Kaitlyn grew up on the Alberta prairies in a Christian home and was taught the Bible from a young age. Although she doesn’t know exactly when she first trusted in Christ, her understanding of what He did for her grew over time. Ever since she was a child, she knew that the message of the Bible wasn’t just for her, and early on she became aware of the spiritual needs in the world. After going through the Firm Foundations course with her family, her understanding of the gospel deepened, resulting in an even greater desire for others to also clearly understand who Jesus is and the significance of His death and resurrection.
As Kaitlyn studied Scripture, she became more confident in her position in Christ and in the fact that she owned the truth. The more she realized how privileged she was to have grown up in a Bible belt of Canada, with a Christian heritage, with access to so many Christian resources and Bibles in her own language, the more her heart broke for the millions of people in the world who are born into darkness, with no hope or access to the truth. She knew the solution to this tragic reality was to “go…and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
As the first step to “going,” Kaitlyn spent two years studying the Bible chronologically at Ethnos360 Bible Institute in Wisconsin, and later she spent sixteen months at Ethnos Training in Ontario, becoming more equipped for cross-cultural church planting. Her next step will be taking an advanced linguistics course which will give her tools for learning an unwritten language, developing an alphabet, and translating the Bible. Because the need in the world is so great, she is currently back in Alberta advocating for unreached people groups and raising awareness of the need for more labourers. Jesus told His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). Kaitlyn is eager to reach the least-reached with the gospel, and she hopes many others will catch this same vision before she goes.
Kaitlyn Hiebert
