Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson are among those that produced famous recordings of the love song, “September Song.” The song contains those familiar lyrics, “Oh, it’s a long, long while from May to December, but the days grow short when you reach September. When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame, one hasn’t time for the waiting game.” One of the simple messages of that love song is that life is short and each of us needs to take advantage of the opportunities of every single day.
Thirty-eight of our seminary students are doing exactly that this September. From Eclectic to Lynn Haven, from Notasulga to Niceville, from Montgomery to Milton, from Gallion to Pensacola, from Livingston to Gulf Shores, our seminary students have enrolled in their respective seminaries to take advantage of a great opportunity to prepare themselves for a lifetime of service to Jesus Christ and the church. Some are single, others are married; some have one child; several have two children; others have three children; and one has four children.
While September brings a fresh new group of students, our mission remains the same. It still costs approximately $40,000 a year for a full-time student living on campus to attend seminary. Although we have made a significant diff erence by increasing our cash scholarships to a minimum of $6,000 a year for each full-time student, we still have seminary students graduating with accumulated loans from four years of college and three years of seminary in excess of $75,000 a year.
Our task is not finished! It has only begun! With your great encouragement and generosity, I am now dreaming of the day, in the not too distant future, when we might be able to provide a minimum of $10,000 as a cash scholarship for each full-time student, sharply decreasing what they have to borrow. Our Foundation operates on very simple mathematics. The more you give, the more each student receives. Thanks for your great generosity!
You are truly making a diff erence!
Karl