___ Foundation officials plea bargain. A Phoenix judge has accepted plea bargains from three of eight defendants charged with crimes in the 1999 collapse of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona. Edgar Kuhn, Donald Deardoff and Jalma Hunsinger earlier had pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors in a case involving five others who claim innocence. No future court dates have been set for the five remaining defendants--William Crotts, Thomas Grabinski, Lawrence Hoover, Harold Friend and Richard Rolles, who face fraud and racketeering charges.
___ IMB promotes White. Trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board elected John White III to serve as executive vice president after the Sept. 30 retirement of Don Kammerdiener. White, who has been associate vice president for overseas operations since 1995, will become responsible for the day-to-day operations of the agency. He holds both business administration and law degrees from Samford University in Birmingham and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth before missionary appointment.
___ Pratt to lead in Central Asia. Gregory Pratt has been named director of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board's work in the nine countries of Central Asia. He has been an IMB missionary since 1991.
___ VBS cast a big net last year. Churches gained more than a half-million prospects for Southern Baptist Sunday Schools, thanks to Vacation Bible Schools conducted in 2000. Statistics from VBS 2000 have been gathered following the tabulation of information reported on church VBS report forms and the Annual Church Profile at LifeWay Christian Resources. The tallies show churches and missions reported 25,244 schools with a total enrollment of 2.8 million and an average attendance of 111 at each VBS. A total of 91,477 professions of faith in Christ were recorded through VBS, and 532,243 prospects for enrollment in Sunday School were discovered.
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