Six Days in Pochocuape

Description & Comparable Works

In the early morning hours of the third day of a Nicaraguan mission trip, the author was stirred awake by the formation of this book in his mind. Having just self-published Our Way, a biography on his father that won a Gold Award from the Nonfiction Writers Association, he sprang into research mode and documented every facet of the mission in preparation for the manuscript.

On one level, Bill provides a glimpse into the developing world, using his keen, multisensory storytelling to paint vivid images of poverty and despair, which at every turn are buoyed by faith and hope. The stripped-down setting provides a perfect canvas for these opposing forces to interact. On another level, the author uses each of his six days in Nicaragua to expound on key elements of his personal ethos—tenets that are in demand in today’s changing and challenging world. Bill sees life through a Christian lens, but the book incorporates a range of additional influences, including Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, more general spiritual and secular viewpoints, and even the sagest of sages, Winnie-the-Pooh. Bill cites over two dozen published literary and scholarly works, yet the book reads as story not academia. 

This two-level approach was employed well in Mitch Albom’s best seller, Tuesdays with Morrie, which on one plane details the author’s weekly visits to his dying college professor and on another discusses matters of life, death, and many things in between. Bob Goff’s Love Does is another comparable work, one in which the author uses anecdotes from his own life to impart down-to-earth wisdom and observations about the importance of love and relationships.