got this note from allen jackson...

Friends,

Each day is a little better. Today I am attending a meeting in Fort Worth about the future of the seminary. We are not going to miss a semester! I have heard our president say that The New Orleans Seminary has been in preparation for this unusual semester for some time now. We have technology available to offer courses online. We have extension centers throughout the the southeast. We have a campus in Atlanta that now serves as our administrative hub. We already deliver courses via Compressed Interactive Video, with video classrooms in New Orleans, Atlanta, Orlando, and Graceville (Fla). Our faculty is ready to go to work, and even though it will be a “non-traditional” semester, no student will miss a class or lose any tuition. God is awesome and the folks here are hard working.

My plan is to settle in Baton Rouge for the near future. We are looking for a house, arranging my resources in order to be able to purchase it, and scrambling for short term options in the mean time. I will remain as the interim pastor at Crosspoint for the near future. I will teach my classes via internet and traveling to Atlanta on a periodic basis through the rest of the semester. If I cannot afford or find a home, we will seek other options.

The support that I have received from you via prayer and encouragement has been awesome. I feel like I turned a corner in my spirit—getting away from Baton Rouge and all the manic activity related to recovery, congestion associated with traffic, and displaced schools (and all those issues), etc. I feel like I am moving ahead now with a plan. We need to get the word out that NOBTS is in business, God is in control, and our faculty (especially me! J) is ready to go to work. I am longing to be back in contact with the students in my classes.

The news from New Orleans sounds like the water is going away more quickly than anticipated, that the body count may be lower than predicted, and that services may be restored. I am not being naïve—below is a picture of the houses on my street—but I know that (as my daughter sings frequently), “the sun will come out tomorrow.” And it is already coming out. God knows the plans he has for us, and they are not for our calamity, but to give us a future and a hope.

Allen Jackson