Nigeria (MNN) — Police in Nigeria captured another fugitive prisoner, but at least 400 remain on the run. Nearly 900 inmates escaped last week when Islamic State militants attacked a prison near Abuja.

Breakouts are common in the north, but this was the first attack targeting Nigeria’s capital. Security is a significant concern for ministries. “We are constantly relocating our indigenous missionaries who are being attacked or under threat,” World Mission’s Greg Kelley says.

“Their families have been kidnapped; we’ve lost leaders in the northern part. But we can’t recoil back out of fear as the body of Christ. We have to ‘lean into’ these places.”

In the first three months of 2022, nearly 3,000 people were killed in massacres, while almost 1,500 were abducted. Yet, top officials insist Nigeria is better off today than in 2015 when Boko Haram held territory the size of Belgium.

Terrorists may hold less ground today, but they’re still an active threat. Pray for courage as World Mission and its partners bring the hope of Christ to northern Nigeria.

“Even though Boko Haram is running Christians out of town, attacking them, that is where the Gospel presence is needed,” Kelley says.

“There are over 530 different people groups in Nigeria. Most of those in the northern part are unreached; i.e., they don’t have access to the Gospel.”

Connect with World Mission here to help send audio Bibles to Nigeria.

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“When Jesus said to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, most [people] living in the United States don’t have an expression of ‘the ends of the earth,’” Kelley says.

“But they are equal participants in it (the Great Commission) when they’re praying for and financially investing in it. So, it’s not about us going anywhere to reach ‘the ends of the earth.’ We can be intimate participants right from where we live, but we have to engage.”

Header image depicts Nigerian believers holding audio Bibles supplied through World Mission (Photo courtesy of World Mission)