You Forget A Lot

You forget a lot. You forget how many beds you’ve slept in over the year. You forget how many times you had to pack and repack your backpack. You forget how many hours you spent on a bus, in a plane, or in an airport. You forget how many days it’s been since you were home and you try not to remember how many days you have left until it’s all over. You forget a lot. But I pray you don’t forget the memories.

I pray you don’t forget the smiles on the Albanian kids’ faces as you came out every day at camp to play soccer.

I pray you don’t forget the moment your Romanian contact’s baby girls finally trusted you and let you swing them around and throw them in the air.

I pray you don’t forget the South African guy you met in Greece who came to church the next day just because of your conversation with him.

I pray you don’t forget the little boys in Malawi coming back to the church every day after school still calling you teacher.

I pray you don’t forget the friendship you formed with the construction worker in Zambia and the countless extra hours you spent at the site in between ministry.

I pray you don’t forget the amount of time you were able to dedicate to diving into the word and praying in Cambodia.

I pray you don’t forget the day your favorite girl from Thailand bought you a pair of matching earrings and the day she told you she was no longer going to be working in the bars.

I pray you don’t forget the day your favorite Malaysian girl made a shirt that said “I love Peyton.”

I pray you don’t forget having to scale the side of a mountain in the pouring rain to check on a lady after bringing her to the doctor in Ecuador.

I pray you don’t forget the look on your Peruvian pastor’s face after you shared a message in English and Spanish.

I pray you don’t forget the time you were on tv, prayed for women in the maternity wing of a hospital, were on the radio, and went to two women’s groups all in one day in Bolivia.

I pray you don’t forget the way your baby girl at the special needs school’s face would light up every morning she saw you and how you already missed the girls at Casa Esperanza before you had even left the ministry site in Chile.

I pray you don’t forget the moment you went from counting down the days to trying to make every day count.

You’ve been traveling for a year. You’ve had highs and you’ve had lows. You’ve had moments you’ll replay in your mind for the rest of your life, but you’ll also have smaller moments that seem to slip through the edges. You will forget a lot. But I pray you remember the joy you experienced. The love you shared. The life you were able to live. I pray you remember the good and thank God for being there through the bad. You will forget a lot. But I pray you try to remember.