I am celebrating and reflecting this week as Thursday, August 4th was my one year anniversary of joining SIL International. It has been a wonderful first year in my new role as Director of Bible Translation Software. It has been challenging to get up to speed on all the new processes, learn lots of names (still working on those), and to find my rhythm in my new role, but it has been such a fun journey. If I want to be philosophical about it.
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Aristotle
But to be more accurate, the creator of the Muppets states it even more accurate for me.
If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn’t anything you can’t do if you want to.
Jim Henson
So many things have happened this year. Thought I would share just a few highlights of Year One so you know what I do in my career, since I mostly discuss my hobbies and my writing here on the blog.
- Daily Prayer – What a wonderful way to get to know the people I work with and to develop community. Working remotely can be very challenging, but the Dallas office really adopted me. I attend their online daily prayer meeting as many days of the week as I am able. I have built friendships via these Google Meet prayer sessions and grown to really care for the people who attend.
- Care Teams – Language Technology started a Care Team process shortly before I joined SIL. This is a weekly small group devoted to sharing and prayer. Much like the Daily Prayer, this more extended time has really given me an opportunity to get to know the Leadership Team well. I also feel my wife and I are very cared for beyond just the work that I do for SIL.
- Monthly Strategic Meetings – Part way through my first year, I began monthly strategic meetings with my team leads in Bible Translation Software. We have had some incredible and passionate discussions about the software we develop, the organizational processes, staff development, the technology that impacts our work, and so many other great topics. I am blessed with an incredible team of project leads who really are passionate for their work and their ministries.
- Language Technology Conference – I won’t say a lot more here as I already posted about this earlier, but this conference continues to have an impact on me. So many of the discussions begun at the conference have spawned some incredible projects and partnerships. I also finally had a chance to build some friendships in person that continue to grow.
There is so much else I could share about year one. If you want to know more, let’s grab a snack sometime if you are nearby, or we can have a video call to talk about our lives. How many years have your been in your current position? Do you love it? If so, tell me about what makes it so wonderful!
As an aside, to help celebrate even though I work from home, I ordered mini bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes and had them delivered to our Dallas office, which I consider my home office, so I could celebrate with my friends and coworkers there.
