My grandmother was a community lady.  She had seven children whom she raised as a single parent.  They grew up in the projects of Battle Creek Michigan, a very tough low income community.  The main sports in that area were boxing and street basketball.  My grandma was a cook for the VA.  I lived with her during the times that my mother Gloria, also a single parent, worked many hours at Kellogg's.  My mother owned her home in the suburbs, at a young age, due to her hard work ethics.  I spent more time in the projects because I stayed with my grandma.  Because my father wasn't around my 3 uncles became my male role models.  This community is where I got scars, stitches, and street sense and If I fell down, I had to pick myself up.  I can recall street fights, police patrols of our neighborhood and I remember a community center that served sack lunches with an apple and peanut butter or bologna sandwich.  My grandma had brothers and she would handle and ration out their money, as well as, other people in the community so they wouldn't spend it all.  Everybody worked in my family, they all had jobs but some had bad habits like alcohol and gambling.  My grandma would cook soul food for different people in the community.  She was known for her cooking and her giving.  She took me in with no hesitation and she has taken in a few other grandchildren.  She even took in a pigeon, named Buddy, that had lost his eye and took care of him for 20 years.  So I guess this is where I got my humble beginnings that evolved into my humanitarian involvement and works in my communities.  I met my wife in 1990 and we were high school sweethearts.  She quickly recognized how much of a giver I was and while working as a security guard while in high school, I gave her little gold trinkets, etc.  She came to notice that when I seen a displaced person I would always hand them money or food.  I recall while working in Honolulu as a store agent across the street from IHS, a homeless shelter, that on some paydays, I would take $50 in ones from my paycheck, walk to the front entrance where some of the men gathered and I would pull out of my pocket the bills, toss it in the air and quickly walk away so they didn't know who I was.  that continued through my employment with that store.  My wife and I attended Wahiawa Christian Church with our first two daughters, the Pastor John Lee Parish (my father-in-law) and member Lilia Carr started an outreach.  They would purchase and put together toiletry and sock bags to pass out to the homeless, as well as, served chili and rice near the same homeless shelter.  I could appreciate and relate to this ministry because it was something that I would always do but I never knew that my father-in-law was actively involved in Civil Rights and a humanitarian.  A Graduate of Standford with Honors who met his wife, Esther Parish, while attaining his Seminary degree at Chapman College.  He attended Stanford with his younger brother Don Parish and both were on the football team.  Don Parish continued his football career with the NFL and is in the Hall of Fame at Stanford University.

My father had many titles and roles in which I experienced and admired and I will continue to share a bit of his journey that my husband highlighted.  I can remember a time that I was kneeling on the edge of the bed crying next to my father who was tearfully praying because I could feel his pain and struggles as a black man.  One thing that I can admire about my father was his ability to share his emotions and I could never relate to the concept when I heard a man should not cry because it showed weakness.   I seen my father as the total opposite of this because his strength and courage in his activism and humanitarian work proved otherwise.  I felt that he could relate to the pain and struggles of others because he had to be able to feel them in order to drive a calling on his life to act and do something about it.  That call to action is what made him and his ministry and I absorbed all of that strength but understood the burden that brought him to tears. 

Nfaith came from these struggles that my husband and I experienced growing up.  We created T-shirts that we wore around town as we promoted empowerment through Nfaith with the slogans of "Step out Nfaith" and "Believe Nfaith" imprinted.  We continued to design 15 pieces to include hats and beanies and share our product samples to someone who saw the missions and the movement and spent her entire budget on our clothing line, which came up to about 3,000 units.  We came with a whole urban concept that was different from the norm and combined it with our collegiate licensing and shared our samples of the new UH sportswear apparel line which caused the buyer to light up.   After the meeting with the buyer, we were energized and felt full in our spirit because all our hard work paid off but then realized another uphill battle was how to get the finances to fulfill this large account.  It was a bittersweet moment and we had a deadline but we hit the streets running and knocked on doors for investors and met the challenge to get everything done from overseeing all production and utilize my knowledge in my retail management career.  Our apparel line consisted of t-shirts, sweatshirts, polo shirts and sweat shorts in a variety of colors ranging from small - 2Xlarge.  We had a variety of niche products to include a t-shirt with the first ever kiss-cut applique that featured Hawaiian print material cut out in the rainbow colors of the UH logo.  We had a variety of colored tees with a satin background and a Hawaiian material strip centered in the middle across the chest with a left embroidery of the university name, above the strip.  Our company name was embroidered or silk screened on the left arm of all our shirts.  We had labels, hang tags, and display signage produced with our company logo.  I remember we had a whole production process right in our 2 bedroom apartment living room with only the 2 of us.  We had boxes of hangers and apparel and began to tag apparel and accessories with our company, collegiate, and stores sku hang tags and placed collegiate stickers on all apparel and then put hangers on shirts and shorts sorting them by style, size, and color.  We then delivered the products along with purchase orders to both the Pearlridge and Ala Moana stores and as we went to approve the display signage and merchandising of our products we were ecstatic at how the presentation of our products took about half of the sportswear department.   70% of our products sold out in 2 of the JCPennys stores island wide.  We then adopted the new UH logo and produced the first ever letter man jacket for the University with a kiss-cut embroidered logo on the chest.  We had a number of accounts for our collegiate apparel with various sports stores.  

The weekend of 911 was when we introduced our new venture of Hawaiian print bean bag chairs at an expo show at the Blaisdell Center and the response was great.  Island Comfee Bagz then started production of a variety of prints and sizes and sold out at Craft Fairs islandwide.  The both of us renovated and opened a shop in Wahiawa near the Schofield Army Base to market to the military because the beanbags were transitional furniture and would sale the beanbags at the Aloha Stadium swap meet on the weekends.  We had a mini tour bus to move our beanbag chairs between events.  We closed our shop in Wahiawa because of the damaged roof and opened a temporary location in Aiea.  The beanbag chairs had such a niche with the Hawaiian print that it landed us a major account with Sam's Club/ WalMart in 2002 and the buyer was so excited that she wanted the whole line of sizes and styles in our bean bag furniture.  Sam's Club's plan was to not only market it to all stores islandwide, but also eventually nationwide after she introduced me to her Regional team.  Because the Aiea location was temporary, we took a trip to Maui and introduced our product to the marketing team at the Queen Ka' ahumanu Mall and received a fully executed lease to open our shop in the Mall and a tour of the storefront.  Our insurance company, First Insurance, that was handling the claim for our relocation and losses from Wahiawa, didn't react to help us finalize all projects underway to continue doing business, basically insurance bad faith, we couldn't recover after the losses to finalize production and fulfill the lease startup funding.   

During the trip to Maui, we visited the first Hawaii Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop near the airport and inquired about fundraising.  We set up and coordinated shipping options to have doughnuts flown over to Oahu for our non-profit organization, Ray of Hope, and opened up the opportunity to enable other fundraisers island wide to use Krispy Kreme.  Our non-profit organization was to help the homeless and provide necessities for disadvantaged families with children such as diapers, toiletries, etc. and to offer monetary assistance for bills and we would have the radio station advertise our cause and the grocery store where our fundraising would be.  We would also drop off boxes of doughnuts to the Women's and Children's homeless shelter.  Ray of Hope was inspired to honor my cousin, Raymond Alan Melley, who was killed as a pedestrian in a hit and run by a drunk driver on May 8, 2002.  An investigation was limited and justice was never served for his death.  This created a call to action, and an activist movement to create a deeper outreach to the homeless who are invisible, shunned, despised and discriminated against. 

My father-in-law invested $500 to start So Soo Clean Auto Salon and he knew the mission was to help men on the street and to put them to work and teach them a trade.  Neither he nor I realized the impact of how successful it would be.   Men will work hard for what they believe in and who they believe in.  You give them respect and treat them with respect, their bond becomes their word to work hard and learn.  I had to lead by example; be a boss but at the same time be a brother.  We ate together, we laughed together and sometimes we argued with one another.  Some of these men were lost; "I Once was lost but now I'm found".  Many were in love with alcohol and some had a different addiction but they knew they would have to come to work sober and I would always explain to them that they didn't need that substance because they could commit to 8-9 hours during work without it.  There were some days I would share a beer and poke ( raw fish) with them after battling a busy full day of work.  There were so many customers that would be kind and bring soda or pizza for the guys because they knew these men were working their way back into the system, but at the same time appreciated their hard work ethic and dedication to quality work.  It fed my soul because I was helping the same type of man that my father was.  He had an addiction but he always worked.  I was dealing with the same individuals as my biological father who struggled with life's trials and tribulations.  Many people didn't understand why I connected with some of these guys but we enjoyed each others company.  Sometimes I would have to talk with their family, mother, and wives.  I was being fed as I started to gain knowledge about these men and be apart of their lives.  My mission was to understand the type of man that my father was and help me understand why he didn't step up to be a better father.   They were sometimes fighting demons and I had to motivate them to clear their mind and advise them that it was going to be okay and we had to get through work today.  By noontime, they were content and at ease to just enjoy working together.   Some men some individuals just can't be responsible and you become too connected to the street and lose control because the streets become their family and who they trust.   I made sure I didn't shelter my sons away from these men at my shop.  They needed to understand what these men and life were about.  I wanted my sons to be versatile with what the world can do to people and not judge them and be afraid of the impact life had on these men.  As the story goes, Jesus was a carpenter, he was mocked and shunned and they lied upon him but he kept moving FORWARD; even while carrying the cross and the burdens of the sins of the world; unto his death.  One of our workers ran into some problems at work and at home and I had to terminate him for his actions.  It was hard because he was a good worker and a good friend.  I found out 2 months later he hung himself after a night of binge drinking in Kakaako beach park.  This had a huge impact on the mission FORWARD because we need to continue to fight for those that are afflicted and not let his death be in vain.    We were cut short at our new bigger prime location by an accident that caused a debilitating injury.  There are many more ways that we would like to continue to move FORWARD with our rehabilitative work and education programs for disadvantaged individuals who are racially and socially discriminated.  The fight continues because we are in a day and age where Racism is America's problem.  

Stay 'Nfaith' to continue to move FORWARD (Nfaith Under 1 Nation).