{"id":2487,"date":"2021-08-12T07:07:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T07:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/"},"modified":"2021-10-25T15:58:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T15:58:54","slug":"pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Released After Seven Months in Captivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Oct. 19, 2020, Reverend Polycarp Zongo was kidnapped by members of the terrorist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) while traveling from his home in Jos to Gombe for a conference. Within weeks of his abduction, his kidnappers released a video of him, demanding a high ransom for his release. After months of negotiations, however, the terrorist group released the pastor in June, and he is now home with his family after seven months in captivity. Despite the hardships he faced, Reverend Polycarp&#8217;s faith is strong, and he has spoken in his church since his release. &#8220;He still carries the message of hope and doesn&#8217;t seem to have been deterred from the faith,&#8221; a VOM worker shared. &#8220;Please pray for God&#8217;s healing, both mind and body, for him as he recuperates from this ordeal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/nigeria\/?_source_code=WBPGGPG20B\">Click here<\/a> to find out about Christian persecution in Nigeria and learn how to pray.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icommittopray.com\/request\/2222\/polycarp-zongo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Post a prayer for Polycarp Zongo on iCommitToPray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Oct. 19, 2020, Reverend Polycarp Zongo was kidnapped by members of the terrorist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) while traveling from his home in Jos to Gombe for a conference. Within weeks of his abduction, his kidnappers released a video of him, demanding a high ransom for his release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-2487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-commit-to-pray","tag-nigeria","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pastor Released After Seven Months in Captivity - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor Released After Seven Months in Captivity - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Oct. 19, 2020, Reverend Polycarp Zongo was kidnapped by members of the terrorist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) while traveling from his home in Jos to Gombe for a conference. Within weeks of his abduction, his kidnappers released a video of him, demanding a high ransom for his release.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-12T07:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-25T15:58:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-iCommit-PlaceholderV2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"978\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"Pastor Released After Seven Months in Captivity\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-12T07:07:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-25T15:58:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\"},\"wordCount\":165,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-iCommit-PlaceholderV2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"iCommitToPray\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastor-released-after-seven-months-in-captivity\/\",\"name\":\"Pastor Released After Seven Months in Captivity - 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