It’s 11:35 at night. The house is quiet and I’m snacking on some Simba brand potato chips as a night cap following a full bodied Nicaraguan cigar called Argentum. Both were delicious, but best of all was the company.

After dinner, Nunu gives me that look, you know, the look a guy gives his bro that says…”You wanna get outa here?” Then he asks me if I like live music. I said “Heck YES!” We both looked over at our respective brides to get the nod, followed by a peck on the cheek and we were off, bumping down the dirt road towards…I have no idea where. After about a 15 minute drive we pulled up in front of a very fancy, and very empty restaurant. We walked in and right through the dinning room to the back patio. It was an open air lounge, bar tender wearing a big smile and a crisp white shirt. He greeted Nunu in Portuguese then me in English and asked us what we were drinking. “Coke Zero for me and a Grape Crush for my friend please.” We carried our frosted stemmed glasses out by the fancy swimming pool and settled in to listen to a 3 piece band and a guy with a pretty voice sing their songs for us….and 3 other people.

I passed an Argentum Nunu’s way and it was met with a broad smile, this was going to be great, I could feel it.

Amanda is like 20 weeks pregnant with their 1st. Nunu didn’t waste any time, he blurted out…”So, what can you share with me about being a good father, I’m pretty nervous.” If you know me, you know this among my favorite topics. Through his humble opening, we were able to skip the weather and real estate prices and jump into the things that matter. We took turns sharing how we met and fell in love with our wives, how we met and fell in love with Jesus and what we hope is true about our lives, our ministries, our children, our legacy. I can’t share the details in the time I have other than to say it was one of the most soul satisfying conversations I’ve had in a long time.

I feel like things are coming into focus, like God used my time with Nunu to begin helping me see why he brought us all this way.

Stay tuned on that front:)

As for today, it was really great. I woke up at 6:00 am and spent some time with God under a mango tree overlooking the Indian ocean. Kids started stirring a bit after 7:00, they ate some oatmeal and then we wandered over to see if we could be helpful with the construction of the building. We spent some time moving concrete blocks from a giant pile over to a more convenient pile so the actual builders could stay busy…building.

We had delicious rice & beans for lunch and then Nunu and I ran out to do some errands. I got some currency exchanged, we bought a few 5 gallon bottles of water and grabbed a newspaper. When we got back, everyone was ready to move around a bit so we walked over to the property they own adjacent to their house where we’ll be teaching and playing baseball with a couple dozen local kids tomorrow. The boys climbed trees, and the water tower, we played a little catch, and finally had a scrumptious dish Rebecca made using spaghetti noodles, zucchini, fresh garlic, and chicken.

I’m so very grateful to be here, Thanks for joining us:)