Jubilee: “Engineers Are Makers” - Nathan Tornquist

Nathan Tournquist's story is one of our 2015 entries in a video contest to inspire students at the Jubilee Conference to share what God is doing in their work and what he will do.

Transcript

Throughout my life I've watched my father work in his community. He showed his faith through his work. As an engineer he used his problem solving skills to transform our community, and publicly shared his trust in God through his words and actions. There was never a distinction between his work and his faith; it wasn't the church side and the rest of his life, it was just life.Engineering teaches me how to look at problems analytically, stepping back from emotional decision-making. However despite the efficiency of logical analysis, it can also damage people and communities.

When you look at problems from an engineering perspective coupled with God’s Word, you open yourself up to make decisions that are both technically and morally sound. The Gospel teaches that work is good, so it is my responsibility to use my skills to take care of and cultivate the world. I am a steward, not just a consumer, and I need to do work for people, not just for a paycheck. A lot of tech companies today treat people like parts of a machine. They buy good people, use them up, then just buy more. When looking for a job, I wanted to work somewhere that valued people: both the customer and the employee. I was drawn to a company that develops loan software. They provide loans that are carefully designed to help people, providing credit options to those in need and ultimately build up the underprivileged. Like my father, I want to use my skills to help people. I want to share God's love through my work and use my skills as a software engineer to build tools that can provide opportunities to people in need. Engineers are makers. I want to be a difference maker.