So the word childhood came to my mind. There was this day during team time when we took turns looking into each other’s eyes and saying what came to mind. It was an exercise we have done at training camp and launch too. It is something I really don’t like to do, but it is a great exercise.
I pretty much have no memory of my childhood or proof. I don’t know what I looked like as a baby. However, I do have pictures of me at four and a half years old and older. Then I lost much of my childhood when my father passed when I was 13, and I grew up fast.
I do remember many of the times when I was a kid. I would play with my friends, have birthday parties, and attend summer camps. I was that kid that would climb this tree that my friend Sarah had, which was amazing. I had this awesome rock where I lived that my brother and I would climb non-stop. We had a backyard that was wooded, which means playing games like hide and seek, Easter egg hunt, and camping out. Birthday parties were at ice cream parlors, skating rinks, Chuck-e-Cheese, sleepovers and dance parties in middle school. Summer camp was fun, especially learning new things like archery, understanding nature and playing soccer.
Being on the race, I feel like I am being a kid all over again. It is more like having child-like faith. For instance, last month in Guatemala my teammate Sidney Ann thought that eating a cheesecake would kill her parasite, which she named Junior. We were leaving to have a family outing, and we stopped at a bakery and Sidney Ann got her cheesecake. However, before she ate it, she wanted us to pray that it would kill Junior. No lie, part of me thought that she was crazy. But she made a good point, that we should have child-like faith and go with it. So yeah, we all went with it and prayed over the cheesecake.
Then there was another time when Luke and Chelsey went to mail a package home. I went with them and it was fun to hang out with them and ask them questions. They got to ask me questions about things as well. Before they went to send it off, I thought that we should pray over the package. Then later that day I even prayed for the package I was sending home.
Child-like faith has been something I am still learning to understand. I’m learning to pray for everything and I catch myself praying over fruits that I eat hoping there is no worm or anything inside.
So I may not remember everything about my childhood, but I’m remembering there is still time to act like a kid by being goofy and silly. We are made to have joy and to spread it to others as much as we
