In August 2004, I moved to New Orleans to attend seminary. In August 2005, I left thinking I’d be back in a few days. It took nine months. June 1, 2006, actually, was the day I moved back. The first day of hurricane season. It’s been a year now. Ray Nagin was re-elected. So was...
After Katrina, NOBTS experimented with online classes via something called a Threaded Discussion System (TDS). Basically, our classes were self-guided, with online discussion that was led by our professors. The majority of our information was sent to in PowerPoint files loaded on Blackboard, and that’s where our discussion took place as well. Some liked it,...
Here’s a story I’ve heard twice this week from the building coordinator at Edgewater Baptist Church in New Orleans. (That’s my church.) We had a team of Baptists from Georgia scheduled to work on our sanctuary for last week. Two weeks ago, we found out that the sanctuary had suffered extreme termite damage over the...
I’ve been trying to put into words what the last nine months have been like in New Orleans, but they weren’t easy coming. When I got here I knew for certain this was where I belonged. Even though I feel the same now, I’ve dealt with a tremendous amount of frustration, depression, and confusion. Lately,...
They tell us crime is back to pre-Katrina glory. Nine murders in 11 days (as of right now). I’m not writing this because of Helen Hill. I’m not writing it because of the other eight murders. I’m writing it because this city needs to stop the murders. So I’m glad 3000 folks showed up downtown...
