U.S. Missionary Rescued in South Africa Following Shootout with Kidnappers

4/16/2025 South Africa (Worldwide Christian Concern) — Following an intense gun battle, South African police have rescued U.S. missionary and pastor Josh Sullivan from his kidnappers.

His rescue comes lower than every week after masked armed males took him hostage at gunpoint as he preached a sermon final Thursday at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township in Gqeberha, situated in South Africa’s Japanese Cape province.

In accordance with a assertion from the South African Police Service, officers pursued the pastor after receiving intelligence on his whereabouts in one other native township. Three suspects died within the ensuing shootout.

Sullivan, a 45-year-old church-planting missionary from Tennessee, was with the gunmen when the shootout started.

“The sufferer was discovered inside the identical automobile from which the suspects had launched their assault,” the police assertion mentioned. “Miraculously unhurt, he was instantly assessed by medical personnel and is at present in a superb situation.”

In accordance with police, 4 masked gunmen entered the church late final Thursday night time throughout a prayer assembly with about 30 attendees. The assailants robbed two cell telephones earlier than abducting the 45-year-old pastor and taking him in his personal automobile, a silver Toyota Fortuner. The automotive was later discovered deserted a couple of mile from the church.  

Sullivan, a husband and father of six, has been a missionary in South Africa since 2018. Sullivan and his household are members of Fellowship Baptist Church, an unbiased Baptist church in Maryville, Tennessee, the place Sullivan has been on employees. His spouse and youngsters are amongst those that witnessed the kidnapping.  

Whereas some experiences urged the kidnapping could have been financially motivated, the attackers focused the preacher and had been properly conscious of his vocation. The gunmen reportedly knew Sullivan by title. The church additionally confronted threats of being burned down on the finish of 2024. 

Sullivan and his spouse planted Fellowship Baptist Church on Aug. 1, 2021, to offer a church for the Xhosa-speaking individuals of South Africa.

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