landed in buenos aires this morning, went to the hotel, took a nap and a shower. then went to lunch for the best piece of beef in just about the whole world — an argentine cut called ¨bife de chorizo¨. it´s not the most tender cut, but the flavor is almost indescribable, it´s so good. and it was at a restaurant — chiquilin — that has so many memories for me, as yac and i would eat there almost once every day on the three or four trips we had together here (the restaurant is located halfway between the convention center and the hotel here in BA where we´ve had the event until this year). ate with karla yaconelli, ernie yaconelli (mike´s dad), valeria leys (wife of our spanish director), jeffry deleon (speaker) and junior zapata (speaker, and organizer of the convention we had in guatemala a couple months ago).

then, valeria took us to the ys office!

oh man. what a kick! lucas has been talking to us about this vision for years. all our ys products for events in south america were being stored in his parents guest bathroom and another person´s house. and gimena, who now runs this office, was working from her bedroom at her parents home. when karla and i saw this space last year (a couple weeks before we purchased it), it was a total dump. we really had to use our imagination to picture what it could be like. now, one year later, it´s a gorgeous old-world space (imagine a building exterior from paris, with little mini balconies and ornate cement moldings; and an interior — the office is on the 2nd floor — with 12 foot ceilings and lots of fancy plaster moldings), completely bright and beautiful and bustling with activity. we have 2 employees there, but there are currently two other ministries renting space from us (both are youth ministry orgs), plus a conference room and a media/meditation room, a kitchen (which was terrifying when we saw it last year!) and 1 1/2 baths.

it is so cool to get to support the ongoing grassroots work going on with youth workers and teenagers here. and it´s so cool that a space exists that´s dedicated to this work.

tonite, two busloads of volunteers (and gimena) will take the 14-hour trek to mendoza for the convention. we´re lucky, we´re flying there in the morning!