8 Days from today, Sept. 1st 2009 will mark exactly 40 years that a young and dynamic minister Lloyd Brissett took up his first appointment in the St. Martin/St. Maarten circuit, where he served then, for a period of three years.
On behalf of the Government and People of St. Maarten, it is my great pleasure and honor as Leader of Government to most warmly express our appreciation to you, Hon. Reverend Lloyd Brissett, -now- Superintendent Minister of the Methodist Church in St. Maarten, and to extend our most sincere and heartfelt congratulations to you on your retirement from active ministry after 40 years of service to St. Maarten, the Leeward Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, the Caribbean and the Americas.
Congratulations and thanks go out to Mrs. Brissett and the rest of the Brissett family as well.
It seems like only yesterday that you launched your ministry and looking at you, one would want to believe that you are actually celebrating your 40th birthday, Rather than 40 years of unselfish and dedicated service.
We are filled with special emotions because ever since you joined us, you have been a great pillar of knowledge and wisdom in our community. Or perhaps, we should say a rock – since it was you who helped fortify the very foundations that have made the Methodist Church in St. Maarten such a resounding success.
Your commitment and dedication has been duly recognized in your Presidency of the Christian Council from 1990 to 1994 and again from 2006 to the present and in your leaderships at both District and Connectional levels as Chief Journal Secretary, District General Secretary for General Education Department of the Methodist Church, and Chairman of the MAC Board of Trustees.
Your contribution to the Women’s and Men’s Groups, the Boys and Girls Brigades and church choirs. The St. Maarten family has been truly blessed to have been recipients of the caring ministry of Rev. Lloyd Brissett and his family.
Reverend Brissett, you are not only a talented singer as we saw at the Men’s Night of Praise, but also a seasoned and gifted preacher par excellence. Your personal qualities, combined with your oratorical skills and a proven record of accomplishment in ministry will be forever inscribed in history of Methodism in the Caribbean.
It is no wonder that you had the distinguished honour of preaching to Her Majesty, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, when she elected to worship at the Philipsburg Methodist Church on her Royal visit in 2006.
Retirement may be an ending to a career, a closing of a chapter, but it is also a new beginning. A new life begins at retirement because one must not retire one’s experience, one must use that acquired experience.
Your generous reflections of how ministry has created meaning in your life have particularly been encouraging to many. In your life we have been able to see what a life devoted to God’s service and glory looks like. I am sure that many will be turning to you for more words of wisdom.
Now you will be saying goodbye tension, but hello pension. Take time to visit the places that you have wished to see all your life. Look for the rainbow of this new beginning. Find joy in the little things.
We are happy to know that heaven is in your retirement plan. We will meet again. You have fought a good fight, and you have finished your course. You did it your way!
I sincerely hope that you will continue to remember Country St. Maarten in your prayers and cherish the fond memories of your ministry here. Once again, I would like to congratulate you on your retirement and extend my heartfelt best wishes to you and your family on achieving this milestone together.
Farewell, and may God continue to bless you and your family.
Commissioner William V. Marlin
Leader of Government.