Published in Fox News | Image from Fox/Save the Persecuted Christians

It has been almost 18 long and painful months since Rebecca Sharibu’s teenaged daughter Leah was kidnapped from her classroom by Boko Haram Islamic militants in Nigeria. While Leah’s schoolmates were eventually freed, the ISIS-affiliated insurgents refused to release the soft-spoken student because she would not relinquish her Christian faith.

Now, Sharibu is turning to the U.S government in a desperate plea for her child’s life.

“I have brought my cry here. Leah is a beautiful child, she loves the Lord and I am so proud of her for not giving in,” Sharibu told Fox News. “But she has spent her 15th and 16th birthdays in captivity and we need her home.”

The anguished mother is part of a small delegation of Nigerian activists to have descended on Washington this week with the support of charity and watchdog group Save the Persecuted Christians. They are determined to shine a light not only on Leah’s plight but illuminate the harrowing and increasing persecution against Christians in Africa’s most populous nation. Continue reading…