Hit The Deck Running

 Meet Peter Davies,  who works as a Broadband IT Project manager in BT. He loves his work although at times, finds it stressful with the demands placed on him. Before this job he worked in various positions including solution design, business analyst and sales manager. He joined BT in a non management role in 1984 before progressing in to other positions.

Meet Loris Richard who works for Merton Council in the finance department.  Before this she worked for Southwark Crown Court and then Abbey National. Her background is in finance. Although brought up in a Christian environment, Loris was far from God when working at Abbey National. She was dissatisfied with her job there and hated working weekends and shifts. At work one day she looked up and said, ‘Lord if you ever give me a Monday to Friday job I’ll serve you to the day I die’, and she really meant it although she didn’t really know who she was talking too!

She had been in correspondence with Merton Council and that same day she ‘randomly’ remembered Merton Council’s number and the number she dialled took her straight through to the HR department. Loris enquired to see if there were any vacancies and the lady said, ‘…this is Merton… there are always vacancies! What is your area of work?’ Loris answered, ‘finance’ to which she replied, ‘yes we’ve a vacancy but it is ‘cr*p’ money’. Loris remembers thinking – what a way to advertise for new staff! On enquiring Loris discovered it was two thousand more than she was getting at Abbey so asked for the application form. A week later Loris had been offered the job and started work on 29th December 1997.

Loris was not saved at this time, but because the Lord had helped her secure a new post, which was Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, she kept her word started going to Church and on February 7th 1998 she was baptised. Soon after this God laid it on her heart to have a room to pray in at work. At this prompting Loris asked the receptionist if she could book a room. The response was ‘fine no probs, £20 an hour’. Loris said, ‘OK can I book it every lunchtime for the year?’ The receptionist inquisitively asked, ‘what do you want a room for?’ Loris said she looked at her in the eye and said, ‘…to pray in.’ The woman, obviously shocked stood up on hearing this information and said, ‘people book rooms for all sorts of things but no one has ever booked a room to pray in before – you’ve got the room for free!’

The numbers started to grow as more staff heard about the prayer room and praise God – the receptionist came along and soon after got baptised and is still there to this day! Isn’t being a Christians and serving Jesus to the day you die exciting and amazing? Transforming lives for good...

Loris has been leading the Christian Fellowship group at Merton Council for 10 years, however it has been in the last 3 years that Loris took a bold step to speak to the CEO of Merton Council about the group. Since that time the fellowship has received full recognition and is able to support all staff no matter what their background or religious stance in the council. When the London bombs went off, Merton Staff Christian Fellowship were called upon by the Chief Exec to go out on the streets and be a support for people.

What was it that fuelled a passion in Loris to step out of her comfort zone at work and seek to be a support for Christians in Merton!? How is it that the Christian Fellowship has received such recognition that they are now used to support the borough of Merton wider than just the Christians? 

Meet Tim Russell, who works as a Management Consultant for KPMG. He loves his work although at times finds it stressful with the demands placed on him both in terms of expectations and the time commitment. He frequently visits clients abroad as part of his work and travelling creates extra pressures. Before KPMG, Tim work for BT and joined their Finance Graduate Programme working in several areas of the business.

Tim graduated from the University of Kent where he studied Computing and Business Administration. He joined KPMG this year and already has big plans to bring Kingdom values into the workplace. He has the opportunity to work with the senior decision makers and board members in big corporates on a regular basis. Whilst this poses many challenges, it also brings the opportunity to influence change and gain support on important issues at a senior level. Whilst working at BT, Tim helped set up the BT Young Professionals group as part of BT Christian Network. He was drawn to the benefits for Christians to fellowship, evangelise and making a moral stand on difficult issues. When he moved to KPMG, he found a new fellowship and discovered a lively and well established group.

Tim is a recent graduate and is going to share wisdom about the transition into the workplace as a young adult starting out in work. He will highlight the struggles one can face in the office, the new issues that come up, the challenges to live as a Christian in the workplace, and why it is important we make a stand. He will suggest some practical ways in which we can contribute and make a difference based on his own experience.

 

Booking Form   Young Adults Handout 5Transition 4Witnessing at work