Dear friends,

Sometimes it seems like the whole world is on David’s shoulders. It’s bad enough that he doesn’t have a father in his life – someone to spend time with; someone to throw a ball to; a dad to tuck him in at night and tell him he loves him. David’s mother loves him, his brother and sister; but she works hard trying to make ends meet, and she has her own set of problems to deal with. That’s one of the reasons David is left with the world on his shoulders – and Danny and Shaquira, his younger brother and sister, to care for.

Worst of all, David always takes the blame when anything goes wrong. Many times we bring the three kids back to an empty apartment in the housing projects of Asbury Park. Working an afternoon shift, David’s mother is left with few options. The expense of daycare puts it totally out of reach. There’s barely enough money to pay the rent and put food on the table! When their grandmother is home, they sometimes walk to her apartment. Most of the time, they just stay home alone until Mom comes back. One day when Lynn Ann brought the kids home after class, they opened the door to find their wall unit missing and the TV set on the floor. Realizing the kids had nothing to keep them occupied for hours, Lynn Ann offered to plug in the television. David said no way! A few weeks before, he was in real trouble when Danny and Shaquira sneaked some of their mother’s orange juice out of the fridge. David was not about to chance touching the TV set. Maybe the saddest part of this story is David is only 10 years old. Danny and Shaquira are 8 and 6. It’s a small wonder David’s behavior is often terrible at Bible class & choir. He was especially bad at class yesterday. On the van ride home, he told Lynn Ann how sorry he was for acting terrible. Some things at school upset him, and he had a hard time working through them. Trying to be a 10-year-old kid and a parent too is impossible for anyone!

More than anything else, Aslan Youth Ministries offers David hope. During the precious moments he’s with us, he catches a glimpse of something better . . . something different than the failure surrounding him every second of every day. Sometimes the seeds of hope take a long time to break through to the sunlight. However, we at Aslan are patient. For 26 years we’ve watched those seeds produce a wonderful harvest of changed hearts and lives!

As we enter this wonderful season of celebration – the birth of Hope for us all in a tiny manger in Bethlehem – please remember how very important your support is to Aslan’s success. Tape the picture on the back of this letter on your refrigerator to remind you to pray for David and all of Aslan’s kids. And please make a generous donation to Aslan this Christmas so that David and so many others will continue to have this place of hope in their lives. We can’t do it without you!

Craig

Craig Bogard