Yeah, I know, I promised you guys a big announcement.

So here you go.

Today, I turned in my resignation.

Yep, I’m leaving the Public Sector and heading back into the Private Sector.

My friend in Blairsville, Georgia (North Georgia) has a small engineering firm and he wants me to work for him. The kicker is that I can do it from here.

Why leave the City?

There are several professional reasons such as: keeping my skills current, learning a new aspect of Civil Engineering (flood plains and drainage) and future ownership/partnership opportunities.

However, the main reasons are personal.

Here is the short version:

At the beginning of the year we, along with 4 other families and our former pastor started a new church. It has been a very exciting time for us as we move in the direction we feel the Lord is taking us. There has also been a tremendous amount of work to be done in regards to actually forming a church. As part of the leadership of the fledgling church, WunderWife and I have been called on to do more and more. While we are very excited about this, it is time consuming and I have been limited to what I can do after work and on weekends. There are by-laws and vision statements to be written, there are new members to help take care of, there is the matter of a church facility (inside upkeep and outside landscaping), conferences to attend and numerous other things. With this job I will be working at home and will be able to keep whatever hours I need to in order to take care of the family and our church responsibilities.

My new boss and I have been working together for the past 4 years. He is the one I have been doing all this side work for the past few years. He trusts me and part of the reason he has hired me is because we share a common outlook on life in regards to our Christian walk. Ministry time is just as important as engineering. Finding a good balance between the two will be the challenge, but it is one of the founding principles of his company.

So, flexibility is the main reason on a personal level. I will be available for ministry at any time and will be able to help my wife with the kids when she needs me. This will be even more important this winter when we adopt our daughter from China.

There is a church in California that we are closely associated with. We have been going to their conferences for years and just returned from one in Dothan, Alabama. The church has a school of ministry that my brother-in-law and his wife attended a few years ago. They returned totally changed and as a result, WunderWife and I have been praying about attending for the past two years. It has been our hope and desire that the Lord would provide a way for us to get out to California to attend the school.

As you can imagine, money is a big issue. How was I going to pull up my family, travel across country, attend school and still earn a living? Enter the new job. I feel that this job is a direct answer to our prayers. My boss knows our dream and told me, “If you can do the work in Albany, you can do it in California.” You can imagine our excitement when he called me about two months ago.

On an even more exciting note, the school in California has gotten so large that they are planning on starting a school on the East Coast, in Atlanta. We met some friends of ours this past weekend who are being sent out from the church in California to start a new church in Atlanta in anticipation of the new school. Now it looks like we won’t even have to move to California.

So there are professional and personal reasons that make this a very good move for my family and me.

Are there risks? You bet. Staying at the City would mean secure employment and good benefits, but I am slipping in salary each year as the City fails to keep up with the Private Sector and each year I stay with the City, I get more “tainted” in regards to my engineering abilities. Having spent three years in the Private Sector, I understand about feast and famine. It’s always a possibility, but I can’t spend my life worrying about that. Like I said, I feel this is a direct answer to our prayers. As is such, I know I am making the correct decision.

Today was tough. I had to give my notice to the Director. I’m leaving the City in a bind. Honestly, if you know of a Civil Engineer who wants to work for a small town, send them my way. I’ll leave them down two engineers. I gave a 30-day notice to help with the transition. It will be tough, but they will survive.

All in all we are very excited and I can’t wait till the middle of September to get started.

In the mean time, we are heading to Atlanta to get a desk at IKEA and then I have to upgrade my computer, get another monitor, get a fax machine/printer/copier and get a cell phone.

So, how was your day?