Our Future and You
It is inevitable. The sun has to go down.
But rays of hope come with the morning.

Dear Scoop Visitor,

There is no doubt in my mind that this news is going to be just as hard for me to announce as it is for you to hear. However, it is necessary to get things out in the open in advance so we can all be prepared for what's ahead.

Okay, here's the plain truth. Over the years, I have thought of myself as the type of person who would graduate from high school and lead a close-to-home college life. But God has other plans at this time of my life. I've prayed and sincerely sought God's will on my future. I spent many hours resisting God's will for my life and hoping, just hoping that His will could be my will. But it wasn't, and I thank God for that now. This fall I will be attending Pensacola Christian College in Florida and seeking a major in Broadcasting.

Early January 2004 was the month I realized that my will was conflicting with God's. I had decided I was going to make it work my way rather than God's way. But those dreams came to a crashing halt when thoughts of graduation and the future entered my life. I prayed long and hard about it and wanted God's will to be done. Finally, with a lot of evidences to back it up, I realized where God intended me to be. That is, for now at least.

So that left me at a crossroads. What should I do with the Scoop now that I won't have access to internet at college (PCC didn't allow internet use at the time)? Do I give up my little ministries in the church or do I follow in the footsteps God had printed for my feet? Finally I decided the best possible solution. The Odyssey Scoop would have to go. No site updates, no exciting AIO news to be posted, nothing. Another dead AIO site on the worldwide web. But once again, things changed I and I came to another decision. Pensacola will now be providing access to wireless internet to campus students. In other words, there is a possibility that I'd be able to keep the Scoop going. However, it is not guaranteed that I will have the means of keeping the Scoop alive. "Limited internet" could mean anything. So now I provide you with the world of melancholy I have faced for nearly eight months. I am a very sentimental person. Letting the website die would be very hard for me. No doubt I would probably lose interest due to the passing ages of time.

So as my big announcement, as well as the purpose of this letter, I leave you with this. On August 31, 2004, the Odyssey Scoop will close its doors for the first time in almost four years. This last month of the site's existence will be a rough time on all of us, especially me. I will be preparing some last minute things: Forum Awards 5 and some other things that have been hanging about. The end of the month will be when you begin to see some closure put to the site. I will make my farewell and promptly disappear. I hope to leave the site as a thorough and complete website for future viewing. The site will still be here, yes, but updates are not guaranteed at this point.

With all this bad news, there is good news. Considering Pensacola gives me access to things like FTP and the right connections, I will gladly try to fit the Scoop into my schedule. I will put up a good fight as I settle into my new life. It is possible that after mere days of closure to the site you may just happen to see an update or two. It's very possible that the Scoop may open up again, and I'm sure we'll find a way of letting you know.

Believe me, I don't want you to be too upset at this announcement. I'm upset enough as it is. I just hope that we can all settle into this new change as quickly as possible.

Don't give up visiting in the first month of the site's closure. You may be surprised to see the site open up again. And now I leave you with the words of our beloved John Avery Whittaker himself: "The best is yet to come."

Sincerely,

Jacob Isom
Webmaster and "Top Cone"

P.S. If you are registered for a free account with the ScoopMail E-mail Service here at the Scoop, your account will be terminated on August 31, 2004. All e-mail usernames will be removed from the server on that date. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. I would gladly keep the service running if I had the means to do it. If you signed up for an account within the past few months and didn't receive your login information, this is why.