American missionary kidnapped at gunpoint in South Africa while delivering sermon

A missionary from the U.S. was kidnapped by masked men in South Africa while delivering a sermon on Thursday evening.

Josh Sullivan, 45, was delivering a sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church Motherwell in Gqeberha, South Africa, when he was abducted at gunpoint, according to CBS News. Sullivan and his family moved from Tennessee to South Africa in 2018, his personal website shares.

A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the department is aware of the reported kidnapping and stressed the importance of American citizens’ safety abroad, but did not have additional information to provide at this time.

“They knew his name,” the family’s spokesperson Jeremy Hall told Herald LIVE about the masked men knew the personal details about the pastor. “We are just praying for his safe return.”

“The men came into the church and initially held Meagan [Sullivan’s wife] and walked her towards the door before saying ‘Josh is this your wife’,” Hall continued, explaining how the men “pushed” her to the ground before driving off with the missionary in his vehicle. “The car was found a few kilometres away shortly afterwards,” he said.

Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge told the publication that the missionary was abducted by four armed and masked men. He said a kidnapping and armed robbery case was opened by South African Police Service Motherwell and was being investigated by SAPS Anti-Gang Unit (AGU). “The silver Toyota Fortuner was recovered a short while later in Motherwell,” he said.

There were no warning signs leading up to the kidnapping and there is no evidence that this was done for ransom, Herald LIVE reported.

Meagan Sullivan, as well as Sullivan’s children, witnessed the abduction, though they escaped unharmed, Hall told Herald LIVE on Friday morning. Sullivan moved with his family to Africa in November 2018 to establish a church within the Xhosa speaking community. They established the Fellowship Baptist Church Motherwell and have been assisting the community, according to the spokesperson.

Kidnappings of pastors have increased in Africa over the past few years, according to William Devlin, a fellow pastor who was honored by the White House for supporting persecuted Christians and the volunteer CEO of the ministry Widows and Orphans, told the DCNF.

“This is a more and more common occurrence,” Devlin said. “That’s one of the security issues as a pastor to the persecuted church, particularly in Nigeria, that I have to be concerned about.”

“It’s a real thing. You go to Africa and some of these countries you may get kidnapped and killed,” he said. Devlin referenced a meeting he had with a Catholic bishop in Nigeria, during which he said he was given a list of all recent Nigerian Catholic priests that have been kidnapped over the last 10 years. “Sadly, it’s six pages long.”

Abductions by criminal gangs often targeting people to demand large ransoms have been increasing in South Africa in recent years, CBS reported.

In November 2024, the U.S. Department of State released a travel advisory for South Africa due to “crime, civil unrest, and kidnapping.” Trump has also offered a “rapid pathway” to U.S. citizenship for South African farmers leaving the country due to violence.

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