Happy New Year! We are celebrating a new day, a new month, a new year and a new decade! I hope your 2020 is off to a good start!

I also think of “new” because God makes all things new as we are redeemed.   This is really apparent when I see what this past year has meant for Da, our very first child who came to our health project office, and gave us the needed inspiration to start the House of Love (HOL).  Fast forward 25 years, and in the past year, this girl has now received her citizenship, graduated from Bible school, married, and built her own house.  She has also come back to work at the House of Blessing daycare as a teacher, and helps out at the House of Love with spiritual formation with our students.  Definitely more than I would have ever dreamed—God has indeed redeemed and made all things new.
For our New Year Celebration at the House of Love, Da led worship and challenged us in three areas: asking forgiveness for something in the past year, being thankful for something that God has done or provided, and thinking about what we want to do better in this coming year. As always, I was encouraged (and sometimes entertained!) by our HOL family’s responses. There was genuine repentance and gratitude expressed, and I appreciated having us also focus on what might each of us do better, with more intentionality. May your new year be one of growth!