By Tamara Audi in Los Angeles and Gbenga Akingbule in Abuja, Nigeria 

Nigerian police are searching for an American missionary kidnapped from a school compound in the central part of the country.

Church officials said they received word Monday that Phyllis Sortor, a reverend in the Free Methodist Church who has ties to the Seattle area, was taken from Hope Academy in Nigeria, where she served as a missionary for the church.

"We are calling on the U.S. church to join together in prayer for Phyllis' safety and speedy release," said Bishop David Kendall in a statement on the church's website.

Mr. Kendall said the U.S. Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation "are working with local authorities to find and rescue her."

A spokeswoman for the FBI in Seattle had no comment.

A State Department official said the department is "aware of media reports that a U.S. citizen was reported missing in Nigeria."

"In cases where U.S. citizens are confirmed missing, the U.S. embassy works closely with those involved, supporting local authorities in their search efforts, and provide all appropriate consular assistance," the official said.

It is unclear who may have abducted Ms. Sortor, who has worked in the region since 2005, according to her Facebook page and a 2009 video interview posted online.

Nigeria's brutal Boko Haram insurgency is mainly confined to the country's northeast. Nigeria's south has been troubled by militants who have resorted to oil theft from sabotaged pipelines and sporadic kidnapping and ransoms to raise money.

"We are aware of the incident. We have since commenced a search for an abducted U.S. woman. We are hopeful we will get her rescued from her abductors," said Emmanuel Ojukwu, Nigeria's police spokesman.

The spokesman didn't identify the abductors.

The incident is the latest to highlight the increasing risks faced by religious missionaries and aid workers around the globe, but especially in Africa and the Middle East, where missionaries and aid workers have died from the Ebola virus and in violent conflicts.

American churches are wrestling with how to ensure the safety of their workers while still carrying out their missions--in some cases employing security services and insurance to quickly evacuate workers.

According to Fides, the Vatican's missionary information service, 26 pastoral care workers in the Catholic church were killed in 2014, three more than in 2013. Between 2004 and 2013, 230 pastoral workers were killed, according to Fides.

Ms. Sortor worked as an administrator for Hope Academy in Nigeria, teaching Bible school and supporting "women's literacy projects," according to the Free Methodist Church mission website.

The church, based in Indianapolis, has 53 missionaries around the world, including 12 in Africa, according to its website. A spokeswoman for the church said the church had no further comment on Ms. Sortor or its missionary programs.

According to letters from church officials and Ms. Sortor's own writings, she developed a special connection over the years to the Fulani, a nomadic Muslim society.

In a letter posted online to church members, Ms. Sortor wrote last month about the opening of a new school in Nigeria.

"We have worked long and hard on this school, and are so thrilled that yesterday, January 19th, 2015, we were able to open our doors for the first time!" Ms. Sortor wrote. "We began with 82 children, 58 of whom are Muslim, Fulani kids from one near-by camp! ...The Fulani parents are wonderfully cooperative--sending food and water with their kids, organizing a Parent-Teacher Association--giving us Fulani security guards for the school!"

The school staff "are wonderful Christian people who I know, with God's help, will make this school great!"

Write to Tamara Audi at tammy.audi@wsj.com

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