About Us

Haenertsburg Christian Church was established by the grace of God in 1998 through the ministry of Ps. Ian Loughor-Clarke.

Ps. Ian Loughor-Clarke was an assistant pastor at Letaba Christian Church (now Shekinah House) in Tzaneen when he was requested to start a cell in Haenertsburg. This cell grew and multiplied, and evening services were then started in the local Agricultural Hall in August 1997 with Ian Loughor-Clarke serving as the pastor.

On 1st February 1998 Haenertsburg Christian Church was launched as an autonomous Church. Representatives from several other Churches attended and the launch was a great success. 

One of the best things about this congregation is that it has a pure history with no stigmas attached and has only had one Senior Pastor from the launch till now.  To plant a congregation in a small community is one of the most difficult things to do. This was one of the most trying times in Ps. Ian’s life as well as in his wife Annchen’s life, as there were many months when they could not get paid, but finally after about 3 years after the launch, the congregation had a financial breakthrough where this never happened again. 
God has blessed this Church with faithful congregational members and all stand amazed at the Hand of God on this ministry. It is exciting to see  the congregation slowly but surely reaching Haenertsburg and the surrounding areas with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

The leadership is highly committed to the vision and purpose of God for this congregation and are all fully aware that unless God builds the house we labour in vain and we know that God will continue to build this His Church which means that this congregation can only succeed. 

On 10th March 1999 we launched our Sotho Service (as many people in the community cannot speak English) with Ps. Ian Loughor-Clarke preaching and Aubrey Maponya translating. About a year later the reins of leadership for this Sotho branch of the church, were handed over to our newly appointed pastor Aubrey Maponya. This ministry has had its ups and downs has now changed its name to Logos Believers and is being pastored by Ephraim Jerimanie.  Haenertsburg Christian Church and St. Paul’s United Church jointly assist this congregation financially as well as with advice and council. 

 Haenertsburg is a very small community (village), yet the church continues to grow and mature even though many of the previous congregants have left the community or gone overseas to impact that part of the world. 

In the beginning of 2005 Ps. Ian spoke to his eldership about buying the property that the church was renting for its services, as the owner wanted to sell the land by the end of the year.   He shared his vision of sub-dividing the property into three and then selling the other two pieces which would cause the church to get the property for “free” and even make a profit.  Every single elder shot him down by saying that the price was too high and that the property was not worth the cost.  Ian said that everyone was to pray over the issue for the next 5 months to see what God was saying.  After this time the elders unanimously agreed for us to try to purchase the property.  Supernaturally the church was given the bond and so eventually the property became the church’s.  The two stands were consolidated and then sub-divided into 3, and 2 of the stands were sold, which helped the congregation not just to pay for the church building but even to make a profit.  What an amazing God!  The pastor had said that one day God would give us the church property.  At last it became a reality. 

 Pa Ian had also many a time said that one day God would give the congregation a magnificent church building, which was amazing, but hard to believe for most.  One day a couple came up to Ian and asked that he come to their home, as they wanted to share something with him.  They then proceeded to share that God had given him Ezra 6 where he said that God had told him that he was to build our congregation a church building and that he was to pay the full construction fee.  This was just another awesome confirmation of God’s continued Hand of blessing and favour upon this congregation. 

 Ian believes that God is wanting to show people through this that God will remain faithful beyond our imagination, if we will just remain faithful to God and His call on our lives. 

 An excellent landscape architect give the congregation a design for our back garden which Ian then oversaw till completion.  

 We expanded the church and is now looking really lovely.