Over Thanksgiving week, I got to co-lead a team from my previous church: Pathways on a servant project to Tacna, Peru. We were able to help a few families by building a house, pouring a foundation for another house, and general clean-up. We were also able to spend time with the people, which is always my favorite part of a trip like this. Jeremy (pictured above) is a young boy with a lot of pre-mature family responsibility. His father is no longer living, and his mother just recently lost her second husband to death from a strange accident. Jeremy has three younger siblings that he helps care for, so is no longer able to go to school, at his young age of eleven. The stress of adult responsibility is evident on his child-face. He is living adulthood way before his time, at the loss of his childhood. One day, he brought out a deck of cards and was just sitting there, while his little sister was napping. I went over and we ended up playing cards. I taught him a few tricks, and we mostly played “go-fish”, “war”, and “slap-jack”. The smile on his face was priceless. It was a brief reprieve for him, from his normal responsibilities, a bit of childhood allowed to reign for a few moments. As I left towards the end of the week, I said goodbye to Jeremy as he was in a circle with his siblings and a few friends… playing go-fish. It didn’t change his life, but it brought a bit of childhood back to his reality.
None of us can ever choose how or where we enter this world, but we can share a bit of love along the way.
