The clocks are during a funeral, designing the church for a wedding or making coffee during a farewell party. It is only a selection of the work of sexton couple Koning from Oosterhesselen. After 25 years, the end of their loyal service is in sight. From 2026 the church is in the hands of the Drentse Landschap Foundation and daily management will be transferred to a new group of volunteers.
“Come in!” Say Sigo and Edith in choir while they open the heavy church door and we step over the threshold. From the small hall a large blue -green door leads to the ship of the church. A not too large space where the summer sun on the white walls dances. The coffee is on the table in no time. It is immediately clear: Sigo and Edith are child at home in this church.
Sigo still remembers how, over the years, they started to make more and more commitment to the church. “When we came to live here in 1981, we were not yet very involved with the church,” says Sigo. “On Sunday morning I was often running through the woods in Gees, then I was not always in church,” he laughs. But when Sigo is asked for the church council, that will change and the couple develops into a centipede of the church. In the years that follow, Sigo holds the functions of steward and sexton and Edith is not standing still. For example, she organizes a Sunday school for children for years, picks up the editorial work of the Kerkblad with others and arranges a new minister for every church service. Quite a job, she admits. “There are fewer and fewer pastors.”
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