Congress 2014

Wow.

So last weekend. Wow.

Last weekend was when we held The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Congress 2014. The THQ Youth Department (where I work) was responsible for coordinating all the children and youth events/childcare. So from Thursday June 19th to Monday June 23rd I ran around a lot, memorised a map of the city of Mississauga, cursed construction traffic and got very little sleep, lol.

I didn't actually get to see more than say, 10 minutes of any Congress meetings (total), but I'm pretty happy that I got to see the cool part. Which was when I saw some shiny brown boots start marching into the main hall, and heard them announcing the RCMP (Mounties) :) I ran to where I could see (down those stairs at the back), and there they were - wearing the full red outfit and carrying flags and everything. That was sweet :) But of course by then I had to race off and pick up the band for the Friday night concert. Which was the only event that I got to see most of, because I was running around for ALL other events. ALL.

Hah! Edit: You can totally see my jeans and sneakers on the stairs behind in this next shot!! From the knees down anyway :D Can you see? Just to the right of the exit sign! LOL!

(Edit: So then I had to see if I was in any more official pics, and I totally am! I'm the shadowy figure on the stairs behind the General in this next pic :) Right under the "sportzone" sign. Go me!)

Friday night concert - Tim Neufeld and the Glory Boys. Those guys are awesome. Oh, and they make pretty decent music too :) If they decide to do an Australian tour, you should go see them. Or get them to do a show somewhere local even.

That guys' double bass comes apart into two pieces for easy transportation. Cool!

Here's where they brought out their fake campfire, and led a singalong/prayer session in among the audience.

Here's where they were doing "Cornerstone"; you can listen at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBjPXBT8Is

Here is me watching them while watching my clock (phone) so I knew when to escort them backstage, and when to bring them back. All band photo credits go to Captain Terence Hale - the divisional youth guy for Ontario Great Lakes Division. I stole them off our youth Facebook page :)

Their songs are annoyingly catchy when you don't know the words - check out this one on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRYcoMyHPHE

Anyway, for the last week as I recuperated from Congress, I was basically sleeping every spare minute. I nearly fell asleep at the wheel taking the rental van back on Monday morning, then fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon. I napped Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday afternoon after work, took a lieu day Thursday and slept for most of that, and also slept for most of Saturday. I woke up at 2pm :) SO TIRED!!!!

Thank goodness they made this weekend a long weekend - I had SO much laundry to do! Tuesday (tomorrow) is Canada Day, and we would have had to work today (Monday) but they gave us the day off. I slept in, did laundry and cleaned stuff. Woot!