The Hanthorns joined us in 1995 to serve at Ft. McPherson, NWT. Read what brought them there:
Paul and Lynn had moved there previous to that, as newlyweds in 1991. 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 a number of 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!”
Along with the Hanthorns’ own children, they have welcomed several more into their home as their own.
