By LEAH DARNELL, student reporter
Falls Creek Spring Retreat – CANCELED!
I could remember sitting in the Baptist Collegiate Ministries building by Northwestern’s campus with a group of friends before spring break. We were talking about how excited we were about going to Falls Creek, being around other college students and soaking in the stillness of Falls Creek a couple weeks after the break. After a stressful and long start of the semester, everyone was ready for a weekend to let the stress go and give everything to Jesus.
Falls Creek in Davis is a Baptist church camp for students’ sixth grade through seniors in high school during the summer months. The Baptist camp brings in thousands of students and sponsors from all of the country.
With Falls Creek being the largest conference center in the state, the grounds are open for events for college students as well. During the school year, spring retreat is hosted the first weekend in April.
After eight weeks of summer camp for middle and high school students, the grounds are open for collegiate week, so college students can come one last time before classes start in the middle of August.
I remember talking with a group of friends and wearing one of my many Falls Creek shirts because I grew up going to the camp with my youth group.
My mom, who has an Oklahoma accent when she speaks, has been the cook at Falls Creek for as long as I could remember, either solo or with a couple of people helping. One time while my mom was cooking, she asked someone to get her foil to put on a pan to continue cooking.
“Steve, can you hand me that foil over there?” Mom said.
“What did you just say?” a helper in the kitchen, Steve Hoover said.
“I said hand me the aluminum foil,” Mom repeated.
She says “foil” like “fool,” and Hoover thought she was calling him a fool though she just needed foil.
My dad, with a bald head, a handlebar mustache and the Harley-Davidson T-shirts and shorts he wears during the camp week, is known as the “Falls Creek brat.” Growing up in a Baptist church, my dad spent 18 years of his life at Falls Creek. My grandma was the cook for College Heights Baptist Church in Chickasha the years my dad went to Falls Creek. Now, he continues to go as a counselor with Glenville Church.
After a long and hard start to the semester, everyone was anticipating and gearing up for spring break and shortly after, spring retreat, before the pandemic canceled and changed everything.
Before leaving for spring break, students were gathered together at the BCM for a worship night. Immediately, after the music ended everyone’s phones and Apple Watches started buzzing. Whispers filled the room as students checked their phones while the speaker gave an encouraging devotion. President Janet Cunningham had sent emails announcing that students will need to take all school materials home when they leave for spring break. Classes were going online for two weeks since cases of COVID-19 were increasing, and Cunningham wanted to keep the safety of students, staff and faculty in mind.
Shortly, after the email went out and the speaker was done talking, everyone gathered together around the tables to eat and talk. As groups of people left, no one knew this would be the last time for the semester. An email sent out during the two weeks online, Cunningham made the decision to have the rest of the semester online and all events were canceled, including spring retreat at Falls Creek.
After reading classes were moved online and spring retreat was canceled, I honestly felt upset and sad. I knew I wouldn’t have a set schedule, but most importantly my social interaction with my friends and classmates before and after class was gone.
Also, with spring retreat canceled BCM students didn’t get the much needed time and break from the semester. I thrive on structure and interaction with others. Now I have no structure, and my have interaction with classmates and friends is through Zoom and Snapchat.
During my time at home, I am reminded what it feels like to be in the same area as my parents again. With classes going online, students were advised to stay at home and not in the dorms to help slow the number of cases.
My family members have all felt a full range of emotions during this time together. For my mom is a special education para at one of the elementary schools in Haysville. Once the news came about schools closing for the remainder of the school year, she started crying. All she could do was think about the students she helped this school year. Now, she is a part of five meetings throughout the week on Google Meets with the classrooms she was in during the school year.
My dad, feels a different range emotions, such as, anger, but also happiness at times. He is a truck driver for Textron Aviation in Wichita, Kansas. On March 18, he came home from work saying, he would be furloughed for four weeks, starting March 23, due to the coronavirus. Since being furloughed, he has not shaved and plans not to shave until we go back to church.
While being furloughed along with the majority of Kansas, he has been dealing with the Department of Labor. Recently, he has been told, his projected day to come back to work is May 4, a day after the stay-at-home order expired in Kansas.
When he isn’t dealing with the Department of Labor, Dad is completing his “honey-do” list from 12-15 years ago. One was to refinish an old church pew, which is now completed. It helps bring the whole room together with a nice stained finish.
Another item on the list was framing a picture with a skyline, birds flying and a prairie with buffaloes roaming. The frame is made out of boards from an old shortage building that sat on my grandparents’ property when my dad was growing up.
While my parents are in meetings on Google Meets and trying to get brownie points with doing items on the “honey-do” list, I am studying, working on homework or attending Zoom classes in my room. Being at home has been an adjustment. Instead of doing my own thing, I am confined to my parents’ rules. The upside of being home during this pandemic is enjoying the homemade food from my mom.
I am looking forward to the summer without classes. I’ll be helping my family gear up for my sister’s wedding. What I am looking forward to the most is collegiate week at the beginning of August. That will give me a chance to see my BCM friends, make up for spring retreat being canceled and spend time before school starts at the place I love.