 |
CLOSEup
Meet our missionaries
...
Lynn
& Paul Hanthorn
|
Paul and Lynn Hanthorn and their seven children serve
above the Arctic Circle in Fort McPherson, NWT.
They moved there as newlyweds in 1991, but four years
later they found themselves at a crossroad.
Paul was born in southern Ontario, the son of a pastor,
and at age 10 moved with his family to Canton, Ohio. During his last year
of high school there, and in his first two years at Liberty University in
Virginia ... "that's when the Lord really got a hold of me,"
says Paul, "and I felt called into missions."
He heard about NCEM at Liberty, but also through friend
and fellow student, Ed Lytle (the Lytles joined NCEM in 1982).
It was also at Liberty that Paul met Lynn, who'd grown up
in a Christian home in North Bay (ON). She had rededicated her life to the
Lord at age 15 and taken a year at Briercrest College. It was there at a
missions conference that she'd felt drawn to missions. She moved on to
Liberty University on an athletic scholarship to study community health
and missions.
Lynn also took an education degree and, wanting to get
some experience, Paul suggested applying to a northern community. They
were looking towards missions, but didn't yet know where. Going north,
they thought, would be a stepping stone. After filling out many
applications, Lynn secured a teaching position in Ft. McPherson.
But the move was for more than just the job. "We came
as 'tent-making' missionaries," they explain, and had secured prayer
support from churches. NCEMers Ken and Vi Dafoe were serving at McPherson
at the time, and Paul and Lynn began assisting them.
Then in 1995 the Dafoes moved to ministry further south
and that's when the Hanthorns realized they were at a major crossroad. Did
the Lord want them to carry on the ministry there? And what about Paul's
interest and qualifications in missionary aviation?
"The Lord clearly led us to stay," they say. By
then culture shock was over, and they knew the people. Still there were
some adjustments. Paul says he had never really thought he would be doing
church-planting and pastoral type of ministry. But after 10 years in that
role as an NCEM missionary he says, "In a big way God has drawn us
this way, and I'm glad for it!"
"When we joined the Mission in 1995," adds Lynn,
"we knew that this was where God wanted us, although we didn't
realize it when we first came.
"What we're doing we really enjoy and it's what God wants us to be
doing. There's so much joy in that, especially when it's making a
difference in peoples' lives!"
Click here to meet more of our
missionaries
Back to Northern Lights magazine
index
|
