By Gary D. Myers

NEW ORLEANS – After almost eight months away, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary closed the school’s temporary administrative offices in Atlanta and returned home to New Orleans. The return marked yet another important milestone on the long road back from Hurricane Katrina.

Approximately one fourth of the offices and staff members returned New Orleans in January to assist with spring commuter classes on the main campus. Internet, telephone services and electricity were still spotty at the time. Mail deliveries to the main campus had not begun. Only a small number of apartments had been restored.

Due to the lack of services and available housing in January, the majority of the staff remained in Atlanta as the campus restoration continued. On April 24 the relocated office opened again on the main campus.

“It’s great to see so many of you back,” Seminary President Chuck Kelley told the staff members during a group meeting at Martin Chapel April 27. “It really does take all of us. What you have done this year is the stuff of legends.”

The week took on a festive mood as the close-knit staff was reunited. The Campus Life and Dean of Students offices, back since January, hosted a welcome back cookout for the staff April 24. Each day staff members reconnected over lunch at the cafeteria.

Most of all the office quickly unpacked and got back to work. With graduation and summer workshops only a few weeks away, the move could not have come at a better time.

Kelley called attention to the work of Southern Baptists in making the return possible.

“We need to thank Southern Baptists for their help,” Kelley reminded the staff. “It is the Cooperative Program that made this possible.”

Close to 1,000 Southern Baptist volunteers had restored the apartments that staff members call home, Kelley said. Volunteers continue to prepare the seminary campus for full scale resumption of campus operations in August.

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