American Pastor Kidnapped at Gunpoint, Thousands Rally in Prayer
The search for the American missionary kidnapped at gunpoint during his church service continues in South Africa.
Pastor Josh Sullivan was reportedly abducted last Thursday by armed men who burst into Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township outside the coastal city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
The Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee shared the news on its Facebook page.
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The Tennessee pastor’s kidnapping was allegedly for a ransom, but there are no confirmed reports of a ransom price.
Lt. Gen. Avele Fumba of the South African Police Service confirmed to ABC News that the agency’s elite Hawk unit is investigating the reported kidnapping of “a man believed to be the pastor of a local church” in the Gqeberha area.
Sullivan was holding a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and children when four kidnappers entered the building.
“It is alleged that while a sermon was conducted at the church, four armed and masked male suspects entered the church,” police said in a statement. “They robbed two cell phones and then took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene.”
Reverend Jeremy Hall, a pastor based in the city, told AFP that the kidnappers “knew him by name.”
The father of six has been working in South Africa since 2018 because he had a “tremendous desire to share the gospel with the Xhosa people of South Africa,” Pastor Tom Hatley of Fellowship Baptist Church in Tennessee said.
The church posted the news on Facebook asking members of the community to pray for Sullivan and his family. Hundreds have posted prayers and thousands of others have shared the post to bring awareness to a dangerous situation.
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