My Favorite Camp Memory

I have a lot of great memories from camp, in five years there I have taken part in a lot of fun activities and adventures, made a lot of great friends, and learned a lot about Jesus and this eternal kind of life that He is calling us to. One memory, however, stands out above the rest, the memory of the first time I was able to play a part in seeing a camper come to Christ.
His name was Michael and I had taken him out to the front steps one evening before devotions for our one on one. I asked him the usual questions and found out that he didn’t think that Jesus was in his heart. In that beautiful child like way he told me that he wanted so badly to have Jesus come into his heart and save him from a life that up until that point had been full of a lot of working for grace. I will never forget the look in his eyes after we finished praying and for the first time his little heart was set free from the sin and darkness of this world. He wore a smile from ear to ear, the most genuine smile I have ever seen, a smile that told you that his heart was free.
That would be enough to make it a great memory but there is more. I then took his friend out for a one on one and the first thing that he said was Michael knows Jesus now doesn’t he? My heart began to burst, being filled with glory and a sense of awe at what had just happened. I asked him how he could tell. He looked at me and said I could see it in his smile.
It is that smile that drives me back into ministry. Whenever things have gotten hard and my heart has been discouraged, which can happen a lot in ministry, remembering that smile and the way that Michael's friend was able to know without even a word being said that his heart had been set free; that memory drives me back into this wonderful ministry with a new and revitalized sense of purpose.

That smile is New Life to me.