The year that had been

2011 is finally a thing of the past.  It had been a rather interesting (albeit trying) year for me, and a big part of me is thankful that it is behind me.

2011 was the year when my integrity was truly put to the test, it was a year which the most unlikely people asked and expected me to do the most un-godly things possible.  I felt, and still feel the sorrow of seeing that people who held themselves out to be Christians telling me to do such horrible acts.  I thank God for have given me the strength and courage to stand up against the pressure and coercion.  In my years of being a Christian (11 years and counting), I came face-to-face with the hard truth that even the most revered 'Christian' could be nothing but a wolf in sheep clothing.  What happened in 2011 only served to remind me again the warning given by Apostle Paul:

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.  But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all duties of your ministry.

2 Timothy  4:3-5 (NIV)

The year 2011 was also a year of fruitfulness for me.  The year saw me sending off some of my best boys - boys who had been with me for years, learning all that I had to offer them - to the next stage in their lives, whether it was further education or returning to their homelands.  The year also saw me taking in some new boys - something I thought I would stop doing after the last heartbreak - and what a joy these new boys had been, and still are.

As I step forward into the new year and beyond, with the many challenges ahead - some known, and many yet to be known - I pray that it will be a year in which God will use me to the fullest, so that at the end of it all, I would be able to echo the words of Apostle Paul:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering ... I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day...

2 Timothy 6a, 7-8a (NIV)