As Jesus said, It is finished”.

I’ve been to Winnipeg and back for my very last business trip. West Jet did well in keeping the planes on schedule and on time. While I was flying in first class, an experience everyone should have once, I was comfortable enough and enjoyed travelling with Rob.

Our meetings took place in the new office location, now inside the Old VIA (CN) train station.

According to Wikipedia…”Constructed between 1908 and 1911, the station was built as a joint venture between the Canadian Northern Railway, National Transcontinental, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and the Dominion government.^[1] The first train to enter the station did so on 7 August 1911, with the official opening the following year on 24 June 1912.^[3]

Union Station was designed by Warren and Wetmore,^[1] the architects responsible for Grand Central Terminal in New York City.^[4] Designed in the Beaux-Arts style and constructed from local Tyndall limestone,^[3] Union Station was one of Western Canada’s largest railway stations.^[1]“

Stuart McLean did held a performance of the Vinyl Cafe in Winnipeg and featured the history of this building and the belief of it’s day that Winnipeg would become the Chicago of the North. Winnipeg was the location of the Territorial Headquarters of The Salvation Army for Canada West.

Wikipedia again helps us… “In 1932, the RCMP moved into a building on Winnipeg’s Portage Avenue that was constructed in 1927 as a home for the Salvation Army‘s William Booth Territorial Training College.”

Winnipeg is one of those cities that has no dramatic gains or losses; it seems to slowly but steadily grow and develop and those who live there define the reputation of the city. To many of us it is known as Winterpeg because of the long, severe winter.

As we were landing in Winnipeg, I was thinking about when I lived here as a kid – I was young, 3 to 6 years of age, and the many, many times I have been here in the past 20 years. This has been a regular stop on my travels for The Salvation Army. And here is my last of those trips. We met with the team from our territorial headquarters, most of whom have been my friends/partners in the work I did.

But now they go on to their next duties, and I will settle into retirement.