Rev Louise Hearn begins Bethesda ministry

3:50pm Saturday 29th November 2008

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The new minister of a Haverfordwest church, hardly fits the traditional image of a baptist reverend.

But Rev Louise Hearn’s experience in outreach ministry and building a church from scratch promises to bring a new vitality to Bethesda Baptist Church.

Born in South Africa and an Afrikaans speaker, Rev Hearn and her family began active Christian work there with a focus on teaching and gospel music.

Her work ran parallel with the management consultancy business run with husband Ian while bringing up their three children, daughter Izindi, now 28 and a London lawyer, and sons Frikkie, aged 21, and William, who is 14.

The family took a step of faith a few years ago and moved to England where they began outreach work at Whitemore high security prison and established a drop-in centre in the village of Manea, Cambridge, which transformed social life for elderly people.

“We started a church there which soon had a congregation of up to 37 people and we joined the Baptist Union,” said Rev Hearn.

“That gave me the opportunity to study at Spurgeon’s College and become an ordained baptist minister, and I was delighted when the people of Bethesda invited me to become their minister.

“I preached morning and evening services here twice in September and I found the people so friendly and welcoming and Pembrokeshire so beautiful, so I decided to come here.”

Already a theology MA and with a BA in commerce, Rev Hearn has completed her PhD studies and hopes to obtain her doctorate next year.

“I hope to make the service in Bethesda ‘customer friendly’ with tea, coffee and biscuits so that people who are not used to coming to church can feel more comfortable,” she added.

“It will be very informal and we will be reaching out to people, particularly those affected by the credit crunch and other problems.”

Rev Hearn will be ordained and inducted at special services on Saturday, December 6th.