Well, we’ll start with the basics. I live about 20 mins. outside of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, have lived here for about 17 years and no, I’m not a Steelers fan. Sorry. I love playing the guitar, and have helped to lead worship at our church for the past few years. I am currently a cook at a resturant here for the time being. Before that, I spent 4 years at Geneva College doing a kind of double major in Psychology and an Independant Major in Film/Video. I’m a big movie guy, I love making them, watching them, talking about them, etc. I’ve usually got some kind of camera with me most of the time. I do enjoy playing all kinds of sports and fun things like that but my real passion is behind the camera. The Lord has blessed me with an eye for the camera and I’m thrilled to be able to use it on this trip. Which is a good way to transition into the second paragraph….
How I came to be on this team is such an amazing story when I look back at all the things that lead me to this exact point. Skipping a lot of the details, the major thing that brought me here happened in October of 2005. Just a month after Katrina hit, I went with a team from my church to New Orleans for 10 days. I had been on one mission trip a few years before to Haiti but it was New Orleans that really touched my life. The very first day down there working, I was just amazed to see the amount of destruction that occured. I stood on piles of rubble that had previously been a house. Everywhere you looked there was nothing but shreds of homes left all over the ground. I started to really think about the amount of power it would take to level a city to the ground and that lead me to start to really contemplate how HUGE God really is. I was in awe to think of the God that has created all things, the massive power He holds in the palm of His hand, and that the same God that created this world, and all the forces on here, along with every single star in the sky is the same God who set aside that power to become just like us and die in our place, so that we could be with Him. Wow! For the past year I’ve marveled at Creation. Every little thing now reminds me of the awesome power of God. I was able to take a camera down to New Orleans and bring back images that even news crews weren’t allowed to get and share them with people up here.
After I did this it really got me thinking about why God has gifted me with the talents He has and how I should use them for His purposes. He gave me a desire to try and “capture” as much of His creation that I can on film and share it with as many people as I possibly can. More than just trees and mountains and rivers, Creation includes all things, including the people and the cultures of the world. I would tell my friends back here about wanting to go all over the world and share it with people, and they would just say, “That’s nice, but how are you going to pull that one off?” For a long time I had no idea how it was going to happen. I waited and waited for God to show me something and for a long time nothing seemed to happen. All along He was preping me but I won’t go into that now. About a month ago, a close friend of mine asked if I’d be interested in maybe helping lead a short term trip through AIM for the next summer. I was curious to see where all they had so I jumped on their site to look around and right away my eye caught World Race “Media Team” and I clicked on it and read everything and right away knew that this is exactly what God was having me wait for.
So that’s the short version of how I came to be here now. I am so excited to be a part of this. It’s such an honor to be able to work with other brothers and sisters pursuing God’s Kingdom. I’m very much looking forward to working with everyone. My prayer at the very outset of this whole thing was and will continue to be, “God, show me you.”
