Bio: Gerard Evers
Gerard was born as the eldest child in a family of five children on January 7, 1941, in a small rural village in the eastern part of The Netherlands.
After his graduation from high school, he worked for several years at two different accounting firms, interrupted by two years of compulsory military service. From 1966 until his early retirement in 1998, he served in several administrative functions in the public health service.
In 1965, he met Agnes Franken, whom he married in 1969.
Quite soon after their marriage, they came into contact with the Worldwide Church of God by means of an advertisement in Het Beste (the Dutch version of Reader's Digest). Both of them had been raised as Roman Catholics, and they now became aware that the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church did not conform to the Word of God. Following a thorough study, both of them were baptized, Gerard at the end of 1974 and Agnes a few months later in 1975.
The Dutch congregation of the Worldwide Church of God in The Netherlands started in December 1967, when Sabbath services began to be conducted on a regular basis, and from December 1970, they were held weekly. These services were held in the center of The Netherlands, in and near the city of Utrecht.
The church grew more and more and in May 1981, a congregation, the third in The Netherlands, was established in Zwolle, a city in the northeastern part of the country. In September 1981, Gerard was ordained as a deacon in this congregation. Five years later, in September 1986, he was ordained as a local church elder.
Due to doctrinal changes in the Worldwide Church of God, in September 1995 Gerard and Agnes left the Worldwide Church of God, together with some 65 other people, and associated themselves with the United Church of God.
As this transition to the United Church of God in The Netherlands was accompanied by numerous troubles, Gerard and Agnes withdrew themselves in the beginning of 1999, and not long thereafter, they became involved with the work of the Church of the Great God.
Gerard can be reached via cgg.nl@planet.nl.
