Friends,
Looking back on 2019, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
I’m grateful that God has allowed us to participate with Him in His healing.
I’m grateful for the thousands of lives that were touched by the work of Tutapona in 2019.
I’m grateful for the ability to respond to the Syrian Crisis and for the opportunity to begin delivering our children’s program.
I’m grateful for the partnerships, and the expansions that took place as a result.
And I’m so grateful for the hundreds of people who joined with us to make that happen- our partners, donors, staff, volunteers and our supporting churches and businesses.
I’m also grateful for the lessons, challenges and changes we’ve made this year. 2019 was a year packed with growth and development; we expanded quickly to accommodate for short term funding, and sadly, we’ve had to scale back when that funding came to an end. I can honestly tell you, this hasn’t been easy. It’s never easy to have to tell someone who has worked so hard that we don’t have funding for their work next year. It’s never easy to close an office that has brought immense hope and healing to so many lives. It is tempting to look at these changes as loss, or to see them as failures.
But at Tutapona we champion the opportunity to GROW, not just in numbers but in character and hope. We teach in our program that setbacks and disappointments are opportunities to learn and to depend on God, and in some circumstances, to flourish.
So, when our partnership with UNHCR came to an end, we chose to thank God for the opportunity we had in 2019. We chose to be thankful that this particular partnership allowed us to expand our reach and that it released resources to implement our GROW program throughout Uganda and begin delivering our children’s program in the Southwest. We chose to thank God even if some of this growth was only temporary.
The reality is, we didn’t see these things coming; we didn’t know that we wouldn’t have UNHCR funding for 2020, but instead that God would open the door for other potential partnerships. We didn’t know that program goals for 2019 would change, but that we would have such great success with the HEROES JOURNEY and with our GROW implementation. We didn’t know that our Lebanon office would be delayed by civil unrest but that you would all respond so generously to the Syrian crisis.
And while all of these things, good and bad, were a surprise to us, they were not at all a surprise to our God.
What we do know is that God called us here, for this season, to be His light and hope to refugees living in East Africa and the Middle East. What we do know is that we have a life changing resource in our hands, and that we are going to do our best to bring that resource to those who need it most.
This season feels like we are living out 2 Corinthians 4. We feel pressed on all sides, but we know that God will not let us be crushed. We are perplexed by some events, but because our hope is in Christ we are not in despair. We do not lose heart because we know that "all of this happens so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God (verse 15)”.
So as 2019 comes to a close, I can genuinely say that I am grateful; for the unchanging hope of Christ in an ever-changing world, I’m grateful for the certainty of His plans despite the frailty of our own, and I’m grateful that we get to experience it all with you.
As we step into 2020 will you join us in prayer for God’s steadfast love, hope and guidance as we steward Tutapona in a new season and a new year?
I want to leave you with the scripture that is resounding in our hearts - 2 Corinthians 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
With Much Gratitude,
Carl Gaede
