I am writing this letter on our "bouncy" Aslan school bus en route to Creation Festival, a wonderful, five-day camp in Pennsylvania that we take a group of Aslan kids to each year.  An enormous amount of planning and preparation goes into this, but the lasting impact and rewards in the lives of the children who go with us make it worth all the hard work.  I am reminded this morning of the chaos that the children of Aslan are forced to live in the midst of.  Chaos rules in the homes of 99 percent of our children's lives.  Within the last few days, 8 kids have dropped out at the last minute.  What hurts the most is how much these 8 will be missing.  Why didn't they come?  Just yesterday, Cherice** (a 12-year-old living with her grandmother) was shipped off to Delaware to live with her mother.  She begged her grandmother to let her stay just five more days, and one of her aunts even offered to drive her to Delaware after Creation.  However, her grandmother told us, "I don't care what she wants.  Good riddance to her!"  Only last month Cherice's grandmother abruptly and rudely hung up the phone when Lynn Ann called to see if Cherice would be allowed to participate in our annual "Cheesequake Challenge" bicycle ride.  The decision to send Cherice to Delaware was already made, and the grandmother was unwilling to "waste" any more money on her.  Aslan has had a major impact in Cherice's life, but now we are losing the opportunity to continue helping her.

Five days ago James** dropped out of the Creation trip at the last minute when Lynn Ann called him for some information.  James' mother (only recently released from drug rehab) was screaming so loudly at him that Lynn Ann had to pull the phone away from her ear.  He came to the phone crying, but just long enough to say he was not allowed to go to Creation.  Last year James' mother did something similar to him when she refused to let him go on the "Cheesequake Challenge."  After 6 weeks of training rides, she chose the morning of the main ride to punish him and send him out of town.

We will have many triumphs this week at Creation.  We will see tremendous growth in the lives of the 13 kids who were disciplined enough to get themselves up, get dressed, pack a few things and meet us at the bus.  However, five days from now each of them will be forced to return to their chaotic lives.  In spite of this, they will return with hope for a better day - hope that with Aslan's care and nurturing they will some day rise above the present discouragements of their lives.  Thank you so very much for your gift of  and how you are helping Aslan bring structure, discipline and peace into the lives of children where only chaos rules!
 

Sincerely in Christ,

 Craig

Craig Bogard

** Note:  I have changed these children's names to protect their privacy.