More Than Gold was given the anchor position at the Vancouver Canada Day Parade.  Led by our Creative and Performing Arts [CaPA] Working Group leaders Russ and Sandy Rosen, More Than Gold entered, organized a truck & band, and coordinated volunteers. 

Three volunteers led the MTG entry, carrying a banner with our snowflake logo and the words More Than Gold – Radical Hospitality.  Next came a group of dancers led by Sandy; then a vintage red truck carrying our drummer, sound system and fiddle player, surrounded by four string musicians led by Russ who also led the vocals.  Following in behind were approximately 80 volunteers clad in white T-shirts with a big bold More Than Gold logo..

So what happened?  As Russ and the group performed a rotation of 3 lively songs with clear faith-filled lyrics, including the prominent repetition in one of the joyful expression Hallelujah, the rest of us walked, danced and smiled our way along while handing out 2,000 small cards with our identification and how to say hello to people in 12 languages. 

Russ invited people to join in behind us and in front of several police motorcycles which marked the end of the parade. The reaction was phenomenal as hundreds of people joined in the dancing and singing and just had a great time celebrating. From midway through the parade, there were at least 300 people between the end of the parade and the truck. Literally thousands on the sides of the streets were enthusiastically entering into our celebration. Karen was in the front – inviting people to join in the circle dances. When Russ would reach key points in the songs, people, unrelated to MTG, would jump in the air and wave small flags. Their exuberance was infectious!

What a great picture of what we are trying to accomplish through More Than Gold.  To have a group of Christians visible in celebration of our relationship with God and allow others to experience our joy and enter into the party… so their lives can be impacted with his love!

We came to the dispersal point and the crowd wanted us to do more.  We really didn’t have permission to carry on, so we did one more verse with the truck parked at the curb on West Pender and then led in O Canada.  The crowd gave us an appreciative round of applause and we eventually went on our own ways. One of the organizers told us, “what a great way to end the parade!”.  Another said it was the highlight.  One of the many asked, “What is More Than Gold all about?” As it was explained, she said, “oh, so the Christians are banding together for this hospitality, eh?  That’s great!”

Check out photos and video on the CaPA webpage