November 13 - 15, 2025Oakville, ON

Nov 13–15, 2025 • Oakville, Ontario

Speakers

PLENARY SPEAKER
Taylor Turkington

PLENARY SPEAKER
Taylor Turkington

Taylor launched BibleEquipping in 2020 to continue the work she had been doing for more than a decade training women to study and teach the Bible, and to do it with people she loved. Today she enjoys teaching, leading, and coaching she gets to do through BibleEquipping. Still, she stays awake at night dreaming and praying for new ways to equip women to serve the Church. And, let’s be real, sometimes dreaming about flowers to plant in her garden.

Previously, Taylor launched and directed the Women’s Training Network for The Gospel Coalition and co-founded The Verity Fellowship for Western Seminary. Her experience includes living overseas, training women internationally, and working in the local church. She cares deeply about supporting and encouraging Bible teachers so they can serve their local churches and communities even better equipped.

PLENARY SPEAKER
Angie Velasquez Thornton

PLENARY SPEAKER
Angie Velasquez Thornton

Together with her husband Dan, Angie served the Lord in Senegal for 10 years in leadership development with Crossworld. Based in Montreal with their 2 daughters since August 2017, Angie trains Bible teachers as the women’s ministry director for SOLA (TGC Québec), blogs in French at TPSG, and co-hosts Chrétienne, the first French-speaking women’s podcast in our theological tradition. She holds an MDiv from Moody Theological Seminary.
PLENARY SPEAKER
Wendy Stringer

PLENARY SPEAKER
Wendy Stringer

Wendy has spent the last years raising kids in Toronto with her husband, Kiernan, and making disciples with her local church. At Grace Toronto, she wrote curriculum, taught, and led small communities that walked with one another toward Christ and toward others. She resigned from this work to study and to do other fantastic things like being a Nana, gardening, and writing about terrible passages in the bible that magnify the God who collects our tears, writes our tossings in His book, and transforms the broken-hearted.

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Stephanie Krish

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Stephanie Krish

Stephanie serves as Director of Women’s Groups at Hope Bible Church Oakville. She is passionate about multi-generational discipleship in the local church, and cares deeply about how biblical and theological truth transforms us to live as Great Commission-people. She is a learner, currently working on a Masters in Theology.  She is grateful to be a wife of 20 years, and mom to two teens. 

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Jennifer Holmes

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Jennifer Holmes

Jennifer Holmes is a Biblical Counsellor and Director of Hope Care Centre in Calgary, Alberta. She is on the board of the Canadian Biblical Counselling Coalition. She is also a writer, speaker, and podcaster, working out what it means to be a Christian living with mental and physical illness. You can find her work on her website, jensnewsong.com 

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Betty-Anne Van Rees

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Betty-Anne Van Rees

Betty-Anne serves the local church in discipleship roles that include speaking, teaching, mentoring, counselling, and training biblical counsellors. Fueled by her passion to see the Canadian church convinced and equipped to care for souls through the living Word (both Incarnate and inspired), Betty-Anne serves as a Council Member of the BCC and has worked together with a team of like-minded men and women to launch the Canadian BCC. The roles closest to Betty-Anne’s heart are mom to Laura, Joshua and his wife Jenni, and grandma to Emma and Ethan.
BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Karen Heska

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Karen Heska

Karen Heska currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario and is an active member at James North Baptist Church. She is a wife to David and mother to Rachel, Rebekah, Kaleb and Pushkar. Karen graduated from the nursing program at McMaster University and from the women in ministry program at Heritage Seminary. She has worked with Serving in Mission (SIM) in Niger and South Sudan and is passionate about discipleship, especially helping women to know and love His Word. 

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Deanna Spoelstra

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Deanna Spoelstra

Deanna Spoelstra is a Senior Associate with Cline Consulting. She believes that people are at the heart of every organization and, for over a decade, has served in non-profit settings to lead change and innovation. Deanna is a natural coach and facilitator and offers professional expertise in team leadership, conflict resolution, employee engagement and stewardship. 

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Jennifer Winger

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Jennifer Winger

Jennifer Winger is the Director of Women’s Ministry for Mile One Mission in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  She has a passion for discipleship and works with all ages of women in the local church.  She supports and mentors church planter’s wives and helps to lead an internship program preparing church plant teams to go out into the community. She is certified as a biblical counselor and sits on the Canadian Biblical Counseling Coalition as a board member.
BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Elisabeth Aubut

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Elisabeth Aubut

Elisabeth Aubut is passionate about discipleship and leadership development among French-speaking young women in Quebec. She serves as a missionary with Fellowship International, as a deaconess for women’s development at her local church in Montreal, as the leader of the Bercail (discipleship house project), while finishing her master’s degree in biblical counseling with SEMBEQ. To learn more about her ministry, please visit www.elisabethaubut.com.  

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Kim McGibbon

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Kim McGibbon

Kimberley McGibbon is the Ministry Centre Director of Send Relief Hamilton, where she leads efforts to care for refugees and vulnerable neighbours in the heart of the city. A pastor’s wife and ministry leader, Kimberley stepped into this role with a desire to see the love of Christ expressed through practical compassion. When the Centre launched in January 2023, it began in a 10×20 office serving just one family. Today, it operates from a larger space and serves over 250 refugees and vulnerable individuals with gospel-rooted care. Kimberley is passionate about hospitality, justice, and equipping the church to meet needs in Jesus’ name. A mother of four adult children, she longs to see Isaiah 61:1–4 lived out in her city and across Canada, bringing good news, healing, and restoration through Christ.

 

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Vanessa Strickland

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Vanessa Strickland

Vanessa is a wife and mom with a heart for walking alongside women, especially in seasons of grief and suffering. After enduring the pain of multiple miscarriages and the heartbreaking loss of her 11-year-old son, Jude, in 2020, she now seeks to encourage others with the hope and comfort found only in Jesus Christ. Vanessa and her husband, Jamie—who serves as the Lead Pastor at West Highland Church in Hamilton—are raising three sons and are deeply committed to their church community. She’s an avid hiker and a devoted coffee enthusiast.

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Faye Robertson

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Faye Robertson

Faye is a member of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Orillia, where she lives and serves. She has been married to her husband, Andrew, for 29 years and is a proud mom and “Gigi.”

For the past 30 years, Faye has worked in the Communications and Law Enforcement sectors, where she has written policy, developed training, facilitated sessions, and taught adults. She has also faithfully applied her teaching gifts in the church for over 35 years, ministering to children, teens, young adults, and women.

A first-generation Christian, Faye came to Christ at the age of 17 and is continually seeking to grow in her faith and service to God. She is deeply grateful for the many women who have discipled and mentored her throughout her journey—an investment that has inspired her own passion for discipling and mentoring young women within the church.

Faye also has a heart for the lost and is committed to making disciples both locally and globally. She has participated in short-term mission trips, teaching women and children in Belize, Southeast Asia, and the Dominican Republic.

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Eben Kamusuvise

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Eben Kamusuvise

Eben Kamusuvise is a Senior Consultant at the Send Relief Ministry Centre in Hamilton, where she walks alongside refugees with compassion and gospel hope. Originally from Namibia, she came to Canada as an asylum seeker in 2011. Her journey to Christ began in a park in Mississauga, where a local church first met her physical and emotional needs. That experience now fuels her deep empathy and commitment to equipping churches to serve vulnerable neighbours in the same way. Eben, who is married with two adult children, equips churches and volunteers to provide practical, consistent support to refugee families through celebrating milestones, showing up in hard times, and sharing the love of Christ in everyday moments.

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Derek Hisson

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Derek Hisson

Derek Hisson is the associate pastor at James North Baptist Church in Hamilton. He is married to Fiona Hisson and is a father of 3 kids. Derek has a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University in religious studies and he was ordained by the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches this past year.  

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Debbie Brooker-Hurteau

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Debbie Brooker-Hurteau

Debbie grew up in Pennsylvania in the United States. After coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 19, she pursued studies at Maryland Bible College & Seminary, where she met her husband, Claude Hurteau. They married in 1990 and have been living and working in Quebec since 1991. They have four adult children, three daughters-in-law, and five granddaughters.  

Debbie serves alongside her husband, pastor in the Fellowship association of Québec (AEBEQ). She has been the Women’s Development Director for the AEBEQ since January 2024. She has been involved with Sola Femmes Scriptura alongside Angie and Valérie since its founding in 2022. Currently, she is pursuing studies at Northwest Baptist College & Seminary in the Master of Biblical Leadership program. 

Debbie is passionate about biblical literacy, mentoring women, and developing strong and inclusive faith communities where brothers and sisters serve together for the glory of God. She is known for her compassion, dedication, and ability to inspire others to reach their full potential in Christ. In her free time, Debbie enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family.  

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Rachel Nichols

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Rachel Nichols

Rachel Nichols is a lover of the outdoors, a passionate home cook, and a firm believer in the power of good conversation, especially around a kitchen table or over a great cup of coffee. She’s an avid reader, a dedicated runner, and her daughters’ biggest cheerleader. 

Rachel serves as the Women’s Ministry and Prayer Director at Forward Church in Cambridge, Ontario. She is deeply committed to helping women grow in their love for God and engage meaningfully with others in every stage of life. With a background in Leadership and a postgraduate certificate in Women in Ministry from Heritage College & Seminary, Rachel’s heart is to encourage and equip women on their discipleship journey

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Laura Ross

BREAKOUT SPEAKER
Laura Ross

Laura Ross has been married to Ian Ross since 1996 and is mom to 5 beautiful kids ages 18-26. She loves to read, stay active, spend time with her family, travel, and garden. She is the Founder of SEEDS – Supporting Every Eve’s Daughter Safely, which provides housing and programs for survivors of sexual exploitation in the Waterloo Region.

Schedule

Where are you, God?

It’s the question we ask when crisis hits home. But what does it really mean to find God in a world that feels so broken? At our 2025 conference for women, you’ll find deep answers to your restless search. You will hear God speak through the Book of Habakkuk and find wisdom from experienced breakout speakers who will equip you to know and follow God practically. Our hope is that all who attend will be encouraged by the Word, equipped for life and ministry, and engaged in worship and fellowship with women from all over Canada.

Featuring a pre-conference worship night

Thursday Evening

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. We will share recordings of the main sessions with ticket holders shortly after the conference.

Yes! We encourage groups to come and give discounts. Write us at [email protected] to learn more.

We are hosting the conference at Hope Bible Church. The address is: 500 Great Lakes Boulevard Oakville, ON L6L 6X9.

We have a continental breakfast on both Friday and Saturday as well refreshments throughout the conference. You can go to nearby restaurants for lunches and dinner.

There are plenty of hotels near the venue, including ‍Courtyard Marriott, Sandman Hotel, and Hilton Garden Inn.

  • Access to all keynote sessions, including teaching on Habakkuk
  • Access to almost twenty breakout sessions
  • Access to two included continental breakfasts and snacks throughout (lunch and dinner not included)
  • Access to our exhibit hall and TGC’s discounted conference bookstore

 

 

Yes. Hope Oakville has a large parking lot.

Sponsors include

Tickets

$119
Early Bird
(ends Oct 24)
$149
Regular
(begins Oct 25)
Group rates