Met Nick Dichaves when I was 9 years old. It was love at first sight. Yes…love. I love competing with the guy. He was the Makati Hope whiz kid before I came. He loves what I hate and he hates what I love. I love Ginebra, he loves San Miguel (PBA team, di alak), I love Jaworski, he loves Fernandez. I love to beat him in class, he loves to beat me in class. (grades ah, di suntukan) And through our differences, we became friends.

Though we do had a lot in common. We love the same music, we love politics, we love studying encyclopedias, we love basketball, we love to have crushes and basically we love learning, nerdoks nga kami.

When we graduated high school, I rarely saw Nick except during high school reunions. I remember one time he was to leave for Australia and invited us to his despedida party. I was so concerned with his faith that I came with my Bible and preached the gospel to him and my high school friends amidst the loud music in Outback.

He looked at me and said ” Dennis I respect your faith but I am not ready” Nick was being a hardcore Atenean – wanting to analyze things. I said Ok, but at least I did my part.

Fast forward 2 to 3 years I was surprised to see Nick in church. I thought Christ was coming back soon. Why would Nick after all these years be back in church. We had tapsilog every Sunday at the Fort canteen while going through our One2One booklet where Nick in his typical analyzation mode asks me questions about the Bible.

Months pass and I was more surprised to see Nick serving in our Kids church. I knew God was doing something in Nick’s life.

A few more months after that and was again surprised to see Nick get involved in small groups.

A year after Nick was consistently going to church and small group. And today I was given the privilege to baptize Nick. Bro, proud of your decision to take your faith to the next level.