The Big Rocker at Dry Creek Camp

2026 The Big Rocker at Dry Creek Camp

A Love of the Land

 

 

The Rocker at Dry Creek Camp

 

“Do you think now that rocker is worth $1500?”

 “No, it’s worth more like $15,000.”

 

It was a conversation I’ll always remember.

Framed with a lesson I will not forget.

 

My special friend Karan Robinson shoved a photo into my hand.

“Don’t you think that’d look good on the front porch of the Camp Tabernacle?”

The photo was of a huge rocking chair that held about six children.

I smiled. There’s not much I wouldn’t do for Karan, the mother of Brad Robinson, and ‌a trustee of Dry Creek Baptist Camp.

We’d just finished another stage in the Tabernacle renovation at Dry Creek. The new front porch was filled with six wooden rockers and several “baby bear” matching rockers.

 

Karan continued her sales pitch. “There’s a man in Arkansas who makes these giant chairs.”

 

I asked the typical manager’s question. “How much would one cost?”

“Fifteen hundred.”

I grimaced. “Karan, I just don’t believe that’d be the best use of camp funds.”

“Bro. Curt, It’d sure look good on the porch.”

“Yes it would, but I’m not sure we can do it at this time.

 

A month later, Karan drove up with a huge rocker on a trailer.

Karen said, “Our church youth raised the money for the chair.” She pointed to the top of the rocker where it was engraved, “Dry Creek Baptist Camp.”

“It belongs here.”

I could only nod. She was so right.

The staffers manhandled it into place on the Tabernacle front porch. Our first act was to make doorstops to place under the rockers so they wouldn’t move. It was heavy enough to pinch a toe off.

 

Two months later, Karan and I stood watching two dozen squealing preteen girls crowded onto the rocker as a counselor snapped their photo.

She eased up to me and, in the same grin her son Brad was famous for, and said, “Do you think now that rocker is worth $1500?”

“No, it’s worth more like $15,000. In fact, it’s priceless.”

 

 

The rocker, or as it is best known, “God’s Rocking Chair,” is an integral part of Dry Creek Camp.  It’s probably the strongest symbol of what marketers call “Branding.”

 

It is symbolic of what the Camp is about: A big God who has always worked at this place we love called Dry Creek Baptist Camp.

A Camp that operated for one hundred years. Its doors have been open through tough times, the Great Depression, a devastating World War, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

This Camp has a big God. He’s bigger than any of the above.

I love to watch squealing campers crawling over the Big Rocker like cat squirrels, but I especially like to sit by it when the Campgrounds are quiet and still.

I think of the refrain I’ve heard my entire life,

“When I drive through those gates, I feel the presence of God.”

That God is much too big and powerful to sit in anybody’s rocking chair, but this

beautiful cedar rocker is symbolic of His presence and watch care.

 

In the years since the Big Rocker arrived, I’ve helped my grandchildren up into the chair as well as several octogenarians.

The Big Rocker was another big lesson for me.

It’s a lesson that some things are priceless.

Some expenses are not a true outlay, but an investment.

 

Thanks, Karan for a good lesson on the economics of the heart.

A lasting symbol of what makes Dry Creek Camp so special.

I hope you make a visit to Dry Creek. You’ll always be welcome.

And why you’re there, climb up in the Big Rocker.

 

Curt Iles began attending Dry Creek as a child and worked every sweaty job to be found. In 1993, he became the manager of Dry Creek Baptist Camp until 2006. He still considers that time as one of the most fulfilling times of his life.