Where’s home?
Want to strike fear into the heart of someone who has lived all over the place? Ask them where they are from. My birthplace of Oklahoma was but a blip. As a Navy brat, we bounced around mostly in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Upper northeast PA is where the family roots go really deep. But I checked out the midwest for college and ended up meeting a beautiful lady with roots in Oregon and Washington who grew up in Brazil. We landed as newlyweds in Arizona where Mika joined our family, then spent a short while in the Philippines where Emily was born. From there it was back to Phoenix for a bit until we could get to Malawi and Mozambique for our first career in international development & missions. Along the way Gabe and Tessa entered our happy home. In 2016 we landed in Portland, Oregon and now call the outer southeast side our home.
Education
Masters of Arts in Digital Storytelling from Asbury University
Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts - Broadcasting, Audio/Video Production from Cedarville University. Minor in Acting and Biblical Studies.
As part of my military service I completed training in electronics from the Community College of the Air Force.
Awards
For “Sick in Africa”, episode 1: “Best Student Film” from the Chandler International Film Festival 2018. Awards of Merit in 2017 received from Docs Without Borders Film Festival and the International Film Festival for Environment, Health & Culture.
For “Sick in Africa”, episode 2: “Best Documentary Micro Film” from the Oregon Short Film Festival 2020
Retired Projects
Ajambule Media - While living in Mozambique, I was strongly pulled towards documentary-style photo and video projects. “Ajambule” means take a picture in the language of Ciyawo, so this became the moniker of my early efforts to document life and events around me.
The ESL Cafe - As a new arrival in Portland looking to foster connections between local church volunteers and refugees in 2016, I looked for local spaces near me from SE 82nd to 122nd Ave in which we could come together and offer conversational English time around coffee and tea. Several locations were tried and a partnership was even established with Portland Community College southeast. But visitors were erratic, and consistency was a challenge, so this project morphed into ESL Companions.
ESL Companions - Learning English is one of the greatest needs that refugees and immigrants experience when they first arrive in the Portland Metro Area. English fluency is an asset that opens the doors for continuing education, community involvement, and vocational advancement and it is a valuable gift that we can share with our neighbors. ESL Companions (ESLC) sought to become an in-home ESL service using online methods (Skype, Zoom, Facebook messenger) that matched trained and vetted volunteers from local churches with families and individuals seeking to learn English. This concept took off especially during early days of the pandemic and was absorbed into Torus Transforms where the faith-based element was removed.
The Former (Former) Optimist blog - The former former optimist thing comes from my early years in Africa where I felt like my optimism for life simply vanished faced with the shakeup of moving to a new culture where everything felt a bit crazy. But after a few years of settling in and getting more comfortable in my new skin, I recognized I truly was still an optimist even if I knew the well pump wouldn't be working that day or the power would go off all day, or all week... one never knows. I originally called my blog The Former Optimist, later The Former Former Optimist, and after moving back to the U.S. rebranded as The Expats Return. Covers 2016-17 and is mostly just U.S. travels (Oregon, Washington) so if you want to read about Africa you gotta go back further (Mozambique, Malawi and humor). Also of note: Brazil, our Africa house.
Mobiles & Media Team - After returning from Africa in 2016 I joined forces remotely with a few other media professionals who want to use their overseas experience and vision for outreach to see new generations equipped to properly use the media tools at their disposal to most effectively get their messages across. Our works spans several other movements like the Mobile Ministry Forum and Visual Story Network among others. We aimed to provide consulting services, training and story-driven testimonials to like-minded organizations worldwide with regular speaking engagements and networking in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Our flagship media series is the Mobile 10 series which are 10 videos designed to help overseas teams focus on how to discuss relevant media-related aspects of their work (social media, security, chat apps, locating local language resources, etc.).
Mosque visits - Having lived for 13 years in Muslim areas, it's hard to remember what it's like to not have Muslim friends. I have been so blessed to have great friendships with those from an Islamic background. One of my joys in Portland in my earlier years of living there included taking Multnomah University students to see a local mosque during worship and build connections with those who attend.
NewPortlanders.net - Created in 2017 after recognizing the amazing diversity of cultures in and around southeast Portland, my goal behind this site was to showcase restaurants and food carts owned and operated by Portlanders originating in other countries. Activities were set up to offer a chance to go to their locations and meet with the owners so cross-cultural community could be built. The project proved challenging in bringing on other content creators, as well as keeping up with the revolving door of establishments opening and closing.
Portland Parks & Rec New Portlanders program - The city of Portland has a wonderful program that works hard to integrate refugees and immigrants. On March 17, 2017 they hosted a free community event to show support for immigrants and refugees. Som Subedi, a refugee and New Portlander himself, helped at that time to head up the Parks for New Portlanders division that works to introduce the city park system to new Portlanders. Since I was there with my family, I filmed a bit and put it into a viral-style video to showcase the good work the city is doing. I was able to partner with Som on several project before the pandemic.
Redbubble photo gallery/swag store - In past years I updated my RedBubble profile with lots of favorite photos. Prints and products available for sale.
Refugee Volunteer Organization - During 2018 I consulted for this Portland-based non-profit that set out to become the one place where you can learn about what is happening in any given area focusing on refugees. My work for them included a series of videos that highlight various local refugee non-profits and show how volunteers can get involved. The non-profit was closed down in early 2020.
Visual Peace Media - A few years ago I was working on a documentary film project with a guy named Mario Mattei. He was one of the organizers of a collaboration of filmmakers and storytellers intent on telling stories of "hope, cultural appreciation, and alternative perspectives--especially where conflict, mistrust, or misconceptions exist. Amid peoples' many wonderful differences, we seek to elevate common humanity as a viable means to living in harmony. Through human stories we discover pieces of ourselves in others. We relate their actions and choices to our own experiences and find meaning in our own life."