As the newest columnist at The Gospel Coalition Canada, I would like to take the time in this article to introduce myself.
Although I officially became a Canadian citizen two weeks ago, I’m actually American, originally from Oxnard, California, just north of L.A. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia, South America. I grew up Catholic and came to faith as a young teen while attending a youth group near my home.
Shortly thereafter, I went on my first mission trip to France, where I answered the call to vocational cross-cultural ministry. During a gap year between high school and university, I attended a six-month Bible school in France and Senegal. While there, the Lord gave me a passion for Africa, and I committed my life to be a missionary on that great continent.
Secular studies ensued (B.A. ’97 & M.A. ’99, UCLA). During those years, I served in my local church and grew as a disciple and as a disciple-maker. In 2000, I relocated to Chicago to attend Moody Theological Seminary. Once again, the local church was the main setting for the application of what I learned in class, and I benefited greatly from mentors inside and outside the walls of the seminary. Over time, I sensed the Lord narrowing my calling to theological education: I didn’t want to merely hand out fish, but rather to teach God’s people to feed themselves and others.
Upon completing my MDiv, I met a guy on a Christian singles site whose profile said “I am preparing to serve as a missionary in Africa. If that interests you, shoot me a line.” I soon discovered that Dan Thornton, from Caledon, Ontario, was not merely heading to Africa, but specifically to Senegal, and what’s more, to be involved in leadership development.
One year later, we married, and after Dan attended language school in Quebec (I already spoke French fluently), we relocated to Senegal, where we served for 10 years in theological education. During those years, I gave birth to two beautiful daughters, Isabella and Evangeline, who are now aged 14 and 11.
From West Africa to the West Island
During our first years in Senegal, my main ministry consisted of learning the language. I spent countless hours with my Wolof partner and sought to understand the worldview of my host culture. Dan taught pastors at the Bible school, and I taught pastor’s wives retreats that its women’s ministry held throughout the year. I also led studies as a chaplain at a women’s prison.
Dan’s and my choice to minister in Senegal, a Muslim-majority country, made perfect sense. We loved our life and thought our children would grow up there. God, however, had other plans. In 2017, due to some health challenges Dan was facing, we had to make the difficult decision to return to Canada. Little did we realize that right across the border from Dan’s native Ontario lay a people with a tremendous need for the gospel: The Quebecois.
Fruit of the tenacious ministry of pioneer missionaries from Europe, the United States, and English-speaking Canada, the evangelical church in Quebec underwent a revival beginning in the 1960s. Our mission, Crossworld, had been mobilizing and supporting missionary efforts in the province for over thirty years. And given that Dan, our daughters, and I already spoke French fluently, the decision was simple: We followed the Lord’s leading to settle in the West Island of Montreal, where we’ve continued to serve as missionaries in leadership development.
God On the Move Among French-Speaking Women
It’s been 6.5 years since we made Quebec our home. Since then, God has allowed me to develop a ministry throughout the province and across the Atlantic. Since 2019, I’ve been blogging at TPSG (a collective blog in France that collaborates closely with Evangile21, TGC’s French-European arm). In May 2021, a fellow blogger at TPSG and I launched Chrétienne, the first female podcast in French in our theological tradition. And in December of the same year, I joined the staff of SOLA (TGC Québec) as their women’s ministry director.
The needs among women in the French-speaking world are inestimable. Here’s just one example: Have you ever taken part in a video-based Bible study by someone like Jen Wilkin, Kathleen Nielson, or another gifted sister? Well, none like that exists in the French-speaking world. Not one. This is a huge gap in the literature! I longed to do something about that, and I wasn’t the only one. The Lord surrounded me with a team of sisters who shared my passion for the Word of God.
We named the ministry SOLA: Femmes Scriptura. We defined our vision: To inspire and equip women to teach the Scriptures so that they might make disciples in the home, the church, and the world. Inspired by Simeon Trust, we launched our first in-person workshop in May of 2022, in which we focused on the book of Psalms. Then, inspired by Taylor Turkington’s six-week cohorts at BibleEquipping, in the Fall of 2022 we offered our first annual online cohort, continuing in the Psalms. Then, the following March, we held a women’s conference that welcomed 200 women – the largest in Quebec since before the pandemic.
This past June, we began our second year-long teaching and training cycle in Exodus with a workshop in June and a cohort that we completed in October. And in March of 2024, we’ll be holding our second annual women’s conference featuring none other than Mary Willson Hannah! After hearing her speak on Exodus at TGC’s Women’s Conference in Toronto this past November, I am eager for the women of Quebec to discover the depth of insights Mary brings to her teaching.
In addition to the wonderful work the Lord has blessed me to be a part of among my French-speaking sisters, I’m delighted to join Wyatt Graham and a small team of women from across our nation as we launch a movement of women who will teach, podcast, and write for the Church in Canada. I hope that this small corner of the web will allow me to inspire and equip my sisters to do just that.
