If you want to expand it into novel-length, you must first decide: WHAT MESSAGE DO I WANT TO CONVEY?
Will it be the story of your religious awakening? Did some incident that summer later influence / contribute to your becoming religious? Or do the stories at least serve as a warning to live a clean and upstanding life?
Would those stories be of interest to anyone outside your religious faith?
As I already indicated, I (like, I think, a great many of your potential readers) would like to learn more about the "Carnie life" (that's why we'd be reading a book about travelling with the carnival, right?).
If the book contained a lot of interesting characters unlike "regular folk," that would motivate people to buy it. If, in contrast, the characters were just like "regular folk" (sometimes venal, unreliable, irresponsible, etc.) and had no other unique (Carnie-specific) features, the book would be boring.
My advice: Include lots of Carnie lingo (explain the interesting history of certain words), include colorful characters (the Tattooed Lady, the Geek, etc.), and go into greater detail (the linked story would be considered the right length for an 8th-grade composition, but for the work of an adult, it looks more like a "treatment" or a "summary").
Regards,
Oh and I agree.
If I wrote t, it would be written in a way that would reflect my mindset of the time, while reminding the reader I was young and like most youngsters my future was not in my head, although the time did effect me in a way I can now look bak and understand.
For religious Christian awakening purposes, would leave that for my commentaries.