Wednesday the 27th of November, 2013. It was the beginning of something new. It was the beginning of a difficult journey that has been one of the easiest upon which I’ve ever embarked.
I’ve worked in radio for a long time. Over 25 years in all. My most recent time in radio lasted nine and a half years so when I started telling people that I was leaving radio to work for Compassion Australia I had quite a variety of responses. Many talked about it being a huge change and about how courageous it was.
Big change? Courageous? I suppose they were thinking about how big a step it is for a 50 year old man to be changing careers. I have to admit that until friends started drawing my attention to it I hadn’t really considered it to be such a major change. I always knew there’d be a steep learning curve and that I would have to master a range of new skills but it all just seemed so natural and logical to me.
My passion to help those in poverty has been growing over many years so the opportunity to be more closely involved with an organisation that is recognised as being a world leader in poverty relief was an easy step to take. It just makes perfect sense.
Compassion works to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. The photo above is one I took while visiting some of the children Compassion was releasing from poverty in Dominican Republic back in 2008.
Over the last few weeks my brain has been spinning with everything I’ve been learning. My new job is indeed very different to my last job but as someone who has simply wanted to be where I believe God wants me, it’s just another step on the pathway.
So … in some ways this change has been the hardest of times, and there is still plenty of learning and adjustments to come, but it’s also been one of the most natural and easy things I’ve ever done.
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Changing jobs is always challenging and as you have so correctly pointed out, easy and difficult at the same time. Pam and our eldest son Jack and I have just returned from 10 wonderful days in Thailand, a combined culture and service trip. I have to say that the one thing that always blows my mind is the happiness and joy shown by almost all of the people I have encountered in some of the poorest areas of Asia. The ability to be happy with only the very basic things in life is a gift that as westerners we seem to have misplaced. I hope we can find it again and get back to basics – after all, real peace and joy are about relationships and friendships, not things!
Thanks for your comments, Mark.
You’re so right about the happiness in developing nations. It’s a great reminder that poverty isn’t just about “stuff” that we have or don’t have. Us westerners seem to think that we can fix everything with more money and more material goods, never realising that many of us suffer from a different kind of poverty.
I’m so glad that Compassion is an organisation that deals with poverty in a very holistic way.
Hi Rodney. Thanks for sharing about the struggles of changing jobs as well as your journey to start working with Compassion. I support three children through Compassion Australia, and I am very pleased to wish you well with the WA team. God bless you, Rodney. Pete
Hello Peter. Thanks for your visit and your encouragement.
My big introduction to Compassion was back in 2008 when I travelled with other broadcasters from Christian radio stations in Australia to Haiti and Dominican Republic. We saw Compassion’s work for ourselves and I was an instant fan.
I look forward to spending some time working through your blogs.