Olympics

I was pretty excited to be heading out to Vancouver last week even with the remnants of the flu hanging around me with great persistence.

I was excited for a number of reasons:

• it's always great to be out doing ministry,
• I was looking forward to seeing family,
• I was looking forward to the weather.

Living in Calgary and growing up in The Salvation Army Vancouver was somewhat of a common place for me to travel. My grandfather's family is there as well as several family members that I've picked up along the way. I also know several of the officers stationed in Vancouver and the surrounding area and it's always nice to see them. I had lunch with family, got to see some more family at both church services I was at, saw officers I've met in Vancouver and got to see a city I'm somewhat familiar with all decked out in celebration.

I was on teams that were serving coffee and hot chocolate at 4am and that was certainly an interesting experience. For all that Vancouver was incredibly warm during the day it was quite cold at that hour of the morning. The opportunities to chat and greet people was a lot of fun and man did they appreciate the warm drink before heading up the mountain.

I had the opportunity to wander around downtown Vancouver with some friends and had a blast. The energy down there was fantastic and people were clearly having a blast. I of course managed to fit in some quality shopping time and even in the mall the spirit of the Olympics was everywhere.