Zeal for the lost

Afghanistan | Taliban kidnapping of 23 Korean missionaries reveals the perils for church soldiers | Priya Abraham

“A REAL FEVER”: The missions group poses at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport before flying to Afghanistan on July 13.

When a Taliban militia ambushed a bus taking the highway from Kabul to Kandahar July 19, it was not the first time the Muslim extremists kidnapped foreigners for ransom. This time, however, they took 23 Korean Christians on a medical missions trip—the largest abduction since the Taliban's 2001 fall in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants threatened to kill the whole group of 18 women and five men, demanding the release of its prisoners and the immediate withdrawal of South Korea's small contingent of 200 troops. They extended the deadline at least three times, but finally killed a pastor who was too sick to walk, riddling him with 10 bullets in the head, chest, and stomach. Back home in Seoul, tearful family and relatives of the young group—mostly in their 20s and 30s—prayed and begged for their loved ones' release.