Across the Nation, April 2016
David Swann
SARALAND — David Eugene Swann, 59, who grew up in the Central Church of Christ, died in a Feb. 23 tornado that struck the Sugar Hill RV Park in Convent, La.
Swann was a welding engineer working as an out-of-state contractor, said his brother Paul Swann, a member of the Downtown Church of Christ in Searcy, Ark.
Funeral services were conducted March 5 at the Central church.
LOUISIANA 
Bill Smith
WEST MONROE — William H. “Bill” Smith Jr., a minister and elder of the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ for 53 years, died Feb. 22. He was 84.
Smith taught at the now-defunct White’s Ferry Road School of Preaching and helped inspire the World Radio Gospel Broadcasts.
White’s Ferry Road minister and elder Mike Kellett described Smith as “a great preacher, teacher and mentor.” Smith “taught so many to teach others,” Kellett said. He also “taught us to pray and never forget the persecuted.”
MONTANA
WOLF POINT — The recent Northeast Montana Youth Rally proceeded as scheduled despite an ice storm.
“Everybody made it here safely,” Wolf Point Church of Christ member Shawn Eggar told The Herald-News. The 81 participants came from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as well as Canada, the newspaper reported.
OKLAHOMA 
Arnelious Crenshaw Jr.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Northeast Church of Christ is asking God to heal its minister, Arnelious Crenshaw Jr.
Crenshaw, a popular speaker at church events nationwide, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, his home congregation announced. Leaders seek prayers for Crenshaw and his family.
TULSA — The 3,000-seat auditorium that once housed the Garnett Church of Christ is being demolished to make way for a public elementary school.
After selling its 32-acre property to Union Public Schools, the Garnett congregation is relaunching Easter Day, March 27, as “The Journey: A New Generation Church of Christ.”
“Seeing a church building torn down is sad,” Journey preacher Greg Taylor said. “But here’s what it means for us: A church in debt for decades is now free to follow Jesus with less baggage.”
For more information, see www.thejourneychurch.faith.
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