Faulkner University officials announced a significant new technology initiative Wednesday that will put iPads into the hands of 1,000 traditional students this fall, among other items. The Eagle iAdvantage program will upgrade the university’s website and wireless Internet infrastructure and add more opportunities for interactive digital learning. Through the use of iPads, the university also hopes to make use of e-texts, with the ultimate goal of saving money through digital textbooks.

Some glad morning when this life is o’er, I’ll fly away. To that home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away.

I love the words to that gospel hymn penned by Albert Brumley in 1929. Just one quick question: Do we have to fly? Might God consider special options for those who prefer wheels to wings? Perhaps a “Gloryland Way” bus or train?

Read my tongue-in-cheek column on my fear of flying.

The same day a cash-strapped Church of Christ in Florida discovered $15,000 worth of vandalism to its property, it turned around and donated $200 to charity, a newspaper reports.

The Somoa News reports on Fetuao Fa’asavalu, a high school volleyball standout who earned a scholarship to play at Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas (between Lubbock and Abilene). Fa’asavalu is a member of the Nu’uuli Church of Christ in Pago Pago, American Samoa, where her father, Luaao Soli, serves as minister. American Samoa is a U.S. territory in the South Pacific, about 2,500 miles south of Hawaii. The athlete’s brother, Junior Luaao, also is her coach.

Marie Gage, an 82-year-old member of the Westbury Church of Christ in Houston, was robbed and killed in her home Thursday night. Her husband, Bill, 84, a fellow Westbury member, survived the attack. The couple’s daughter Loa Glenn tells Houston-area media that the family relies on its faith and knows God has a plan. Loa’s husband, Greg Glenn, is head of school at Westbury Christian School, next to the church.

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.

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake. I would love to get your thoughts on ministry in Haiti. What should be the goal of churches working in this Caribbean nation? What does a good outcome look like? Do you suffer from “compassion fatigue” when you think about Haiti? In short, is there hope for this country’s future?

New on The Christian Chronicle’s website, read my report on a Church of Christ in Nairobi, Kenya, seeking to serve in an increasingly Muslim neighborhood — and see our online-exclusive photo gallery. The report is from a Sunday visit to Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighborhood during my recent Kenya reporting trip. The Nairobi Church of Christ Eastleigh and the Kenya Christian Industrial Training Institute share a compound in Eastleigh, where immigrants from Somalia are buying up much of the real estate.

In what some legal scholars were calling the most significant religion case in 20 years, the Supreme Court ruled today that a Lutheran school teacher was a “minister” who could not sue the church that fired her in 2005, Christianity Today reports. “The First Amendment provides, in part, that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the unanimous opinion.