This is from a letter I received from Allen's brother James. I didn't make it back as often as I would have liked, but the Jackson's house is like a second home for me. Reading this breaks my heart all over again.
Hello friends--Many of you have asked about my brother. Here is what I know. While I still haven't talked to him personally, my sister has, and this is what she passed on to me yesterday:Like so many others, Allen and his family left New Orleans confident that they would be back on Monday or Tuesday after the wind died down. Allen even told the kids, "The only way our house could flood would be if the levees broke. We have nothing to worry about." So they did not take important papers, valuables, or anything else. They took Judi's Mountaineer and the 1986 Ford F-150 he inherited when our dad died, and which he and Aaron have been working on restoring all year. They left his Honda Accord in the driveway, since between it and the truck, it was the one with comprehensive insurance.
The water from the flood crested at Allen's roofline on the two-story house before going down to about seven or eight feet. Obviously, they have lost everything, including the brand-new washer and dryer they had put in the weekend before. Nevertheless, Allen counts himself as one of the most blessed people in New Orleans in that his family is with him and he still has a job.
Currently, the family is living in Baton Rouge. The kids are enrolled in school there, and Allen is looking at purchasing a mobile home and some land to put it on. He has had three job offers since last week, but I think is waiting to see what is going to happen with the seminary. Apparently there is going to be a meeting this weekend of all the faculty at in Ft. Worth (at Southwestern) to discuss the future of the school.
So how do you pray? Pray for Allen's kids-- Aaron and Sarah. This has been extremely hard on them, as they have lost all the friends they were sure they would see after the weekend. Now they are in a new school,trying to find their place. Aaron is an athlete who is going from being a starting pitcher at a 1A school to just trying to fit in at a 5A school. Sarah had been so involved in drama and dance, even with some professional productions through the Children's Theater of New Orleans. I think both of them are feeling the shock of all that going away in a blink.
Pray for wisdom. I suppose when you are trying to figure out what the next day is going to look like in the midst of so many questions and so much uncertainty, it makes it that much harder to figure out anything long-term. Pray that Allen and Judi will find where God is in the middle of all this.
Allen is probably the wisest, most Godly man I know. It's because of Allen that I am where I am now in ministry. All my life I've looked to him for guidance, for advice, for resources to help me make sense of life. Now Allen is at a place where he is struggling to make sense of the turn his life has taken. My sister could definitely hear the stress and the discouragement in his voice, and that is not something I am used to hearing from him.
Allen is currently the interim pastor at Crosspoint Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. If you're interested in contacting him or judi, email me at bethhintze@gmail.com.
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