Killing time on a 12-hour van ride, the college students talked about what else they might have done for spring break.

Dr. Robert H. (Bob) Orner has been named the Dean of Students at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Orlando campus and will take on those responsibilities on June 1, 2012, when the current Dean of Students, Scott Redd, becomes the president of RTS’s Washington, D.C., campus.

Nineteen year-old Nathan Slater can often be seen walking around the University of Mary Washington campus wearing a shirt that reads “MODGNIK.” He’s always ready with an answer to the questions he inevitably gets: “It’s ‘KINGDOM’ spelled backward . . . God’s kingdom is an upside down backwards kingdom.”

On behalf of the Covenant College Board of Trustees, Chairman Martin A. Moore announced the selection of Dr. J. Derek Halvorson as the sixth president of Covenant College. Dr. Halvorson’s tenure will begin on July 1, 2012.

Mission to North America’s (MNA) Special Needs Ministries has just released a DVD series, Same Lake Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability. The series is based on Stephanie Hubach’s 2006 book, Same Lake Different Boat. In her book Hubach encourages readers to think biblically about disability. She also suggests practical ways for congregations to better engage all members of their church body in order to more fully reflect Christ.

For the last 10 years, the PCA’s Christian Education and Publications (CEP) Committee and Mission to North America (MNA) have called churches to 50 Days of Prayer for the denomination’s General Assembly.

It was reported yesterday that a jury “awarded nearly $3 million to a Portland-area couple whose daughter was born with Down syndrome even though a prenatal test found she didn’t have the chromosomal abnormality.”

When Laura Story penned her now-famous song “Blessings,” she could hardly have imagined the way it would affect people from across the globe; or the acclaim it would bring.

MNA and CEP first teamed up for the Mercy Conference 10 years ago. Leaders of both organizations felt their goals lined up nicely.

Dr. Scott Swain, currently associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, has been approved and appointed the academic dean starting June 1, 2012, while continuing to teach.