Reverend Anne Elverdink from Zuidhorn works two days a week as a gardener. ‘It sometimes makes me feel closer to God’

Haulerwijk, Kollumersweach, Eastermar, Jistrum, Wijnjewoude, Feanwâlden, Reitsum and Raard-Foudgum. Elverdink, born and raised in Opeinde and living in Eastermar, worked in all these villages as a pastor at Reformed and Protestant congregations. All municipalities in the east of the province, because wife Jannie works at the Nij Smellinghe hospital in Drachten.

Elverdink readily admits: it was more pleasant to stay and work in one municipality than in the other. This mainly has to do with the experience of faith, he says. If there is a click with the majority of the church members in that area, it is better to work together. He felt that connection most in Wijnjewoude and especially Kollumerzwaag. “In retrospect, I think I might have wanted to be active longer in Kollumerzwaag.”

Overwhelming God in our lives

What then is his experience of faith? Elverdink originally calls himself religiously reformed. For him, Jesus is much more than a symbol of humanity. “For me, he is God’s outstretched hand to people.”

Elverdink clarifies this with the miraculous feeding in which Jesus feeds thousands of listeners with five loaves and two fish. “There are people who interpret this story as a call for fair sharing. But if Jesus doesn’t break bread first, then we have nothing to share. I see it this way that God can come into our lives by surprise. That makes us different people.”

In September last year, Elverdink ‘risked’ the leap across the Frisian border. He is a 70 percent pastor of the Reformed Church in Zuidhorn and hopes to retire there.

Need to work with hands

Even before his departure to Zuidhorn, Elverdink had not worked full-time as a preacher for a number of years. This was initially out of necessity – due to the decrease in the number of church members and church contributions, municipalities have to cut back on costs – but not long afterwards it was a conscious choice. He loves alternating his working days as a preacher with a side job as a gardener. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Underneath, there has long been a need to not only fill the working week with speaking, reading and listening, but also to be active with one’s hands, preferably in the open air. “I know a colleague who combined being a pastor for several years with a job as a planner. I wouldn’t want that, then you’re back inside and busy with your head.”

In fact, he reflects, body and mind have always been the ideal combination for him. “When I was in high school, I cleaned the church in Opeinde on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning I did the garden. I had time in the afternoon to play football at ONT.”

Hospital admission due to pulmonary embolism

A hospital admission five years ago provided additional motivation to exercise more. Elverdink was struck by a pulmonary embolism. “That makes you think. The message was clear: exercise more, Anne. Sitting is the new smoking. And as a gardener you move a lot. You cover a lot of meters every day. And as a pastor I get my bike as much as possible: twice a week on the speed pedelec to Zuidhorn.”

Elverdink has been working at the De Haan landscaping company in Drachten for several years now from the beginning of April to the end of September. He is mainly concerned with traditional maintenance work such as mowing, hoeing and pruning. “Beautiful, you really take pride in your work. It’s such a relief! I am not trained as a gardener. So I am less concerned with the construction of gardens.”

Ideal combination for both parties

In the spring and summer months he works two days a week, less during the winter period. It is an ideal combination for both parties. Gardeners do most of their work in the summer months, while church work is more of a standstill. In the winter months the roles are reversed.

As said, Elverdink wouldn’t want it any other way. He loves that several days a week he doesn’t have to formulate or search for words. And that those days are filled for him. “That gives structure.”

Above all, he finds it valuable that, while working among the living greenery, he sometimes feels closer to God. “It’s the stillness. I can let it sink in in a different way.”