1 Timothy 4:12

Just before Easter weekend I arrived at Hogar de Esperanza. The desert is my new home. To say the least, it was surely a different Easter. There are thirty nine kids here, the age range is one to seventeen. Slowly I am learning names and characters as I try to make sense of their raced Spanish.
All of the other volunteers here I love!! All, bar one Canadian, are American, and thought hot cross buns only existed in the song. But alas, they are real! I really feel like I've been accepted into their little family.

There's one thing that I have been reminded again and again on this trip, and that is my youth. At eighteen I am still so young. Almost every adult I have met in Peru has said "but you're so young!" Hugely aware if my youth after so many comments began to hinder me, causing me to question myself and God if my youth brings about a lack of potential. Was there a problem with doing something like this at eighteen? I don't have wisdom of the years, nor more than eighteen years of life experience.

But then I came across 1 Timothy 4:12 "don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity". Suddenly I received a surge of energy and encouragement. I realized that if God wanted someone older, he would have put the desire in someone elses heart and not in mine. I don't need to be older to do God's will. Despite my age, I trust that God is with me every step of the way. He is in control. It's just my job to shine the light.