Dear Partner,

 

I thought I would share with you some thoughts from a youth pastor who brought his teens to HYC this past summer.  It was an encouragement to me and I hope it will do the same for you.  Your giving helped make it happen.

 

“I was excited to be able to send our students to Hiawatha this past summer. This was the first year that we were able to send multiple students to camp while also being able to fundraise and have other people donate so other students could go to camp. We ended up seeing seven of our students to camp for the summer. What a blessing that was!

 I along with my wife and our other volunteers of our student ministries were blessed in many ways seeing our students enjoy something they were very scared of. Most of our students were timid to leave the comfort of their home to go and try something new on their own. But they grew far beyond we could have imagined. 

 When I look back on the 2023 year, I will always look back to the summer at Hiawatha because that is where I witnessed our students’ lives change for Jesus! While we were up there, they quickly settled in thanks to the staff and other leaders at Hiawatha. At the beginning, some were nervous to join in with all the activities but quickly came to love Hiawatha and all of them wanted to stay once it was time to leave. 

 Some of the concrete things that changed for our kids because of Hiawatha:

  • One student came home and decided he wanted to read through the whole Bible. He has stuck to this challenge and updates us regularly.

  • Two students who did not even talk before going to camp became close at Hiawatha and now back at home have come out of their shells and become bigger voices in our Youth Group.

  • All of our students made long distance friendships with other campers.

  • Every student went up to the altar on a Tuesday night and made decisions about wanting to grow closer with the Lord.

 Our students continue to grow through our churches’ student ministries, but Hiawatha is where I saw their lives change. Hiawatha has been a big impact on my life, and I was excited to see that it is now a big impact on our students. There is indeed no place like Hiawatha Youth Camp.” — Jeremy Schlehuber

 

Thank you again for your continued partnering with us.  Looking forward to more blessings like these. 

Sincerely,

Craig