Across the Nation: A 9-year-old’s Bible ministry, a spring break service project and more quick takes
Across the Nation is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ across the U.S. Got an idea for this column? Email Calvin Cockrell at [email protected].
Featured image (above): Emmet McGalliard and his father, Tad, give away Bibles in Blanchard, Okla.
OKLAHOMA
BLANCHARD — What would an 8-year-old boy buy with his birthday money?
Emmet McGalliard wanted a Bible — an illustrated version called the Action Bible, to be exact. But not for himself — to share the gospel message with his neighbors.
He asked Blanchard Church of Christ minister Buster Sides for help implementing his idea.
With some additional donations from church members, McGalliard set up a table with 80 Action Bibles, fearlessly approaching shoppers at a local grocery store until all the Bibles were gone.
That act of love blossomed into a ministry.
Before McGalliard’s ninth birthday, he and his family — dad Tad, mom Jenn and sister Millie — ran a more extensive fundraiser with the goal of giving away 225 more Bibles.
They raised enough for 500.
But the Bible giveaways aren’t limited to McGalliard’s birthday. In the nearly two years since he began the ministry, the almost-10-year-old has continued to hand out Bibles at the grocery store, soccer field, church events and school.
He and his mom created a flier about the Blanchard church to include with them, too.
OREGON
KEIZER — During Freed-Hardeman University’s spring break, the Chi Beta Chi social club sent a mission team of 20 students and chaperones to serve Churches of Christ and nonprofits in Oregon. It’s the club’s fifth year organizing the trip.
In Keizer, students from the Henderson, Tenn., university served Simonka House, a women’s shelter. The students cleaned and organized the facilities. They also sang and got to know the residents. That Sunday, 10 residents attended an areawide singing at the Keizer Church of Christ.
The FHU group then made its way down to Eugene, performing service projects to maintain the Eugene Church of Christ property as well as cleaning inside and painting a children’s classroom.
Freed-Hardeman University students work on a service project during a mission trip to Oregon.
The travelers also prayed over local schools and colleges — including the University of Oregon — before helping lead Eugene’s Wednesday night service.
The group later headed to serve the Lobster Valley Church of Christ, one of the oldest churches in the Pacific Northwest.
There, they did some gardening, raked leaves, performed maintenance in the graveyard and cleaned inside the church building.
NEWSMAKERS
BAPTIZED — ALEKSANDRA HMYRIA of the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston. She is a refugee from Ukraine living in Texas. OLIVIA KERR of the La Grange Church of Christ in Texas. SHONEY JONES of the Harlem Church of Christ in New York. Barbara Perkins and ROB ROOKER of the Sullivan Village Church of Christ in Lawton, Okla. EMMETT SCAGGS of the Thomaston Road Church of Christ in Macon, Ga. RONALD SOUTH of the Rome Church of Christ in Proctorville, Ohio.
AWARDED — C. WAYNE KILPATRICK with an honorary Doctor of Divinity at Heritage Christian University’s 2025 commencement ceremony in Florence, Ala. “Throughout nearly five decades of teaching at HCU, he inspired countless students, championed the study of restoration history and faithfully supported the mission of the university,” Heritage Christian officials said.
From top left, C. Wayne Kilpatrick, Joshua Means, Mike Partin, Tryce Prince, Sandra Fortenberry and Matthew Guy.
APPOINTED — KEVIN CARROLL as head men’s basketball coach for Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. Carroll, a former assistant coach for Lipscomb, returns after two years with Trevecca Nazarene University. ADAM CROSS as associate vice president for university advancement at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. JOSHUA MEANS as chief executive officer of The Solomon Foundation, a church extension fund with more than $1.2 billion in total assets that serves churches associated with the Restoration Movement. Means succeeds Doug Crozier, who will serve in an emeritus role. MIKE PARTIN, president of the board of directors for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He and his family worship with the Monteagle Church of Christ in Tennessee. TRYCE PRINCE, executive director of the Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action at Abilene Christian University in Texas. Prince served as executive assistant to the center’s founding director, Jerry Taylor, and “played a vital role, bringing excellence and integrity,” Taylor said. He asked supporters to “stand with Tryce, invest in this mission and help build a stronger future for the church and for the world.”
NAMED — DON CLEVENGER, DR. SANDRA FORTENBERRY and LUKE HEJL the board of trustees of Abilene Christian University in Texas. Fortenberry, an optometrist, and her husband, Jake, worship with the Northwest Church of Christ in San Antonio, where Jake serves as youth minister. DR. MATTHEW GUY to the board of trustees of Freed-Hardeman University. A 2004 graduate of FHU, he is a physician specializing in diagnostic radiology and a deacon of the Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road in Fort Mill, S.C.
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