Dear friends:
 
May we all join in prayer in agreement for the safety of the Korean Christians being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan.  They killed a pastor the other day and I believe the news is reporting that another has been killed.  They are all Christians who went there as volunteers.   The Taliban are the personification of evil.  These dear Korean brothers and sisters must be absolutely terrified.

Report:

A few days ago the rebels shot dead one hostage and dumped his bullet-ridden body near where the group was seized last week.  He was identified in Seoul as the group's leader, Bae Hyung-kyu, a pastor who would have turned 42 on the day he was murdered.

Bae, a married man with a nine-year-old daughter, was from a devout Christian family from the island province of Jeju. He went to theology school and became a pastor about six years ago.

Bae, whose father is a church elder in Jeju, was a founding member of the Saemmul Church south of Seoul, which sent the volunteers to Afghanistan. He led services for younger members of its congregation, reports quoted people who knew him as saying.

"He was close to many members of the church, because he was always generous enough to help with the prayers of each of the 300 members of the youth division," Yonhap news quoted an acquaintance as saying.

He is believed to have suffered from a respiratory ailment but he was well enough to lead the group abroad, a Saemmul church official said.

Bae was travelling on a bus with 22 other Koreans - 18 of whom are women - when Taliban insurgents took the group hostage on Friday on the main road south from Kabul.

The below is from a Korean news source, http://english.chosun.com/:
 
An Afghan news agency quotes Taliban insurgents as saying negotiations for the lives of 22 South Korean hostages have failed. Earlier, the militants in Afghanistan had said they would start killing the captives if their demands were not met.
 
Monday's report from the independent news agency Afghan Islamic Press says Taliban insurgents have labeled negotiations a "complete failure," and renewed a threat to kill all 22 South Korean hostages.
 
Insurgents already killed a 23rd hostage, a 42-year-old Christian pastor, last Thursday - one week after they seized the group of Christian aid workers in Afghanistan. His body arrived Monday in South Korea.
 
A senior South Korean presidential envoy is in Afghanistan seeking to save the hostages' lives. However, Afghan officials have so far refused Taliban demands to free several insurgents from prison.
 
In Seoul, South Korean presidential spokesman Chun Ho-seon confirmed Monday a Korean shipment of medical supplies intended for the hostages had reached the Taliban.
Chun encourages the families of the hostages not to lose heart, saying the government is doing its very best to save them.
 
Hostage Yoo Jung-hwa pleaded for help Monday in a phone call to reporters.
"We are so scared," she said. "Sometimes they threaten to kill us one by one."
 
The kidnappers have extended deadlines for killing the other hostages several times. However, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who calls himself a spokesman for the Taliban, told reporters Monday the captives remain very much in danger.
 
Ahmadi says insurgents will soon begin killing more hostages, without regard to gender. Eighteen of the surviving 22 hostages are female.
 
Several hundred South Korean civilian and military personnel provide non-combat support to U.S.-led multinational stabilization efforts in Afghanistan. However, the hostages made their trip illegally.
_________________________

"Lord, we ask you to confuse and scatter your enemies, and send your angels to protect and rescue these dear Korean people, by your mighty power.  We intercede together and ask for your grace and mercy for them.  In Jesus' name.  Amen."