[Sly Fox]

This minister is also the Avon Man
Henry Frost wears many, many hats

By MARY KIBLING
For the Monitor
January 21. 2007 10:01AM

It would be hard to pin down to just one title who the Rev. Henry Frost is. Besides being an ordained minister, whose parish is the Loudon Freewill Baptist Church, Frost is a musician, a songwriter, a seller of Avon products. He has served in the Navy, worked as a laboratory technician for New England Optical in Bow and done laundry at Concord Hospital.

Dedicated to the church from childhood, Frost says he found God while enjoying the view from a field on his father's farm in Chichester.

"The church has always been a part of my life," he said. "Music has, too, since I was 5 years old." Frost played the piano and guitar and sang at the Chichester Central School and at Pittsfield High School.

In the Navy, stationed aboard the USS Massey, he was the chaplain's organist. "In the Mediterranean Sea, we were carried, in a basket on a cable, from ship to ship, to do Sunday services for the personnel of five vessels," Frost said. "In those days, I didn't know I'd end up doing church full time."

At home, a local minister asked Frost to substitute for him at the Quaker Church in Loudon Center, when the minister had to be absent. Frost preached there for several years, off and on.

A graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., Frost graduated with Jerry Falwell's wife and son. He now serves on the university's board of regents. Frost became a licensed minister of the church in 1980 and was ordained in the American Baptist Church on his mother's birthday, June 25, 1995. He was called to full time ministry in 1999.

It was at New England Optical that Frost met and married his wife, Betty, then a widow with a 10-year-old son. Betty and Henry have an inspiring partnership. Although they've shared grief, in their loss of their son, they've also found joy in their work, in their cozy country home and in each other. Betty helps with the Avon business, church visits, weddings, baptisms and funerals. Henry has been chaplain to the Cub Scouts and the Little League Coach. The Frosts visit three nursing homes monthly and have been named citizens of the year in Loudon. They've cruised the Bahamas and been to Nashville five times. Both are devotees of country as well as gospel music. Both hope that Emmy Lou Harris will pick up Henry's song, I See The Light, which has been recorded at the Berkeley School of Music in Boston.

When New England Optical folded, Frost went to work in the laundry at Concord Hospital. He agreed to sell Avon products to fill in unused hours until he went to work at the hospital at four in the morning. Today, he's the No. 2 salesman in his district, one of 3,000 Avon Men.

"His ladies love to have him visit," Betty said. "If he hasn't talked to them in a while, they call him." Church and Avon visits seem to fill some of the same needs. "Seniors love to chat," Frost laughed.

Frost's Freewill Baptist Church has a parish of 40 people, most over 40 years old. The church, built in 1779, was destroyed by fire not too long ago. A new one, under construction on the same site, nears completion.

Frost, in his 60s, has no plans to retire. Although the church is the center of his life, the secular jobs have been important, too.

In June, the Frosts will attend an Avon convention of 10,000 people, then come home to Loudon to serve their "new" church.

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