On Winning An Award

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend, and next weekend is Thanksgiving. Both are reasons to be “thankful”.

Another thing that I am thankful for occurred the last weekend of September. I was surprised to find out that I had won two awards at the annual InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship conference banquet.

The Janette Oke Award is presented biannually in honour of founding and lifetime member Janette Oke, a well-known pioneer of the Christian fiction genre. It is for authors who have a body of work and who exemplify Janette’s innovation, bravery, commitment, conviction, and perseverance. I am more than honoured. Humbled, actually. I didn’t apply, so was very surprised to find out I was the recipient of the award.

But that’s not all. I also won the Leadership Award this year. It is for members of InScribe who are: Brave, innovative and pioneering; have a servant’s heart; persevere through hard times; demonstrate conviction, courage, skill, and commitment; and make a contribution to InScribe over an extended period of time. Again, I had no idea I was even nominated.

It’s too bad I didn’t make it to this year’s Conference and awards banquet. It was held in Manitoba for the first time. With all of life’s other busyness, I couldn’t make it.

I’m humbled and honoured. Perhaps it is just the boost I need to get me back into writing regularly again. (Along with this blog!)