Christians pray for kidnapped missionary pilot

Lee Hodges traveled more than 6,500 miles from his home in Middle Tennessee to West Africa. When he arrived in Niger, he learned that his final flight — the one that would take him to the place he came to visit — was canceled.

“Welcomed by and spoke to this sea of kids … about 500 last night,” Lee Hodges said in a social media post during his visit to Niger in 2022. “Amazing to hear them praising God with all of their hearts.”

Hodges, director of Hope Springs International, planned to see a newly opened health center that the nonprofit constructed near the town of Soura. But the local commuter airline canceled all of its flights from Niger’s capital, Niamey, to an airport close to Soura for the duration of Hodges’ visit in late 2022.

Thankfully, a ministry called Serving in Mission, or SIM, volunteered to “stand in the gap,” Hodges said. An affiliate of SIM, Missionary Flights Global, arranged for a round-trip flight on a small Cessna for Hodges and his African coworkers from Niamey to Maradi, a town close to Soura.

Missionary Flights Global’s plane sits in its hangar in Niamey, Niger, in 2022.

The pilot, Kevin Rideout, “was a true professional,” Hodges recalled. “He was well-known by those on the ground.” 

Nearly three years later, Hodges asked for prayers after learning that Rideout was abducted from his home in Niamey by three armed men on Oct. 21. Rideout, 48, has served in Niger since 2010, providing support for missionaries and humanitarian groups during transportation shutdowns in the landlocked nation.

Kevin Rideout makes preflight checks before transporting a team from Hope Springs International in Niger.

A State Department spokesperson told CBS News that the U.S. Embassy in Niamey is working with local authorities to locate Rideout and secure his release. The embassy also issued a security warning that American citizens “remain at a heightened risk of kidnapping throughout Niger, including the capital city.”

Hodges said, “The security situation (in Niger) has deteriorated significantly since I was there in 2022.” More than 98 percent of Niger’s 27 million people claim Islam as their faith. In 2023, military leaders deposed President Mohamed Bazoum and placed him under house arrest in the presidential palace, which is about 100 yards from the site of Rideout’s abduction, CBS reports. The military leaders cited increased activity among jihadist groups as a reason for removing Bazoum. The military has clashed with armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL, Al Jazeera reports, and this year Niger has experienced a spate of kidnappings. 

A group of mothers in rural Niger show off the nutritional aids they received from the Jordan Health Center II. In its first year of operation, the center treated more than 6,300 patients — nearly half of them children suffering from malnutrition.

Hope Springs International sponsors projects that provide clean water, education, health care, training in agriculture and micro finance in the African nations of Nigeria and Chad. Hodges and several of the nonprofit’s board members and volunteers worship with NorthField Church in Gallatin, Tenn., a congregation with roots in Churches of Christ.

Farmers in rural Niger show a crop of corn produced through Hope Springs International’s water programs.

In 2021, Ayouba and Sieleide Moussa contacted Hodges about expanding Hope Springs’ work to Niger, which borders Nigeria and Chad. The Moussas founded Amor et Compassion du Christ in 2012 as an outreach to children and teens in Soura. The couple hoped to provide health care to their community of about 16,000 people. Hope Springs raised support to construct the Jordan Health Center II, which opened two months before Hodges’ visit in 2022. Hope Springs also sponsors water well drilling programs in Niger and works closely with Ayouba Moussa’s brother, Zak, who oversees the work.

Thankfully, Hodges said, the wave of abductions and attacks by jihadist groups has not yet affected the Christians in Soura.

Women wait in line to receive treatment at the Jordan Health Center II in Niger.

Filed under: Christianity and Islam International ISIL ISIS-West Africa Islamic terrorism missionary aviation Niger terrorist attacks Top Stories West Africa West African Christianity