How trauma, a mission trip to Haiti, and a community that refused to quit turned loss into a life of service and strength.
Kerry K. joined Aslan Youth Ministries in 1989. He was growing up in a single-parent home and had never known his father. In eighth grade, an unexpected family transition brought significant change to Kerry’s life. His mother moved to Alaska, separating Kerry from his twin sister. His sister relocated to northern New Jersey, while Kerry moved in with his great-aunt in Monmouth County.
It was a period of real loss and adjustment for a young man who was already navigating life without many of the foundations other children take for granted.
Like many young people facing significant change and instability, Kerry’s challenges showed up in his behavior at school. He struggled. And in environments that respond to struggling children with discipline alone, Kerry’s story could have ended very differently.
Aslan saw it differently.
We responded to Kerry the way we respond to every child who is working through something difficult: not with judgment, but with relationship. We paired him with a caring couple from the community who made a steady, consistent, and genuine commitment to this young man. They tutored him academically. They welcomed him into their home on weekends. They showed up for him with patience and encouragement, recognizing his strengths and investing in his growth, academically and spiritually. Over time, that consistent presence gave Kerry something he needed deeply: stability and belonging.
Kerry’s growth was gradual, as meaningful growth often is. But Aslan never made his progress a condition of our commitment to him. In 1996, when Aslan organized its very first mission trip to Haiti, Kerry was with us.
That experience changed him.
Something shifted in Kerry on that trip. Serving others, stepping outside his own world, and experiencing the power of giving freely opened something in him that had been waiting for the right moment. His focus sharpened when he returned. His schoolwork improved steadily. And Kerry K. graduated from Red Bank Regional High School.
He returned to Haiti with Aslan after graduation. There, on his second trip, surrounded by the mission that had helped shape him, Kerry made the decision that would define the next chapter of his life.
He joined the military. The structure, discipline, and sense of purpose that military service offered were a natural fit for the young man Kerry had become. He served one tour in Kuwait and two tours in Iraq, carrying himself with the courage and commitment that Aslan had always recognized in him, even during the years when he was still learning to recognize it in himself.
When he returned to Monmouth County, he was not finished. Kerry enrolled at Harding University in Alabama and earned a four-year degree. Today he continues to serve as a sergeant in the United States Army, stationed in New York City.
We are deeply honored by Kerry’s journey and grateful for the man he has become. His story reflects what becomes possible when a young person facing real challenges is met with patience, genuine relationship, and a community that commits to showing up without condition.
Kerry’s path was not always easy. It rarely is for the children Aslan is called to serve. But that is precisely why this work matters.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Stories like this one do not happen by accident. They happen because someone showed up, year after year, on the streets of Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, and Neptune, and refused to let a child’s circumstances determine their ceiling. We made that investment in every Aslan alumnus who came through our doors. And it continues today for the children riding the blue bus right now.
The Aslan Alumni Fund exists so the next generation receives the same commitment once made in you, and in every alumnus whose story we are honored to tell. Every gift, at every level, goes directly toward tutoring, mentorship, transportation, and the mission experiences in Haiti that have changed the direction of young lives for decades.
You know what this investment can do. You are living proof of it.
Give to the Aslan Alumni Fund
TAKE THE SURVEY
If you are an Aslan alumnus, your story matters more than you may realize. The foundations and grant-making organizations that fund Aslan’s work ask one question above all others: What happens to the children after they leave?
You are the answer. And we need your voice on record.
The Lion’s Pride Alumni Survey is short, completely confidential, and reported only in general terms. No names, no personal details, and nothing shared publicly without your explicit written permission. Your responses directly help Aslan secure the funding that keeps our programs running for the next generation of children in Monmouth County who need us.
Only a few minutes. A lifetime of impact.
