DAVIS—For 102 summers, Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center has been home to memories that will last a lifetime for campers during youth weeks of Falls Creek.

Each week of Falls Creek summer camp is made up of its own unique worship moments and highlights. From recreation to breakouts to speakers, the Lord’s hand guides the eight weeks of every summer where thousands upon thousands of students and volunteers gather to experience life change.

A camper reads his Bible as a part of morning quiet time at Falls Creek

As staff prepares for campers in early summer months, they undergo evangelism and testimony training. This training is to help equip staff members to have Gospel conversations with campers wherever they are encountered, whether that be in the ICEE drink line, at the ropes course or in the evening service at the tabernacle.

Todd Sanders, Falls Creek program specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma said the staff meets each Monday morning to share success stories from the week prior. “These conversations we have tend to center on conversations our staffers have had with kids and opportunities they had to help lead students to the Lord. That continues to be the biggest highlight—the spiritual work that God does in the lives of students and leaders in their groups.”

Sanders said this just continues to underscore the work that God has always done and continues to do at Oklahoma Baptists’ favorite camp ground.

“Staff have the daily opportunity to have extended missions mobilization conversations or Gospel conversations. That’s something we’re always doing is looking to share Christ and the Great Commission with campers,” Sanders said.

Sanders said staff members like Michael Davis, the Falls Creek multi-media coordinator, helped introduce other new aspects into the evening service time in the tabernacle. Every Thursday night of camp, an acoustic worship time took place.

“These accoustic worship nights gave us an opportunity to create a moment that’s different and puts us on our heels, allowing us to look for the Lord to move in different ways and speak to us in different ways,” Sanders said.

Highlights from the 102nd summer at Falls Creek - Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma 1

Students worship during the evening service in the Tabernacle at Falls Creek

Also new this summer, campers and church leaders were given the opportunity to read Scripture and pray to begin evening worship time in the tabernacle. “We wanted to get students more involved in worship—so we had a youth pastor and two students most nights get up and read Scripture and pray to start the service. I know it’s different, not jumping right into the hype, but having a moment to pause and listen to truth being read over the congregation in preparation to worship,” Sanders said.

Not unlike other summers at Falls Creek, life-change happened this summer. Cushing, New Pathways, who brought a group of nine campers, saw eight of those campers make professions of faith in Christ.

Pin trading, the popular pastime in its 10th summer, took off in popularity like never before. The activity, which was created to bring about conversations about missions around the world, has been widely accepted and practiced by churches who are now designing their own pins to put into the trading game.

Kickball tournaments were reintroduced and welcomed back into recreation time. As always, volleyball tournaments were a time when churches were competitive to bring home the famed Falls Creek volleyball intramural champions title.

“The biggest highlight of the summer are the more than 2,000 campers who came to faith,” Sanders said. “We just continue to be blown away by what the Lord does in the ministry of Falls Creek. It wouldn’t be possible without people’s willingness to pray and the generosity of local churches and leadership to give to youth ministry in our state. I can’t say thanks enough for those people who are so willing to do that, and to have leadership at our convention level that values next generation ministry,” Sanders said.

For more information and official numbers of decisions and attendance for the summer of 2019 at Falls Creek, see future editions of the Baptist Messenger.

To learn more about Falls Creek and its Legacy of Faith in the lives of Oklahoma Baptists, visit www.fallscreek.org.