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.

TV station WFMZ in Philadelphia reports: A police sting operation has led to the arrest of a man accused of stealing from a church during Sunday services.

Street gangs have repeatedly targeted the Rex Avenue Church of Christ in Dover, Fla., a church member said. The most recent case was discovered Wednesday morning at the small community church on Rex Avenue.

No words can help minister Les Ferguson and his family deal with the recent deaths of his wife, Karen, and son Cole. Ferguson and his sons Casey, Conner and Kyle are in mourning but are supported with love by the members of Orange Grove Church of Christ in Gulfport, Miss., where Ferguson is the minister. “I want to thank everyone,” Ferguson said. “My church family was just here and took over my needs that could be met. I am leaning on them and God. I have not been alone and have not had to do things on my own. I am very grateful to everyone. The church has allowed me to take as much time as I need before returning to the pulpit.”

What kind of guy is Grant Edmonds? “He’s the kind of guy,” Jeff Phillips told me, “who’ll show up and cut your yard, and you’ll not know who it was, and he’ll never tell you.” In a word, he’s a “servant,” said his close friend and brother in Christ. What kind of guy is Grant Edmonds? He’s the kind who, when a robber shoots him in the belly, covers the wound with his hand and drives himself to the hospital, according to friends, family and a Memphis police report.

Who would steal $6,000 in change from a Christian children’s home? That’s the question facing Mountain States Children’s Home in Longmont, Colo., after a recent car burglary in Seattle. James A. Maxwell, minister of the Holgate Church of Christ in Seattle, alerted me to the break-in and asked fellow Christians to help recoup the lost funds.

A Memphis man has been sentenced to 171/2 years in federal prison after his conviction earlier this year of running a bogus debt-reduction company that defrauded regional churches of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Among the victims: The Ensley Church of Christ in Birmingham, Ala., which paid McKuhn’s company $106,540.

The Thousand Oaks Acorn reports on the Camarillo, Calif., Church of Christ. In 2007, the church’s youth minister was arrested on charges of sexually molesting multiple teenage girls over a period of eight years, the newspaper reports. “It was a period of rapid decline and heartbreak,” (minister Keith) Whitney said. The incident had a detrimental effect on the church. The congregation shrunk from nearly 200 members to 50.

The building of the Dickinson Church of Christ — one of the few Churches of Christ in North Dakota — was damaged after a burglar broke into the church and attempted to burn the evidence of his crime, the Dickinson Press reports: Church of Christ preacher Kenneth Anderson and his wife Dr. Patricia Anderson live next door to the church and as Kenneth was preparing to remove snow he noticed smoke and called 911. Dickinson resident Joshua Whitworth, 21, was arrested at about noon while entering a north Dickinson strip mall. He was charged with burglary, arson and possession of stolen property, according to the Dickinson Police Department.

News 12 in Augusta, Ga., reports:
A few dollars worth of copper — that’s what authorities say motivated someone to break into a churchyard and rip apart the H-V-A-C system. D’Antignac Church of Christ’s side yard is now littered with thousands of dollars in damage.
Minister Larry Knight says he was completely shocked when he saw the extent of the damage, “We are probably looking in the avenue of forty to fifty thousand dollars. And they received maybe a hundred dollars for the copper.”
Knight says the church recently put up an …