My Falls Creek Spot

Get off at Exit 51, go past the fried pie place, and head towards what is officially called 77D, but what most people just call the “High Road.”  If you are one of the millions who have been to Falls Creek Baptist Campgrounds over the years, then you recognize these directions.  Falls Creek has been a special place in the heart of Oklahoma Baptist’s for 100 years now, and those campgrounds have seen God move mightily over the years.  It was reported this summer that over 2.3 million people have camped at Falls Creek over the years, more than 66 thousand have been led to Christ there, and over 36 thousand felt that God called them to serve in vocational ministry.  God has worked in many more lives than that to be sure, drawing people to Himself through the work of preachers, sponsors, youth pastors, camp staffers, and more.

If you continue on up the “high road,” then you will come to the new gate.  Enter through that gate, and drive up to the first intersection and turn right at the Healdton Cabin.  Then follow that street down, past the Tabernacle on your left, and turn left at the next intersection, by the West End Cafe.  Travel just a little bit down that road, and a large hill will appear on the right. Turn by FBC Ardmore, and go up that hill a little ways, and you will come to a spot that I will remember for the rest of my life.

When I stayed there in high school it was owned by a different church, but now the cabin belongs to FBC Goldsby. The hill was a lot longer then, but was cut down for the new Tabernacle.  But right there in front of that cabin, right outside the main doors, is a spot where God changed my life forever.  When I was 15 I sat there on a bench with my youth pastor, and poured out my heart.  I was so angry over things that had happened to me, over things that I thought I didn’t deserve.  I knew better than God, you see, and my life hadn’t turned out the way I thought it should.  With simple wisdom and spiritual insight, Jason Gilbow probed at my heart.  He asked questions and made statements that will stick in my mind until the day I die. And there, in front of that cabin, God set me free.  I was a christian, having been saved at my church years earlier. But I was living in anger, not in the life God had for me.  Through my church, through my youth pastor, through Falls Creek, God spoke to my heart there, setting me free from my past and pointing me towards the future.  Later at Falls Creek I surrendered to serve God in ministry, and I have been doing so ever since.  It’s now my privilege and joy to lead students there every summer, praying that they too will have a spot like mine, that they will remember forever the way God worked in their heart at Falls Creek.  The work that God did that night doesn’t show up in the numbers that I mentioned above, but I am one of millions who had a heart change at Falls Creek.  There are untold stories just like mine, and you would be hard pressed to find a spot at Falls Creek where someone has not had a life changing encounter with God.  

At least once a summer, I drive by that spot.  I will never forget it.  It might happen someday that cabin gets torn down, or even that Falls Creek is no more for some reason. But the work that God did in my heart will never cease and will never go away.  I will carry that work that God did there into eternity with me. There I can celebrate with the millions of others who had their life changed at Falls Creek.  I’m thankful for the vision of those who sought to make this camp a reality, for the men and women who continue to work to make it happen.  I’m thankful for the the thousands of Oklahoma churches who give time and money to make Falls Creek happen every year.  I’m thankful that this summer I got to take my daughter to Kids Camp there for the first time, and I pray that someday she has a story like mine, of how God changed her forever at Falls Creek.