Hostage found his calling in Mideast

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

An Indiana aid worker being held by the Islamic State group told family and teachers that he’d found his calling in 2012 when he decided to stay in the Middle East instead of returning to college, according to an email released Tuesday by his family.

Peter Kassig sent the email while visiting Lebanon on a spring-break trip. In it, he described seeing thousands of refugees crammed into deplorable conditions in which medical supplies, food and furniture were all in short supply.

The email was dated March 18, 2012. He later founded a relief organization but was captured Oct. 1, 2013, while delivering aid in eastern Syria.

He has converted to Islam while in captivity and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig.

His captors threatened to behead him in a video released Oct. 3.