The Gander Brook Christian Camp family is mourning the death of Cecil D. Perkins, a beloved figure to generations at the Maine camp. Camp director Shawn Daggett shared the news.

Lubbock Christian University has invited two candidates to visit with the search committee seeking the university’s next president: L. Tim Perrin and Brian Starr. Perrin is vice dean and professor of law at Pepperdine University’s School of Law in Malibu, Calif. Starr is executive vice president and professor of economics and investments at Lubbock Christian.

In a recent Inside Story column, I mentioned LaVance Wes Anderson, minister for the Downtown Church of Christ in Kansas City, Mo. Now comes news that the Downtown church is seeking $5,000 per month in support to remain at its current location.

It grieves me to report the deaths of David C. Bell and his mother, Sue E. Bell, in a Jan. 7 car crash near Hornbeak in west Tennessee. David Bell, who lived in Forsythe, Ga., was a longtime member and song leader for my home congregation — the Thomaston Road Church of Christ in Macon, Ga. His mother was a church member in Union City, Tenn., near the site of the wreck.

Florida College, a 500-student college associated with Churches of Christ, is mourning the death of one of its sophomores — 19-year-old Jolee Tarrant. The college plans a memorial service for Tarrant at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, on its campus in Temple Terrace, Fla., a suburb of Tampa. Tarrant died in a Jan. 4 wreck in Zephyrhills, about 21 miles northeast of Temple Terrace.

The parents of Karen Ferguson have established a scholarship fund at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., in honor of their daughter and grandson, killed in a brutal act of violence. We reported on the Ferguson family after the Oct. 10, 2011, attack at their home in Gulfport, Miss. Karen Ferguson, 44, and son Cole, 21, were shot to death by an intruder. The suspect in the double-homicide — Paul Ellis Buckman — died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his apartment about two miles away, Gulfport police Capt. Craig Petersen said.

Oklahoma Christian University has named two finalists to succeed Mike O’Neal as the university’s president: Allison Garrett and John deSteiguer. Both are internal candidates. DeSteiguer is Oklahoma Christian’s senior vice president for advancement. Garrett is senior vice president for academic affairs.

“Historically” a cappella Churches of Christ that have added instrumental services will be included in the 2012 edition of a national church directory published by 21st Century Christian. This is a change from three years ago, when 21 congregations — including The Hills Church of Christ — were omitted from the 2009 directory.

In August we reported on Emmanuel Abiodun Adegoroye, a longtime Nigerian minister who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood’s plasma cells. Christians in Nigeria collected more than $30,000 for Adegoroye to travel to the U.S. and receive treatment at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

The Omika Church of Christ has elders for the first time in almost 40 years. The past three years, the church has been studying the qualities, work and qualifications of elders. (Recently), after months of prayer and preparation, two men were installed as elders. Jim Batten and Hideki Ataka are the new elders of the Omika church. Brother Ataka has been preaching for the Omika church nearly 30 years, and Batten has been involved with the congregation for the most part of 40 years.