Aslan and Samaritan's Purse

Exciting Developments with Student Venture and FCA

When people ask me about what God is doing at UConn, and what gets me fired up, it’s a very easy question to answer these days. I know we’ve shared a lot the past year about our work with middle school students here in Mansfield, and some of you may be wondering why we – who work at UConn with college students – have invested so much in a ministry to kids.

We launched SV at Mansfield Middle School because God opened a door for us through our existing relationships, and the new organizational structure within campus Crusade for Christ (high school and middle school ministry now falls under the Campus Ministry) allowed it to fit within our UConn campus ministry scope.

So here we are, working with middle school kids (and now high school kids under the name of Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and having a blast. During the past few weeks, we’ve had a fun Christmas Party, a guys’ night out to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and raised money to support underprivileged families in Africa and Latin America, through the ministry of Samaritan’s Purse.

Talking with the kids through the process of raising money for Samaritan’s Purse and purchasing things like books, blankets, shoes, and Bibles for kids, was incredible. The kids were excited to think about the impact we they were making in the lives of kids who have next to nothing (materially speaking). The kids were eager to help and be involved in such an important ministry.

In This Letter

The guys’ outing to see the latest installment in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia provided some outstanding discussion. At the end of the movie, Lucy asks Aslan if she will ever see him in her own world. Aslan says yes, and when she asks how, he replies, “Because there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

After the movie, we talked about who Aslan is in this world, and I reminded the kids about Aslan’s sacrifice for Edmund in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, where he gave his life for another, only to rise again. I asked the kids who that sounds like, and they answered, “Jesus!” To have these conversations with the kids is absolutely priceless.