May 2025

Dear Friends & Family,

Hello, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray you are doing well. This coming summer, I will be driving across the country up to Minnesota with my sisters, Grace and Claire, to serve in a leadership position at the wonderful Camp Oak Hills. This is a ministry that I rigorously believe in and have come to love more and more over the years as I have been able to see God’s work first-hand in the lives of campers and staff alike.

In the past, I have worked in our family’s swimming pool business, and so my involvement with camp ministry has been limited to the latter half of the camp season in 2023 and 2024, and only in the role of volunteer counselor. Despite this, I can say with confidence that God has used the people and the adventures at camp to change my life and further teach me what it means to follow Him.

This year will be a first for both Claire and I, in that we will both be taking official staff positions and beginning our summer in early June with camp’s focused and intensive two-week training period. For myself, it will be a longer training period beginning towards the end of May as I have the amazing opportunity to serve as Camp Oak Hills’ Head Boys Counselor. After training, I will serve for 6 weeks investing in the lives of campers and serving the guy counselors in whatever capacity I can. This will involve things like inspecting cabin cleanliness and hyping up the campers to see who gets to go to lunch first, being the go-to guy for camper situations where the counselors need backup or working with the counselors to make sure they feel prepared for whatever they’re doing. I’ll need to be available 24/7, including the dead of night. As a counselor, I looked up to the leadership staff who were there for me and worked with me through every difficult situation. I hope I can fill the shoes of the position and know that God can work through me to shine a light into the lives of the campers.

The purpose of this letter is to ask you to partner with me in this ministry opportunity through prayer and through financial means. My position will involve a combination of a paid salary and raised support, and this will enable Camp Oak Hills to remain financially accessible to as many campers as possible. My support goal is to raise $3,000 by August 1st.

Would you please consider making a financial gift towards this goal? In addition, would you commit to praying for me regularly during this summer as I share the Good News and love of Jesus with campers?

If you are able to be involved, please return the enclosed response card or give online at campoakhills.org. If giving online, please enter my name in the “Summer Staff Support” section. (All donations are tax deductible.)

I appreciate your time in considering this, your friendship, and your support.

Serving Jesus,

Ian Everett Buchan

ianbuchan96@gmail.com