Louisiana residents help build local church

WASILLA - Through the efforts of a man with family ties to Bogalusa, La., the residents of Wasilla have a new community church in which to worship.

Settlers Bay Community Church is the second church that Pastor Jim Hearn, whose wife, Brenda, is from Bogalusa and is the daughter of Charles and Betty Hunt, has built in Wasilla.

"I had been in Alaska before," Hearn said. "I started First Baptist Church in Wasilla years ago, and then we went to the mission field and then felt ready to come back to Alaska. This was an area that was growing and it was a good place to start a church."

Help with building the church came from Louisiana in the form of a group from Zachary that aided in framing the church and a couple from Mt. Hermon - Bobby and Lenora McIntyre - who also went to Wasilla to lend a hand, Hearn said. Bobby McIntyre devoted a month in June 2011 to framing the church and has returned to assist with the trim work, Hearn said.

McIntyre said he was "glad to be able to come up to Alaska to help build the church. It's a beautiful church."

Hearn, who lives in Wasilla, said the church was started about six years ago, but until this point it did not have a permanent home. He said he initially hoped to have Settlers Bay Community Church completed by Sunday, but work is running a little behind schedule.

"It's going to be another week before we can actually occupy it, maybe a couple of weeks at the most," he said. "Right now we meet in a rented space, just a one room rented space near a day care."

Hearn's church building and mission work has taken him around the globe. Besides Alaska, the places the Hearn family has lived include Louisiana, Mississippi and Togo, West Africa, he said.

"I've actually been a church planter most of my ministry," Hearn said. "I began here in Wasilla with First Baptist Church of Wasilla, and then I went to Africa in the mission field and planted a couple churches there and then came back here and started this church in Wasilla."

Hearn said he is happy about nearing the completion of the church and about the extra room that will now be available to those who attend it.

"We really needed the space," he said. "We're in a very small space, and we're in a community with a lot of young people and children, so we're excited to get it finished and to have extra space. We're going from about 1,000 square feet to about 10,000 square feet, so it's going to be quite a difference."