Evangelism, benevolence, missions and university news from all points of the compass.
# Kyle and Melissa Vath have decided to return to the U.S. Jan. 6, 2009, after their one-year commitment at the Chimala Mission Hospital in Tanzania. “This has been one of the most difficult decisions we have ever had to make. We love the people, the language, the culture, and I absolutely love my job at the hospital. Unfortunately, we just feel it is time for us to pursue other avenues of ministry in our home state of Ohio,” he wrote earlier today.
# Greg Hamlin, Director of the International Bible Institute of Siem Reap, Cambodia, reported Monday the burglary of another laptop. The thieves broke through an iron grill covering a window. He wrote, “We have ordered a heavy iron grill of 3/4″ rebar to install and are going to hire a night guard. We are fortunate to have backed up Sheila’s MS Word documents the day before, so we didn’t lose any documents but the computer cannot be easily replaced, especially the programs. It is interesting that the flash drive we used to backup was still in the laptop but it fell out in the office as the thieves were taking the computer. That was the computer that we used to teach from on PowerPoint. We want to replace it as soon as we can.”
# Terry Frizzell, minister with the Stuart, Fla., church, reported seven baptisms Sunday, Sept. 28. “We have been involved in several ongoing studies lately that just all came to their end this morning,” he wrote.
# The sister of a Mormon elder was baptized Sept. 14 by Silvano Garcia II in the Snake River in Burley, Ida. Gloria Lara and her brother have been attending the congregation in Burley for several weeks. As a political activist, she spoke at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for veterans’ benefits. She has worked on a number of issues with former Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Idaho Congressman Burt Stevenson, and Idaho Senator Larry Craig, according to Silvano.
# Enrollment at Harding University, in Searcy, Ark., has topped 6,500. At 6,510, the total figure is at a record level for the 22nd consecutive year and is a 2.8 percent increase over last year’s total of 6,332, according to a university release.
# Mike Benson began full-time ministry Sept. 7 with the Kensington Woods church in Hattiesburg, Miss. He is editor of KneEmail and staff writer for Forthright Magazine.
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