New national director of The Leprosy Mission

With a background of 20 years in leadership and experience working in nearly 40 countries, Rupert Haydock has just taken the next step in his career by becoming the new national director of The Leprosy Mission.

A commissioning ceremony was held in Bretton Baptist Church in Peterborough last Saturday to celebrate Haydock's new position with addresses Geoff Warne, the director of The Leprosy Mission's international office, and Rev David Beazley, representing the board of trustees.

The Northern Ireland-born Haydock, meanwhile, selected the hymns and readings, which had been particularly special and encouraging to him in his life and service so far.

He said: "After years of international work I keenly believe that integral mission of the proclamation of the gospel with practical care, empowerment and transformation of those who are disadvantaged or forgotten is central to worshiping God and this is clearly something encapsulated in the work of The Leprosy Mission."

Originally came from a dairy farming background, Haydock had intended to take on management of the farm, but after becoming a Christian at the age of 18, all this changed. Realising God was calling him to a different vocation, he instead began studying agriculture and later business economics.

He started his career in the Northern Ireland civil service as a lecturer and practical teacher in vocational training in 1982. This developed into leading business management and marketing teaching at Higher National Diploma level.

After putting his farming days behind him, Haydock discovered that God would nevertheless use all his experiences in ways he could not have anticipated. His agricultural experience became vital as he worked as an agricultural economist in the Falkland Islands from 1987-9 for the Overseas Development Administration (which later became the Department for International Development - DFID).

Haydock then went on to work for Tearfund UK in Burkina Faso (West Africa), supporting holistic sustainable community development and church administration. After four years he and his family moved back to the UK and he continued to work with Tearfund as a consultant in partner organisational development. This included health, economic and community and rural development programmes in Europe, Africa and Asia.

His most recent assignment last March was an evaluation of partner relief programmes in Niger and Burkina Faso. For the past seven years he has also been chief executive of NI-CO (Northern Ireland Public Sector Enterprises Limited), a leading firm providing technical assistance on behalf of the Northern Ireland/ UK Government.