I’ve just started the final three days of my sensible, secure and reasonably well paid job. On the basis that in uncertain times people will turn to education this could be considered as the wrong time to be running off, but let’s face it, life is never all about the money, is it?

The long story, as I have time, is as follows.

A few months back I went up to visit my friends Eddie and Sue at Wycliffe. Eddie had been appointed as Director a few months previously and they had eventually moved as a family up to the High Wycombe area. Part of the reason of visiting was to catch up on life, but the other part was to discuss the possibility of me joining Wycliffe in their marketing team.

While it was Eddie who originally spoke to me about the role, we both were keen to keep our friendship out of the process. So during the course of the week I had an informal interview – which actually took place during a car journey to a nearby design/advertising agency – and the other was a more formal interview involving the personnel department. I also had the time to talk through what takes place at the centre with a number of different heads of department. There’s a lot that goes on in that place, more than you’d realise just by looking at the outside of the buildings.

After all this I still had to complete some paperwork and wait for a final confirmation that they wanted me, but just before Christmas I received an e-mail with the formal offer of the position of Head of Marketing.

Lots of people have enquired how I knew this was the right thing for me to do. It’s not an unreasonable question, I’m very aware that I’m about to leave a job with a salary to take an unpaid position the week after the UK government finally faced up to the fact that as a nation we are in a recession.

Wycliffe's discovery centre at Horsleys Green

Part of my sense that this was the right thing came on my first day of visiting. Eddie took me for a tour of the Discovery Centre. It’s a wonderful facility which gives a history of Bible translation as it has taken place since… well, since Bible translation began. I was walking around, reading about how people had given most of their adult lives to go and live in communities, to learn the language, develop an alphabet, start translation projects and finally translate books of the Bible into a language that the local people could understand.

Walking around there and looking at the displays I couldn’t work out why I wouldn’t want to be involved in this. Personally I believe that what the Bible says is true. I believe that it is the word of God and that it contains a wonderful story of love and compassion that everyone has the right to know about. By providing translations in local languages people have the chance to work it out for themselves. They aren’t reliant on missionaries and they can also judge for themselves if visiting speakers are telling them the truth of what is in the Bible. In the UK we have multiple versions of the same Bible, many very good translations written in a way that we can understand. In other parts of the world that isn’t the case and that’s where Wycliffe comes in.

However, the discovery centre wasn’t the place where I made up my mind finally. You see I am a ‘bloke’ (Tany’s definition – if you disagree take it up with her), I work hard at hiding my emotions, enjoy action films and like fast cars. When it came down to the Wycliffe job I wanted to make sure that the things that I am good at would be useful to them, I wasn’t just going to base my decision on a gut feeling. As we were discussing a marketing role I was very honest with everyone there that I’m not a designer, copywriter or a really strong salesman – while I can do elements of all of these things and more they aren’t my strongest skill sets. However, I can manage the sales, advertising, writing processes. I can develop effective strategies, support teams, work with agencies, develop people’s skills…

As the week went on it became quite clear that what I can offer would fit very well with what Wycliffe needs. My conversations with staff members showed that a bit of planning, some management and reconsidering some aims would make a considerable difference. In other words, it was the right job for me, at the right time and in the right place [I’ll say more about what I’ll be doing in another post].

OK, there are going to be some huge challenges, but it comes as a good time. I’m going to have a place to live on the centre, which means I’ll have one of the shortest commutes ever. It’s also going to be a strange start to married life for Tany and me, but probably a good one. We get to move to a new area as a couple. We will start our new careers in a new location and we have somewhere to live. The next few months should be good fun.