Functionality: (Noun) The quality of being suited to serve a purpose well; practicality.
As many of you know, the first phase of the Falls Creek Centennial Campaign has been oversubscribed. Praise the Lord for His goodness! And thank you to the thousands who participated over many years to accomplish this successful campaign.
The outstanding debt on the R.A. Young Tabernacle has been paid in full, and three new buildings (the Mathena Family Event Center, the Thompson Family Lodge and the Jordan Welcome Center) are debt free. That means when all of the outstanding pledges are completed, we will have totally paid for all the buildings in Phase I. But where there is a Phase I, there must be a Phase II.
Phase II of the Falls Creek Centennial Campaign will include strategic, functional upgrades, such as the construction of new housing for staff who live on site; remodeling of two remaining lodges; remodeling of the former dining and kitchen facilities into a new gift shop, drink and snack services area; an additional coffee shop; and a new expanded plaza where the Icee, pop and other snack service buildings are now located. The upgrades will make serving large, medium and small groups year-round more operational and create a savings on servicing and maintaining these services throughout the year, not just during the summer months.
With the dedication last year of the Kannady Family Lodge and the Thompson Sports Pavilion, Phase II already has completed two of the major pieces of this part of the campaign. These features will ensure that Falls Creek Conference Center will be poised to meet the needs of attendees for another 100 years during any season of the year.
Phase II includes:
• Completed: Remodel of Lodge I (dedicated as the Kannady Family Lodge)
• Completed: Providing a Sports Pavilion (dedicated as the Thompson Sports Pavilion)
• New housing for the staff and director of Falls Creek
• Remodel of Lodge II
• Remodel of Moorer Lodge
• Remodel of former kitchen and dining facilities
• New expanded plaza outside of the former kitchen and dining area (a natural extension of the Downing Way)
With the dedication of the Phase I buildings (the Mathena Family Event Center, the Thompson Family Lodge and the Jordan Welcome Center), we have already seen just how much these facilities have added to the year-round usability of the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center.
We have seen that these buildings are serving the purpose for which they were created. Phase II will continue the functionality of upgrades we have seen recently at Falls Creek. Look at what has been added to the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center in the past decade: an amphitheater, the Wynn Missions Center, water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, a new water tower, the new north entrance, the remodel of Lodge I (now the Kannady Lodge), the Thompson Sports Pavilion, the Jordan Welcome Center, the Thompson Family Lodge, the Mathena Family Event Center and the Downing Way.
As we approach the 100th anniversary of Falls Creek in 2017, we still have many projects that will add to the practicality of Falls Creek to meet the need for which the camp was started. Please commit to participate in Phase II of the Falls Creek Centennial Campaign so we can continue to say with humility, as Anthony Jordan recently shared with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Board of Directors and guests at the building dedications on Feb. 2, “God did it through us!”
Contact me for more information about your gift for the Falls Creek Centennial Campaign Phase II at 405/516-4868, mharkey@bgco.org, or toll free at 800/690-6933.
