Baptist Briefs
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Schools get big gifts. Two universities with Baptist roots, Furman and Mercer, recently received multi-million-dollar gifts. Furman, in Greenville, S.C., will receive 45 percent of the estimated $400 million holdings of John Hollingsworth who attended the university for just one year. The gesture by Hollingsworth, who died Dec. 30, made the pages of The New York Times. Mercer, in Macon, Ga., with a second campus in Atlanta and overall enrollment of 7,400 students, will split an estate with an estimated value of $123 million with Georgia's LaGrange College. The donors are Remer and Emily Fisher Crum, who live in the Atlanta area.
___ Merritt criticizes TV show. Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt has told the Fox network that its "Temptation Island," a new show that debuted Jan. 10, may represent "absolutely the lowest and most debased level of television programming" in TV history. Merritt, in a Jan. 8 letter, appealed to Fox executive Gail Berman, "I want to ask you to go to the depths of your heart and honestly ask this question: 'Is this the best Fox Network can do?' I want to urge you as strongly as I can to reconsider airing this type of sordid entertainment."
___ Eklund to LifeWay. Bobby Eklund, director of the church stewardship department for the Baptist General Convention of Texas since 1991, will become senior church stewardship consultant for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention Feb. 1. Eklund, who is retiring from the BGCT position in February, will be based in Bedford and will lead training sessions and serve as a consultant in the area of Successful Christian Financial Management, a LifeWay resource.
___ Mission-trip journal available. New Hope Publishers, an arm of Woman's Missionary Union, this month released a new bound volume called "Reflections of the Journey" that may be used by individuals to record thoughts, experiences and prayers from mission trips.
___ Volunteers sought for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Baptist Convention has asked Baptists in the United States to provide 15 to 25 teams of volunteers for a mission outreach this summer. The dates of the partnership missions effort are July 18-31. The cost per person will be about $2,795.00. Those interested in responding should contact Dub Jackson by email at whdubjackson@compuserve.com or by phone at (915) 698-8480.
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