They killed the ostriches; Test drive Advent; The next billion
3 Things this week and a poem
Thanks for spending some time this weekend with Things I Wrote Down.
Here are three things that stood out this week and a poem.
They killed the ostriches
Have you followed this tragic, bizarre, infuriating story? This week the months-long train wreck culminated with its violent, tyrannical end, as Canadian Food Inspection Agency slaughtered the ostriches.
Gunfire was heard for hours as the birds were shot and killed by rifles wielded by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Here's a quick overview of the facts of the case:
Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, BC, faced Canadian Food Inspection Agency a CFIA order in May 2025 to cull ~400 ostriches due to avian flu exposure and outbreak fears.
The farm appealed the decision through BC courts, arguing it was unreasonable. Courts upheld the cull, citing a Supreme Court precedent on "reasonableness" from the Alexander Vavilov case.
The saga drew interest from RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz, who tried to intervene but failed.
On Nov 7, 2025, Canada's Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the farm's last appeal.
CFIA used professional marksmen to kill the 300+ birds on Nov 8, 2025, amid protests; bodies were loaded into bins.
This is a precedent that we should all be concerned about. The images of the dead animals are all over social media and it was a massacre, not carried out with an ounce of humanity. And it seems that how the carcasses were handled indicated officials wernt concerned about the spread of bird flu.
My heart goes out to the farmers who lost their livelihood and have had so many of their rights trampled.
Test drive Advent
I've been having fun launching my Advent book through videos on Instagram that poke fun at being an independent author.
Yesterday as a family we went to Chapters (Canada's version of Barnes and Noble) where a book author had line ups out the door. I'm not gonna lie that I had some book-launch envy.
The author was an actor I hadn't heard of from a show I've never watched, but he had people packing the joint. It was inspiring.
What I don't know if he released a 7-Day plan free plan for readers on YouVersion. I did, and it came out this week.
If you want to kick the book's tires, check it out.
The whole point of this book is to encourage wonder and reading stories from the Bible this Christmas. So that's why I'm offering the plan. I hope it'll bless readers around the world.
The next billion
YouVersion, the Bible app that I just mentioned above, is celebrating the enduring power of scripture this month to coincide with its 1 billionth download.
Yes, with a B.
Isn't that incredible? The free app, which I use almost every day, is a huge blessing.
It’s amazing to see how they're advertising all around the world. This week they appeared on the Sphere in Las Vegas. It's so cool to see the attention being put upon the Bible.
Over at Unveil, we created a plan to tie into their Global Bible Month and 30-day Challenge. You can go check it out. I hope you enjoy celebrating scripture with the global church.
Poem
I return to this poem from my collection God/he whenever the complexities and beauty and horrors of humanity are top of mind, which, is often these days.
The ostrich cull was another terrible government overreach and dictatorial as we have really seen over the last 5 years.