Remember the poor

December 23, 2025

Times are difficult for the average person here in Canada. One indication of this Ingrid and I have noticed as we drive around is the number of cars we see that have a non-working headlight or brakelight. It seems people are trying to reduce their spending by not getting their cars serviced. This is not a good idea -- cars need to be maintained properly, and driving without working lights endangers both yourself and others. But with stubbornly high food inflation, rising housing and insurance costs, and wages not keeping pace, people are having to make hard choices about where they should allocate their money.

Times are even harder for the poor in our society. While their are many kinds of poverty, and many reasons people may be poor, the ones the Lord has especially laid on our hearts are the poor elderly that live among us. For example, yesterday we did our weekly grocery shopping. Our first stop was Safeway, a chain of grocery stores here in Canada. As I walked around to get some items we needed, I quickly noticed some elderly people who looked like they were struggling to make ends meet. The old man who bought only a single litre of milk. The sad-looking elderly couple who slowly pushed their shopping cart through each and every aisle looking at items but not putting anything in their cart. I also noticed that the store had far more comfort food (chips, popcorn, candy, chocolate) on display than it had fresh fruit and vegetables in the produce section. That's another sign of how times are hard for people, prioritizing snacks that have low nutritional value (and high profit margins for the store) over healthy but expensive fresh foodstuffs.

While the official rate of inflation here in Canada has now declined to just over 2 percent, the reality is that the cost of basic necessities (food, clothing, transportation and housing) for many people has risen by a huge amount over the last few years. This has impacted elderly people living on a fixed income, especially those who depend mostly upon the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) since those government payments have not increased nearly as much as the cost of living.

It's an old story, isn't it, of governments and news media making misleading statements and promises about the real state of the economy. For example, our Prime Minister here in Canada during the 1970s, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was a popular and charismatic figure during a time of revolutionary idealism. But in a news clipping from the 1970 Christmas Eve edition of the Winnipeg Tribune newspaper, Prime Minister Trudeau was quoted as saying that "Inflation no longer exists in Canada" and was reported to have also said that "the fight against inflation has been won" and "the government's anti-inflation performance was unequalled in any country in the Western world."

Unfortunately, inflation rose rapidly over the next couple of years, reaching 11 percent in 1974 and then peaking even higher at 12 percent in 1981. The result was that the whole decade of the 70s was a "lost decade" for many Canadians, and especially for the working poor. Those who had money got richer because they could invest at high interest rates. But those who just had enough to live found their dollar stretched more and more as the decade went on.

Truly the Psalmist was right when he said:

Do not put your trust in princes,

in human beings, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord their God. (Psalm 146:3-5)

What shall we do?

As followers of Jesus, how should we walk in these difficult economic times? First, we should ask God to help us see the poor, to notice and be aware of them. As Paul said when he and Barnabus met with the other apostles in Jerusalem:

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. (Galatians 2:10)

And second, we should try to be like Jesus and do good to the people God brings across our path:

You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

One practical way in which Ingrid and I try to "go around doing good" during these present hard times is to buy Safeway gift cards that can be used to pay for groceries when shopping at Safeway stores. This way when we're doing our grocery shopping and we see an elderly person who seems to be struggling to make ends meet, we can offer them a gift card to help them pay for their groceries. Whenever we've done this they usually accept with astonishment and gratitude.

Great idea, isn't it? Now go and do likewise :-)

Cheers,

Mitch

P.S. Have a (not too) Merry Christmas and a (safe and) happy New Year!

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A prophetic word for Canada's small and mid-sized businesses

September 3, 2026

Sometimes prophetic dreams are easy to interpret. Sometimes they're more difficult. Ingrid's dream back in April about how the direction our Canadian government is taking under Mark Carney will signficantly change our relationship with our southern neighbor was easy to interpret . Her most recent dream builds upon that earlier one and is a bit more difficult to understand, but we think we've got it puzzled out. Here then is Ingrid's latest dream, more or less in her own words: "I saw a man in what looked like a black-and-white photo from the 70s. He was stocky in build, but short, maybe 5 foot 6 inches. He was wearing a coat and his face looked old and drained. He reminded me of a businessman, either American or Canadian, and he seemed to want to smoke a cigar. As I looked at him the words 'all things unto himself' came to mind." That's it. What does it mean? Well, first, it very probably does mean something . Why? Because God has promised that his children (hey, that's us!) will see visions and dream dreams ( Acts 2:17 ). And both Ingrid and I have had a number of dreams from the Lord over the years, some of which have warned or guided us in making decisions, while others have given us glimpses of things that would soon happen. So we have a bit of a track record as far as receiving and interpreting prophetic dreams are concerned. And with prayerful pondering we think we know what this present dream means as well. Here then is our interpretation: Owners of smaller (5' 6") businesses here in Canada (and probably in the USA too) should accept the reality that they'll need to become more self-reliant ("all things unto himself") to keep their businesses going in the stressful (overweight, smoking, face drained) times that are coming upon Canada's economy. While this interpretation seemed fairly obvious to me when Ingrid first shared her dream with me, one thing did puzzle me: the phrase "all things unto himself" in her dream clearly seems to reference Colossians 1:19-20 which says "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things , whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." But what does reconciliation have to do with this dream? Now some might eagerly jump in here and say, "Aha! The dream means that God is soon going to reconcile Canada and the US on all these trade issues! Good times are going to return and everything will go back to the way they were before!" But this is really justwishful thinking, and the Bible tells us how easy it is sometimes to prophesy what you want to happen (see Jeremiah 28 ) instead of what is going to happen. But the question still remains: what about the verb "to reconcile" in this verse of Colossians that Ingrid's dream seems to reference? The Greek verb here is αποκαταλλασσω and it only occurs in the New Testament, which makes it hard to pin down its exact meaning. The word is usually translated as reconcile in English translations of the Bible . But this New Testament verb is built upon the more frequently occurring verb καταλλασσω which in Classical Greek (starting from the time of Herodotus) usually means reconcile, make peace, or settle with your enemies. In Plutarch however, who lived around the time of the New Testament, the word can also take on economic meanings like exchanging currency or trading in gold. Trading, see? Anyways, remember that the gift of prophecy always has three parts: revelation, interpretation, and application. And application is what's most important i.e. how one should respond to a prophetic word. The application here is that smaller businesses in Canada that have relied for decades on buying and selling goods and services with the USA need to realize they are going to have to work hard to become more self-reliant (more reliant on our internal Canadian markets and new international markets) instead of relying solely on the good will of our neighbor south of the border. And the same is probably reciprocally true for SMBs in the USA, though with the American economy being so much bigger than ours the SMBs down there have more options available as far as markets are concerned. (Image: Ennui by Walter Richard Sickert - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford - 1917-18)

Taking a break for the summer

July 13, 2026

Hey everyone, summertime is short here in Manitoba so we're taking a break until September 1st. Be sure to come back then to check us out again. In the meantime feel free to browse our books and blog and other free resources for helping you grow your fellowships. Blessings! Mitch and Ingrid

The kitchen sink

June 18, 2026

By Mitch Tulloch Here's another God Story for those of you who read our blog. We love telling these stories from our life because people can learn from them that God is real and that He loves you and has a plan for your life . A few months ago our kitchen sink got plugged and wouldn't drain. This was a real problem for us because not having a working sink in the kitchen makes it hard to prepare meals and wash dishes! So we called a rooter service and they sent a guy who tried to clear it, but his drain snake wasn't long enough to get all the way down to the blockage. (Our kitchen is on the upper level and our house has several levels.) He then called a second guy who had a 50 foot (15 meter) snake and we anxiously waited for him to arrive. The new guy discovered that our main sewer drain also seemed plugged, so the first thing he did was clear that. Then he used his snake to clear the problem with the kitchen sink and was successful. Fixing the problem, which involved calling two plumbers, took almost the entire day and cost us more than six-hundred dollars. Argh! So we thought the problem had been solved, but then yesterday I noticed water starting to pool in the kitchen sink again. I turned off the tap and the water slowly drained away, but it was clear that there was a partial blockage down at the bottom of the drainpipe that connects under the kitchen sink. Oh no, I thought. Will we have to spend hundreds of dollars on the plumber again? Is this problem going to start recurring frequently? Will we have to tear open the basement wall to expose the drainpipe to fix it? How much will that cost?? My glass was quickly becoming half-full, not half-empty. In other words, I was fearing the worst. Better try to fix this myself first if possible, I decided. So I poured some Drano into the kitchen sink drain, waited a half hour, and then poured a bucket full of hot water into the sink. The water pooled and drained ever so slowly. Rats. What to do? I told Ingrid about the problem and I could tell from her expression that she was worried too. I texted our friends Ken and Bonnie and asked them to pray about our situation. Then I sat down and worried. After wrestling with my anxiety for a while, I thought: Wait a minute. Isn't God my Father? Hasn't he promised to help us in times of difficulty? Now what was that promise He gave me about a dozen years ago...oh yeah, it was this: My hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm. (Psalm 89:21, Jerusalem Bible Translation) So I prayed, "Lord, I need your help. You said your hand will be constantly with me and that I can rely on your arm. So please show me how I can fix this problem." And immediately two things came to mind. The first was that it would be best to wait until morning when the drainpipe has fully drained before trying the Drano approach again, and this time to pour a whole 2.3 liter bottle into the drain because the blockage is way down in the basement and there's a lot of meandering pipe between the sink and the blockage. The second thing that popped into my head was the phrase "boiling water." Aha, I thought: a pail of hot water from the bathtub faucet is at most about 50 degrees Celsius, but a big pot of boiling water heated on the stove will be near 100 degrees so it should have a much greater dissolving effect on any gunk blocking the drainpipe. So was that God who put those thoughts into my mind to help me unplug our drain? Of course! How do I know? Because of His promise to us in James 1:5 which says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." Anyways, the next morning I got up early, poured a whole jug of Drano into the sink, put a big pot of water on the stove, waited 30 minutes, and poured the boiling water into the sink. It went down pretty fast. Then I filled up a big bucket of hot water from the bathtub and repeated. The sink drained quickly. Then as a final test, I put the stopper in the sink and filled it right up with hot water and pulled the stopper. The water went down like a stone falling from the sky. Thank you, Lord!!! Lessons learned Reflecting on what happened, I can think of five things that I should remember when problems like this arise: First, remember the promises that God has given you! These may be Bible verses that have "jumped off the page" when you read them, knowing that God specifically means them for your attention. Or they may be prophetic words given to you by others, or words the Holy Spirit has spoken into your heart directly. Whatever way God speaks to you, write it down so you won't forget it, and read them over periodically to keep them fresh in your heart. Second, ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you! Ken and Bonnie are our longtime friends, and the four of us have walked through many difficulties and challenges in life together. That's what belonging to the Body of Christ is all about: Christians helping Christians because we're members of the same Body. And when one part of your body (your arm, for example) is in pain, your whole body feels it and wants to help. Third, face your problems with courage. A few years ago I was facing some serious difficulty and felt overwhelmed. I turned to the Psalms and was reading one of them in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, when I came across the word ἀνδρίζου (andrizdou) which is usually translated in English as "be courageous" or "take courage" but literally means "be manly" or better "be a man!" That word really spoke to me at the time, and it helped me successfully face the difficulty I had been experiencing with confidence and courage, knowing that God was on my side. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Fourth, address issues before they happen. I used to be a terrible procrastinator, and still am sometimes. I had set a monthly reminder in Outlook that I should use Drano on the kitchen sink once a month, but having put off doing this for several months look what happened. But I've learned my lesson (I hope) and am going to be more serious about maintaining our kitchen sink now. Once a week I'll heat a pot of water on the stove and pour boiling water into the sink. And once a month a whole jug of Drano is going into it. Finally, don't forget to worship and pray. After we went to bed yesterday, Ingrid woke up worried in the middle of the night. So she began singing an old Vineyard worship song to herself: Lord I will put my trust in You And I will not faint Lord I will put my trust in You... ( lyrics for song ) Then Ingrid prayed and asked the Lord to give her a pleasant dream to quell her fears about the situation. And he did — she fell asleep again and slept soundly, and towards morning she had a wonderful dream about us being with her family laughing and having fun together. Look at how much our heavenly Father loves us, who are His children through Jesus! Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. (Psalm 54:4 NIV)