Author: Site Editors
Voice of the Martyrs Radio : Jeff Woodke Episodes
Listen to 3 separate episodes (24 minutes each) as Jeff and Else recount and reflect on their experience of Jeff’s six and a half years of captivity and release in March of 2023.
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Voice of the Martyrs: KIDNAPPED GOSPEL WORKER- Forgiveness is the Best Weapon We Have
“It’s better to be dead than taken hostage.” When Jeff Woodke said those words, he didn’t know that he would be taken hostage from his home in Niger in 2016. But Woodke, a long-term relief and gospel worker in West Africa, did know there were risks. Risk wasn’t such a […]
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ABC News: American missionary Jeff Woodke reveals hostage story and his road to recovery
In his first television interview, ABC News’ Matt Gutman spoke to Jeff Woodke about his six and a half years held hostage in West Africa by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and his long road to recovery.
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Guest Speaker: Arcata First Baptist Church
Listen to Jeff speaking from his heart about his life and time in captivity to the congregation at Arcata First Baptist Church in Humboldt County.
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The Reality of My Freedom: Human Life is Sacred and Those Who Treat It as Anything Less Must Be Stopped
On March 20, 2023, two men got out of a battered Toyota pickup in a remote area near the northwestern border of Niger. One was French journalist Olivier Dubois and the other was an older American man with a shaggy beard and unkempt hair, walking unsteadily on a cane. That […]
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AP News: ‘It was hell’: Hostage freed after years in Africa recounts ordeal and frustrations with US response
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Islamic extremists drove up to the American missionary’s home in Niger under the cover of evening, gunning down two guards who stood watch. Jeff Woodke recalls seeing the muzzle blasts and hearing the screams before being thrown into a pickup truck that then sped away. So […]
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CBS News: Hostage freed after years in Africa recounts ordeal and frustrations with U.S. response
The Islamic extremists drove up to the American missionary’s home in Niger under the cover of evening, gunning down two guards who stood watch. Jeff Woodke recalls seeing the muzzle blasts and hearing the screams before being thrown into a pickup truck that then sped away. So began more than […]
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Statement: Secretary Antony Blinken
“Honored to meet with Jeff Woodke, who was held hostage in West Africa for over six years. I am inspired by the Woodke family—they never gave up, and neither will we. @StateDept will not stop working to bring home all U.S. nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas.”
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Guest Speaker: Telios Christian Fellowship, Arcata, CA
Telios welcomes the Woodke’s as they hear Jeff’s first hand account of God’s faithfulness & the power of prayer.
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