December 2024 Update

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well, and looking forward to the holiday season as much as I am! The last three months have been full of homework, and I cannot wait to catch up on sleep.

Discipleship Bible School

Since the beginning of September, I have been enrolled in a 3-month Discipleship Bible School (DBS), through Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Vancouver, and I just completed the school on November 22nd. During the DBS, we read the entire bible together; from Genesis to Revelation. It was a lot of reading. We had lectures each morning covering all the books of the bible. Then we had a dump truck full of homework to complete by 9 pm every Friday. We also had to prepare a final presentation where we told the entire story of the bible in under 45 minutes. But regardless of how time-consuming and overwhelming this school was, I loved it. I learned so much about God’s character and His great plan of redemption. It was a rich experience and I am incredibly grateful to all the staff at YWAM Vancouver that made it happen. Coming out of the school, I am very encouraged to share what I have learned and put it into practice. It will be difficult for me to apply everything I learned in this school as I was drinking from a firehose, but the stuff that stuck has changed a lot about my outlook on life.

Upcoming

NIKO

Next week, the Discipleship Training School (DTS) staff (the team that I am on) will be doing a week-long team-building activity in the woods of BC. We have several new staff members on our team, one of them was a student from the DTS I staffed earlier this year. It is beautiful to walk with this guy and see God shape his life from student to staff. A lot of the details of this week are being kept secret from us, but I do know that we will be camping and hiking, so I am super excited to see how everyone will handle the challenges along the way.

Christmas Season

I have a lot coming up this Christmas season. My Mum will be in Vancouver to spend Christmas with me, then we will go down to Oregon on the 28th to celebrate my brother's wedding. Most of my family will be gathering for that, and I can’t wait to see everyone again. It’s going to be a great time.

DTS

I return from Oregon on the 3rd of January and the DTS will start on the 6th. Some of the students will even arrive before I do! We have 9 students confirmed so far. As I have been reading the student bios and praying over the school, I continue to get more and more excited to staff this next DTS. I am so privileged to join in God’s mission to make disciples of all the Nations, and through YWAM I can make a real impact on people's lives. It is not a responsibility that I take lightly, and I hope to do a good job for the sake of the students. I can’t wait to walk with them through this incredible journey with God.

Fundraising Update

You guys have done so much for me. I was able to fully pay for the tuition of the DBS and I have not unintentionally missed a meal since moving to Canada. I have been out here for a year now and am so grateful for each of you who supports me. I literally cannot do this without you! But as you know, I need money. I cannot continue to work as a missionary without it. So please, if you are not already supporting me, consider joining my support team by donating through my website. Thank you so much!

Prayer Points

• Can you please pray for the upcoming DTS; for the new staff members, the 9 students preparing to join us in January, for the teachers, for the outreach location, and for a successful DTS
• Please pray for financial provision as I prepare to save for the coming outreach in April and pay for rent and other living expenses in the meantime
• Also, pray for my family as we gather together to celebrate my brother’s wedding.
• Finally, I need prayer for encouragement and perseverance as the last DTS season was pretty difficult for me.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading my newsletter! This one was far shorter than some of my others as all my time has been poured into studying the Bible over the last few months and I am so privileged to have the opportunity to do so. Thank you so much for supporting me on this journey. I hope to hear from you all soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

God Bless you,

Ezekiel Smith.

Email: Ezekielbairdsmith@gmail.com