Tim Challies says I am one of his favourite bloggers from this year. Tim has always been inexplicably kind and gracious to me. But when I learned that I made his list of top bloggers from this year, I was shocked. Tim follows hundreds of bloggers, so I’m surprised I am among his favourite bloggers. But that caps off the most surprising and best year of my life.
When I started blogging 3 years ago, I never imagined I would gain an audience outside of my friend’s and family. And I never imagined that I would become a consistent blogger. My goal coming into this year was to write an article every Friday. I wanted to write at least 50 articles this year. But when I failed to write a single article in January, it became increasingly clear that yet again, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.
I didn’t publish an article every Friday. I didn’t write 50 articles this year. But many of you, including Tim Challies, Ryan Freeman, and my wonderful girlfriend, Annie, encouraged me to keep writing. And I am overwhelmed by your support. Your kind words on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere push me to do more than what I think I am able to do. I am insecure. I am a quitter. And I am easily discouraged. But your support helps me keep going.
I didn’t publish an article every Friday. I didn’t blog 50 times this year. I only shared 27 articles. But that is 27 more articles than I thought I would publish this year when I started blogging in 2015. And though I wasn’t able to blog every week, I’ve managed to publish an article every week since the beginning of October. I am thrilled about that. I’ve been blogging for 13 straight weeks! That’s not too impressive compared to other bloggers, but that’s my biggest accomplishment of the year.
Some of the 27 articles from this year are about abortion. I’ve become increasingly passionate about what is the biggest human rights violation of our time. And I owe much of my commitment to help make abortion unthinkable in Canada to many of you. So many of you kindly donated your hard-earned money to support my internship at the Canadian Center for Bio-ethical Reform. Your kindness made me push myself beyond my limits. You’ve changed this blog and my life for the better. I am so grateful for that.
In 2019, I will expand on much of the things I shared with you this year. I will continue to blog about my experiences as a Ghanaian-Canadian, my identity as a reformed Christian, and how that shapes my perspectives on Christ and culture.
Next year, I will continue to take your article requests every month on social media. Earlier this month you voted that you wanted me to blog about my testimony. That article will be my first article in 2019. I’ll share that article next Friday.
I’ve also added a new monthly series for next year. Beginning in a couple of weeks, I will share articles about parables. I’m not sure what that will look like yet. It could develop into a devotional or sorts, I’m not sure. I’ve picked 12 parables to write about next year. I’ll write an article about a parable each month. The first parable I’ll blog about is the Good Samaritan. I hope you’ll like it!
Jemar Tisby’s new book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, will be released next month. I will write a review on the book as soon as it’s released. That review will be the first of many reviews, I hope. Flip Michaels recently released a book titled Five Half-Truths, I will review that book the following month in February.
And I’m happy to announce that next year, I will interview influential leaders like Conrad Mbewe, James White, Obianuju Ekeocha, and Tim Challies. My interview with Conrad Mbewe will be available next month—and I can’t wait to share it with you.
But above all, I’m looking forward to doing what I love to do: writing from my heart to yours. Thank you for helping me do that this year.