Jerry & Kathy Haasdyk -Wycliffe Bible Translators
Jerry worked for a number of years as a geophysicist for the oil industry in Calgary. Feeling a tug towards missions, he became very interested in Wycliffe. He was pleased to find that his heart for missions, his love for people, plus his abilities in administration, could be joined together in support of Bible translation. Kathy, after a year in Colombia assisting the work there, felt that to be involved with Bible translation was to have a finger on the very heartbeat of missions. They decided that working together in Wycliffe would be a great adventure!Following their marriage in 1983, they first served for 11 years in the Canadian home office, overseeing sponsorship of many translation and literacy projects worldwide. Moving to southern Africa in 1994, with their three youngest children, they spent the next13 years supporting the translation projects in Mozambique and Botswana as a logistics team.
In 2007, they returned to Calgary, where they now serve with Wycliffe by helping to link Canadian sponsors with national Bible translators overseas. As Vice-President of Global PartnerLink, Jerry supervises the Field Project Officers connected with over 50 projects worldwide. Kathy assists in writing regular project reports to keep donors informed of the field projects’ plans, progress and prayer needs.
Their experiences have increased their desire to help spread God’s Word to those language groups still waiting to hear the good news of Jesus and His wonderful love.