The Korean Missionaries in Afghanistan: The Bigger Picture

Millions of believers around the world continue to pray for the 23 Christian missionaries from South Korea that are being held captive by Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan—this, amid the news that two of them, including a pastor, have been executed.

This group is very much like the short-term medical missions groups that my home church sends out with some frequency. Of course those groups usually head for spots such as Jamaica, Honduras or Guatamala—not Afghanistan.

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article on the growing numbers of Christian missionaries coming out of Asia these days. One key paragraph said:

"Although only about 30% of South Korea's 49 million citizens are Christian, the country is second only to the U.S. in the number of missionaries it sends abroad. As of last year, 16,600 Korean missionaries were stationed in 173 countries."

It's an eye-opening story. Read the whole thing here.