Aslan Youth Ministries

A Presidential Point of Light

58 Maple Avenue * Post Office Box 270 * Red Bank, New Jersey 07701-0270
Telephone: 732-741-7824 * Facsimile: 732-741-3284 * E-Mail: aslanyouth@aslanyouth.org
Web Address: http://www.aslanyouth.org

Dear Friend,

Miguel* lives with his mom and younger brother in a dilapidated apartment about 2 blocks from our office in Red Bank. He has little contact with his father who lives in Florida, but he passionately loves his mother who has been chronically ill for the past several years. Miguel is a very intelligent young man with a great personality, but he is constantly in trouble for fighting. His Puerto Rican heritage places him somewhere “in between” on Red Bank’s Westside which is now equally divided between a shrinking African-American population and newly immigrated Hispanics from Mexico and Central and South America.

A few months ago Miguel was involved in yet another fight. Both boys started by pulling out knives, but they quickly and wisely decided that fists were a safer way to settle the dispute. The police quickly showed up on the scene, and both Miguel and the other boy were in a lot of trouble. Although just graduating from Middle School, Miguel appears to understand that the consequences of his fighting are becoming more serious as he gets older. Fortunately for his sake, the judge – rather than putting him in county youth detention assigned Miguel community services hours with Aslan. This is giving us the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time with this young man which will hopefully have really positive results in his life.

On Wednesday, Miguel came in the office for a while to just talk. Well, that’s not the whole story. What he really wanted was to ask for our help to buy a corsage for his girlfriend for an upcoming prom. Being soft-hearted (or a little soft-headed), John and I quickly figured out a way for Miguel to work some extra hours for us so we could help him out with the expenses for the corsage. I wish you could have seen the smile on his face when we told him we were going to help. Miguel is typical of so many of the children we work with. There just isn’t much hope for anything to change for the better in their lives. Although they talk about graduating from high school in a few years and going on to college, few of our young people believe it will ever happen. Like Miguel, they are mired somewhere in between and without much hope of any kind. Without Aslan’s help they would very likely continue to live their lives that way. But fortunately there is “the rest of the story,” to use the phrase Paul Harvey has so aptly coined.

Two years ago, Miguel attended a wonderful summer camp that we send lots of our Aslan kids to each year. He loved being away from his troubles even for a few days, and he made the first commitment of his young life to Christ at camp that year. We knew at the time that it was just a beginning, but we also knew Miguel understood what he was doing. As with all of us, the difficulty is in “living the life” and not just talking the talk. And this brings us to the purpose of this letter, which is to thank you for your kind support in the past and ask for your continued (and critically needed) support of Aslan. As long as Aslan is here, Miguel has a safe haven to come to – day in and day out – a place where he can find love and encouragement as he navigates the treacherous waters of high school. Please continue to pray for all of us here, as we continue to pour out our lives for these children.

Sincerely in Christ,
Craig
Craig Bogard

*We have purposefully changed Miguel’s name to protect his privacy

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