Dear friends:

The events of the past week have had a devastating effect on everyone in America – from the New York City area to the tip of California some 4,000 miles away. It is impossible for anyone to come away from these events unscathed. Situated less than 20 miles across the bay from Manhattan, we could walk outside our office door last Tuesday and – throughout the day – see the billowing black smoke from what once was the World Trade Center.

On Wednesday one of our Long Branch teens asked Lynn Ann to drive her to some vantage point along our coast so she could look out across the bay. Alexus hoped this would give her some sense of peace. When Lynn Ann went to pick her up, however, she wouldn’t come. She simply could not face her 16-year-old worldview being torn apart. As we picked our Asbury Park choir up on Friday, the children bounded onto the van and began blurting out, "Did you hear about the plane that ran into the building in New York City?!" When we reached the church, Lynn Ann and Melanie calmly asked our kids exactly what they knew about the events of the week. The responses ran the gamut, from our 11-year-olds (who seemed to understand a good deal) to our 6-year-olds who understood very little.

Our task in our Aslan Right Choices classes over the coming months will not be easy – trying to instill hope in the midst of these troubled times. It is difficult to bring a sense of security to children who have no security in their lives to begin with. C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia from which we take our name Aslan, asked, "To whom will you turn to for help, if not to Someone greater than yourself?" It is comforting to know that Aslan offers the children who come to us hope in Someone greater than themselves.

Please continue to pray for the precious lives who get on our vans and our bus and pass through our doors each and every day. And please, in the midst of these very troubled times, do not forget how important your prayers and financial gifts are to the ministry of Aslan Youth Ministries.

Craig

Craig Bogard