It was a very special honor when our Consistory elected our Treasurer, Stef Beemsterboer, in February to be our honoree for the Lay Recognition Dinner that Regional Synod provides every few years. As is customary, the Synod Office had prepared a program brochure with the biographies of all 20 honorees from within Regional Synod. Here is what it read for Stef:

Stef is an elder and chairs our Finance and Stewardship Committee. He also co-chairs our Preservation Team that supervises the historic preservation project that First Reformed Church is currently undertaking. Stef and his family moved to this country from the Netherlands in 2001. He and his wife Erie come with additional international experience: their children Daphne and Theo were born in Saudi Arabia. This background has made Stef, as well as Erie, particularly interested in the interfaith dialogues of our church with Muslims in the New Brunswick area.

Today we recognize Stef  for his outstanding commitment to the treasury of the church. He has put in an enormous amount of hours to bring us up to speed with standard accounting procedures. He also completed the computerization of our accounting. He is a great steward in the vineyard of the Lord!

On March 14th,  Stef and I attended this dinner at the Crowne Plaza in Somerset. As we entered the dining hall, we met Synod Treasurer James Thompson and his wife Sally. Shortly afterwards we had the privilege of listening to an outstanding sermon of yet another Treasurer: Rev. Fred Mold, who is the Treasurer of our Classis.

It was, of course, not just a treasurers’ convention. We shared the table with the delegation from our church in Keyport, and we used the cocktail hour to renew many other ties as well. It is good, once in a while, to see so many representatives from Reformed churches gathered in one room: It broadens outlook and gives us a different perspective on who we are. On March 14th it also provided an opportunity to say “thank you” to Stef and all he has done for First Reformed.