Contact: Ron Keener, Church Executive, 800-541-2670 ext 204

PHOENIX, May 1, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Missionary kidnappings are on the rise, says insurance company vice president David A. Jones, and churches and ministries are advised to consider taking out kidnap and ransom insurance.

"As governments across the world wage war on drugs and black market trades, criminals are quietly advancing the front of another lucrative, illegal industry. Kidnapping, including extortion and detention, is now a global epidemic, growing 15 to 20 percent annually in hot spots such as Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia and Brazil," Jones writes in the May issue of Church Executive, a business magazine on leadership and management in larger and megachurches.

"In the last decade, kidnappers have expanded their sights beyond multinational corporate employees to missionaries dispatched from mission agencies, religious and higher education institutions and church groups," Jones reports. "Missionary kidnappings around the globe now account for almost half of reported cases, a 100 percent incase over the last five years."

Jones is a vice president with Lockton Companies, a privately owned, independent insurance and risk management broker. He says that missionaries are easy targets for a number of reasons. "Obvious language barriers make missionaries more vulnerable, particularly when traveling without a translator or cultural liaison," he says.

"Most missionary-sending organizations have strict policies against ransom payments to discourage appearing as a bank for criminals," Jones says. "Organizations that do pay ransom as a business decision typically do so quietly," he says, noting that the vast majority of kidnapping cases go unreported.

The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, that serves 70 countries, "affords some protection to its members simply because militant groups know that ransoms will not be paid by the organization," Jones says. "This public knowledge is often enough to discourage kidnapping."

Relying on the local embassy, the FBI and the sending organization's crisis team are often not enough, Jones says. "Kidnap ransom detention and extortion insurance (K&R insurance) can provide protection and relief to victims," he says. "The insurance not only reimburses the insured for the ransom amount, but also provides expert negotiating strategists, security consultants and interpreters, all of which may cost an average of $85,000 per incident, according to Lloyd's of London," says Jones.

Jones does say that an insurance policy is no substitute for applying good judgment, listening to intuition, and staying abreast of all potential risks in the host country.

For the Church Executive article to go
churchexecutive.com/archives/missionary-kidnappings-on-the-rise