Adam White

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to post again. I’ve had a busy week!

I started my new job at BCS on Tuesday and have come away from my first week with them pleased and feeling like I have made the right decision. My first day was a little worrying and not just because of first day nerves. I came away still not really knowing what my new job was and what was expected of me.

Thankfully I have come away from this week not only feeling like I am perfect for the position but that I can really bring my experience from Tyco and apply it in this new setting.

I’m loving the later starts, the group of people I will be working with, the feel and atmosphere and most of all feeling full of energy in the evenings again!

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I was never sure what to expect from my last day with Tyco Electronics. It ended up being really laid back and chilled. It wasn’t awkward and I ended up just trying to enjoy spending my last day there.

It is a weird feeling though: I have just said goodbye to a group of people that I have spent five days a week with for the past four years. From next Tuesday I am going to be making new friendships and working relationships to spend 8 hours a day with.

Overall my years at Tyco had their ups and their downs but I can only see positives for me over the time. I have left on good terms and have grown in my abilities and experience through it.

Roll on the next challenge now!!

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Okay, it’s starting to sink in that I’m leaving now. I had my first visit from someone who I had worked with since I started to say goodbye (they are away tomorrow). It’s really weird thinking that I’m going to be in a different company working in a different team this time next week.

I think I’m doing pretty well with my attitude. I was worried at the beginning of the week how I would appear to other people but in my last team metting today I was adding suggestions and offering advice as if I wasn’t going. I was even still referring to the team as “us” and “we”.

My friend Paul is doing a major presentation to a lot of IT folk tomorrow so I have also been helping him nail down his content and presentation style. I’m staying late to help him through the presentation before I leave the company for good. This time tomorrow it will all be over and I’ll have somewhere else to blog about. Weird!

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This is from another email I was sent today:

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. – Malachi 3:3

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?

He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.’

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

I find it amazing that I can look at a verse like Malachi 3:3 and just pass over it without thinking. But if you stop and look a little closer you realise the true depth of what is being said.  I don’t think I like the idea of being put in a hot fire though even if the outcome is worth it. It is a very challenging thing to face and I wonder how I’ll cope. Thankfully I don’t have to face anything alone because God is right there with me :)

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As predicted my day has swung from moments of being busy with implementations and teleconferences to having nothing to do at all. When emails come in with things to do I have to forward them on as they are someone else’s job now.

I only have a day and a half left so I suspect I will be packing my stuff away in the quiet times. Hopefully though my attitude is stil reflecting well with those that to those around me. I think I’m doing an ok job!

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I did better today. I worked my socks off all day but now I have run out of jobs! I feel good for it though: Instead of that feeling that I had let myself down like I had yesterday I am now finishing today on a positive.

I have things to keep myself occupied tomorrow morning as we have a few implementations and upgrades happening but I may have to spend my time packing for the rest of the week unless some little pieces of work come from somewhere!

It’s much harder to keep working hard when there’s no work to do!

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Lindsay has posted an interesting bible study on our needs and God’s riches on her website.

I think it is amazing how God seems to talk to us about something from so many places at the same time. My church preached on Sunday about God vs Gold and then last night I happened to listen to a couple of Northpoint sermons on money. And then today I read this bible study by my friend Lindsay saying almost the same thing again!

The challenge I feel God is setting for me is to re-evaluate what I am doing with my riches. God has given me all that I need and has blessed me with much more. But what should I do with the more? Should I be saving it for a rainy day like the rich man in Luke 12:13? According to Jesus no. We have this view that when God blesses us with extra it is for us when in fact it is for us to give to others.

The best explanation I have heard is to give first to God, then save and use the rest to live on. I feel challenged at the moment to work out what I need to live on and use the rest more wisely (i.e. no more DVDs that I don’t watch or books I never read) but to save some and use the rest for the glory of God. I also feel like I need to look at all the things I already have and work out how I can best leverage them for God (this could mean giving things away or maybe using them for a better purpose than gathering dust in my garage/loft).

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount he clearly says we should store up riches in heaven and not on earth (Matthew 6:19). Am I being a good steward of things here on earth? I think I could do better as I am storing up too many things for myself.

A Spirit-led rethink is needed I think!

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I started Monday with the drive to work really hard and finish my time at Tyco Electronics full of commitment. It lasted until about lunchtime! I worked so hard in the morning that by the time I got to lunch I barely had any work left to do!

So in the afternoon I spent some time writing up my blog post for the fancy dress party (which technically was an extended lunch as I did most of it during my lunch break) and then chatted to people in the office about various non critical work related things.

I’ve left myself a few little things that need getting on with for Tuesday but I need to learn to pace myself better or the work is going to run out again!

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Saturday was the big 30th fancy dress party where everyone was meant to come as something from their youth. We had everything from Postman Pat to James Bond. But what did I go as I hear you ask? Well I, along with birthday boy Phil and my best mate Franck, went as… Ghostbusters!

On Sunday 13th July we were all sat in my lounge joking about what fancy dress costume to go as. From somewhere (and I can’t remember where) the suggestion of all three of us going as Ghostbusters came about. At first I had it in my head that we’d just be strapping vacuum cleaners to our backs and nothing more but after a couple of meetings a much more adventurous plan started to come together.

In the end we had huge plastic tubs strapped to our backs with everything from a microwave plate to a a garden solar light finding it’s place. All those old PCs I had stored up came to use when I carved them apart for old hard drive magnets, heatsinks and lots of wiring.

I think pictures speak louder than words so head along to my Ghostbusters costume gallery to see all the photos from the six weeks it took us to create our masterpieces.

Oh, and a HUGE thank you to Lindsay who helped us out loads!

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I am now just coming to the end of the third week of my notice period with Tyco Electronics and I thought that maybe I should start blogging about how it is going!

Initially everything seemed to carry on as usual except I had less work to do: I was handing over everything I did to my colleagues so gradually I had nothing left but supervision and the odd email. This last week however has become very interesting. The department’s new student has started, a young man called Benedikt who has impressed me a lot so far. I have been training him and teaching him about all our websites and systems. I have also been occupied with handing over the management of our implementations which wasn’t quite as simple as printing out the procedure. But it has really been these last two days that lots and lots of work has come out of nowhere. I’ve gone from having barely anything to do to having a list as long as my arm!

The hardest thing for me though is combating the attitude other people assume I have. I have had so many people say to me things like “I know your leaving so you don’t care anymore…”. As a Christian I feel like it is even more important to work my very hardest and not act like I’ve already left. This is so difficult though as the temptation to just give in and not care is always there.

I’m imagining my last week as being the hardest as I am going to see the end of tunnel getting ever closer and the work is going to really start to pile up. But I am going to fight the urge to not care and work my very hardest on my last week. I’ll let you know how it goes!!

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