Falls Creek celebrates Centennial birthday
DAVIS—Ice cold ICEEs fly out of service windows as fast as employees can make them. Frappuccino’s meet the lips of expectant, sleep-deprived campers. Music and free T-shirts fill the air on the Centennial Plaza. All in celebration and a part of 100 years of Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center. Each Wednesday night at Falls Creek, a celebration takes place in honor of the 100th birthday of Oklahoma Baptists’ favorite encampment. Like...
Oklahoma Baptists spring to action in Elk City
ELK CITY—On May 16, mere hours after a devastating tornado near Elk City damaged some 100 houses and killed one person, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) volunteers were responding to the crisis. National news stories interviewed Beckham-Mills Director of Missions Danny RInger, who serves as Elk City fire department chaplain. Ringer was among the first responders on the scene. Sam Porter, DR director for the Baptist General...
Oklahoma Baptist DR rebuilding the heartland
KNOWLES–Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) is continuing efforts to rebuild in western Oklahoma after the worst wildfire in the history of statehood. The fires swept over 1,200 square miles in Beaver County alone in early March DR Crews have been serving in and around the area, assisting ranchers that lost thousands of heads of cattle and more than 10,000 hogs in wildfires that swept the Panhandle. The fire started on March 6, in...
Shining light on Lawton’s Asian ‘Hidden Harvest’
LAWTON—It’s 6:30 a.m., Monday. Chunhai Li is loading up his car with Bibles, Christian literature, song sheets and heading out with a few faithful members of Oklahoma City-area Chinese churches toward Lawton. Chunhai is a worker in Oklahoma’s Chinese Hidden Harvest, one among several of Oklahoma’s under-served, overlooked people groups or population segments. Li is pastor of the Oklahoma City, Northwest Mandarin, but every other week...
Partnership missions: Hay bale donations bless NW Oklahoma
Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief has received an overwhelming amount of hay bale donations to help those affected by the outbreak of wildfires in Northwestern Oklahoma. Sam Porter, state director of Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) said, “We put our need for hay on social media and within just a few days, thousands of hay bales had been donated. We’ve had over 6,000 bales offered to us, but it is overwhelming since we don’t have...
DR TEaM Center dream becoming reality
Almost 44 years after the birth of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s (BGCO) disaster relief (DR) ministry in 1973, DR Director Sam Porter’s dream of an all-encompassing training, equipping and mobilization (TEaM) center is nearing reality on a windy hill about eight miles southeast of Okarche. Porter, who became the BGCO’s DR director in 1998, expects the TEaM Center to be functional soon, thanks to a successful fund...
