Salvation, Tears, Joy....

We experience many things during a week of camp at South Mountain Baptist Camp. One of my favorite stories this summer occurred downstairs in the chapel on a Thursday night. As adults counsel with their campers, I make it a practice to move room to room, checking to see if anyone needs help or has questions about the decisions they have made. On this evening as I walked to the last room, one of our staffers, Jarod, came out of this room and stopped to tell me about one young man's decision. He could not talk for the tears choking his voice. He finally found enough voice to tell me a camper in his church received Jesus that night.

Jarod went on to describe how this camper understood completely that he needed a Savior and that Jesus was the only Savior that could fix his sin problem. Jarod said the young man went on to pray and express his feelings and his new found faith in the Savior.

Jarod was so blessed to be in the presence of Jesus this night. As Jarod finished telling about this experience with this camper, he had tears streaming down his face. I hugged and told him, "Those are tears of joy." And of course, I cried with him.

We are so privileged to see this miracle of salvation happen again and again on the mountain. We are also privileged to work with young men and woman who love Jesus and are not afraid of the tears.

When is the last time you saw or experienced tears of joy?