- In mid-May Habitat for Humanity received a $100 million donation, the largest an individual has given to the Atlanta nonprofit. J. Ronald Terwilliger, the donor and board chair, said the money will help to build affordable housing for 60,000 people around the globe.
- Asbury Theological Seminarylaid off 16 employees in April.
- The Christian Children’s Fundchanged its name to ChildFund International. Although the organization was founded by a Presbyterian minister in 1938 (as the China’s Children Fund), it has not had Christian education as part of its program since the 1970s. In 2004, MinistryWatch issued a donor alert warning that the group was not “truly Christian.”
- In a claimed effort to defend against the H1N1 flu strain (swine flu), Egypt ordered the destruction of its 300,000 pigs in April. The slaughter, which the World Health Organization criticized as unnecessary, financially hurt thousands of pig breeders, mostly Coptic Christians who are part of the Zabbaleen, Cairo’s Christian waste collectors. The country confirmed its first swine flu case in early June.
- Christianity Today International in May announced layoffs of 31 of its employees and the closing or sale of four publications:
Today’s Christian Woman, Campus Life College Guide, Glimpses of Christian History,
andChurch Office Today
.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Asbury Seminary is not offering student scholarships in the next fiscal year due to endowment losses. The seminary has suspended one of its fellowship programs, but it continues to offer other scholarships.
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