This Is Good...

Scratch another week off the roster for we are halfway there. (WHOA LIVING ON A PRAYER!) But for reals; my mind is blown at how fast this summer is going by.  SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED; both at Camp Q and in my life at home that I legitimately have not processed any of it.  I feel a bit like I'm on auto pilot. Surprise surprise I'm starting to find myself getting really attached to the darlings around me.  I'm really not looking forward to the day that is barreling towards us when we all have to bid adieu.  A few have already departed back to their homelands and my heart is so ill-prepared for the rest to go. The Lord is constantly reminding me of his unending love; not only through people that constantly encourage and lift me up but also in the daily reminders that I am doing the same.  I'm blown away by how many people confide in me on a daily basis.  It's the hugest compliment to know that A) they come to me for advice and B) they actually take it and p...

Well we are officially done our second week of camp and what a whirlwind it has been.  I'm not going to lie that it doesn't exaclty feel like camp for me.  Maybe it's that I'm in the office and not fully connecting with the kids in a typical camp fashion.  But I'm enjoying myself for the most part nonetheless. My goal this summer is to connect with one camper a week on some sort of extra special level.  So far I'm succeeding. During junior high one; I was on stage singing in Q-Town and there was this girl right up front.  She was wearing a t-shirt that said "Ya'll need Jesus" and I was like I NEED TO KNOW THIS CHILD! She was dancing away and singing her heart out and it was just so lovely.  I sneakily asked her cabin counsellor what her name was and decided to write her a letter for mail time the next day.  I just wrote how much she encouraged me with her free worship and her bright smile.  She then found me later in the week and said how muc...

Well hello there Blogosphere! It's been what; almost 2 years? Man oh man do we have a heap to catch up on. The hair is short again; the tattoo count has climbed to 9 and I, Amy Pickard, am working at Camp Qwanoes. *Insert record scratch/skip noise here* Hold the phone! I know what you're thinking; TRAITOR! But nothing you can come up with I haven't already thought myself.  Needless to say; I'm here. And I have no clue why. Okay maybe I have a slight clue; but you get where I'm going here. To catch you up on a few things; back in May 2015, I was working away at DunVMC as a MOA; living life; being me; yadda yadda. Meg and I attended a Bethel concert and I felt compelled to apply for Bethel spiritual ministry school. So  I did. And lo and behold; I actually got in. To top that; I got accepted for the worship stream too. So that was pretty major. Contrary to me; the Lord had other plans; and as many of you know, I didn't go. But, I did end up going back to R...

I know, I know, blast from the past right? But I felt like today was a momentous occasion worthy of blogging up. So; here goes! When people tell me that I act like a toddler I tell them it's because I'm really only 3 years old.  You see, 3 years ago I stood in front of roughly 150 teenagers, 50 or so staff, and a few cherished family and friends;  at my second home Camp Imadene; and said "Yes" to 2 very important questions: Is Jesus your Lord and Savior, and do you want to follow him for the rest of your life.  After an ecstatic YUP! I grabbed on tight to the two lovely people on either side of me and went under the lovely Mesachie Lake water and arose a new being. So since I've experienced this "new birth" I am only 3 years of age. Hence the toddler stage joke. I read a quote once that said something along the lines of   “Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...” Good Ol C.S. Lewis, ...

Well what do we have here?  I know, I know, I've been completely out of the blogosphere for a while now, but, alas, I have something to share and therefore, This is Good is revived yet again. I was able to cabinlead this past week at my favorite place, Camp Imadene, and along with that amazing experience, I was also asked to speak in chapel! OH SNAP KIDDIES! Yes, I, Amy Pickard, speech impediment and leaky eyes in tow, but I did it. And I didn't completely suck. The week was amazing as I knew it would be. I expected God to show up, and he did, but never in the ways I expect him to.  My girls were fantastic, beautiful, caring, HILARIOUS, but lacking in conversational skills. Cabin time was verging on painful. I would ask the required questions, along with my own, and nothing. Crickets. This was really trying for me as we all know I love myself a good chat, but it was also a test to get back to basics. God was showing me that I didn't need to try so hard. All I was being ...

Wow. So  I haven't done this is a very, very long time.  It's kind of surreal being on here, feels like such a long lifetime ago that this was the biggest part of my life.  Sad but true. I was reading through 1 John the other night and a couple verses really struck me and I thought, I'm going to write a blog about these. Thus, I came crawling back to ol' faithful here to share a few choice words with you. I'm a little rusty, so bear with me :) "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" 1 John 3:19 Now I had to look up the definition of " condemn " to fully grasp what this meant, the second definition states that this means to s entence someone to a particular punishment, especially death.  Now as per usual little ol' Amy here has been having her heart toyed with a bit as of late and I kind of related it to this verse and got a lot of hope from it as well. Can any of you rela...

Hello dear friends, what a weekend I have had! First off it was amazing to spend 4 whole days in Victoria. I seriously love that city so much and feel like I need to be there, so living in an apartment with a good friend was a good taste of what is hopefully to come. I was in Victoria to attend the Adore Conference. Life changing  Seriously. The speakers, the worship, the people. God is so present within that church and you can't help but feel overwhelmed by it all. Needless to say I cried, I know, shocker. Saturday night was when I first lost it. After a ridiculously amazing sermon from Joyce Rees (new woman crush!) I apparently was so blown away I didn't even write notes, I just remember that I was crying continually for a long time. The closing of her sermon was about the marginalized, focusing on Aboriginals. This hit home because I see this on a daily basis. Growing up in Duncan I was immersed in Native culture from Kindergarten onward  My first ...