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2017-05-25

• Abducted Missionary's Urgent Appeal

  

  Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a mission aid worker abducted by terrorists in strife-torn Yemen, has made a recent video appeal for urgent help after getting "poor response" from governing authorities in India. The video-taped message addresses his deteriorating health and the fact that he urgently requires hospitalization.

  Originally from Kerala, India, the 58-year-old ministry worker had been captured from the southern Yemeni city of Aden after the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group attacked a seniors' home run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. During the attack, gunmen stormed the 'refuge for the elderly' on March 4th, 2016, killing a Yemeni guard before tying up and shooting at least 16 other employees. Foreign missionaries serving as nurses were among those killed.

• Release of More Chibok Schoolgirls

  
  Since the release of the 21 Chibok
  students last October (pictured above),
  82 more girls have recently been freed.
  Photo: World Watch Monitor

  Boko Haram released a video on May 12th claiming to show a few Chibok schoolgirls refusing to be part of the recent "swap deal" in which 82 of the girls had been rescued by the Nigerian government in exchange for five terrorist commanders.

  In the three-minute video, a girl dressed in a veil and holding a gun introduces herself as Maida Yakubu, one of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group in April 2014. During the taping, three other girls in veils sat behind her. When asked by a man in the background why she doesn't want to go back home to her parents, she replies: "The reason is that they live in the town of unbelief. We want them to accept Islam."

• Shortwave Broadcasts Reaching Multitudes

  
  North Korean defectors share
  the Gospel in the North Korean
  dialect via radio waves.

  A shortwave radio program created by North Korean defectors in partnership with VOM is reaching an estimated two million North Koreans nightly. Each 90-minute program includes a Scripture reading, encouraging messages from Christians around the world, and readings from Pastor Richard Wurmbrand's testimonial book, Tortured for Christ. Although largely isolated from their worldwide Christian family, North Korean believers now have access to God's Word and an indirect connection to other followers of Christ.