, we look back with joy, remembering good times like these:

And we look forward with hope to 2020 because we believe our Redeemer is faithful and true.