An American missionary was reportedly kidnapped on Thursday evening (April 10) during a church service in a town in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Several news outlets reported that masked armed men stormed the Fellowship Baptist Church and abducted Josh Sullivan, a missionary with a Tennessee-based church.
The gunmen walked in mid-service where about 30 congregants including his wife and children had gathered, called the pastor by name and took off with Sullivan in his car, according to witnesses interviewed by the police and news outlets.
The South African Police Service spokesman told ABC News that the elite Hawks Unit is investigating the alleged kidnapping while
Sullivan, his wife and children have been missionaries in South Africa from 2018, where his mother church sent him to establish a church for the Xhosa-speaking people in the Eastern Cape Province.
In a Facebook post, Fellowship Baptist Church asked for prayers for Josh Sulivan. “He was kidnapped at gunpoint by six men during their church service this evening,” posted the church on Thursday.
Following the post, the church responded to some comments on the rationale of sending missionaries. “That is the question that has been asked of us the most in the last couple of days. Some people have asked it in ways to be malicious and hateful at a time when we would think that there would be at least some human decency,” said the Church.
“Others sincerely seem to want to know or are confused about it. While we cannot satisfy those who would be critical, we can give you a solid, Bible reason why we send missionaries. It is this - because God did and He told us to.”
Quoting John 3:16 and Acts 1:8, the church said that those who have experienced the saving grace of Christ “owe it to others to tell them of the Good News.”
“Missionaries are sacrificial people that take the message of God's love to some of the most unloved and often even unloving people in our world. They need to know that God loves them, and that we do too. We thank God for our missionaries, and we are praying for them,” said the Fellowship Baptist Church.
The abduction comes in the wake of rising tensions between South Africa and the U.S. following the Trump administration's decision to cut aid to South Africa over the land expropriation law, and the subsequent expulsion of the South African ambassador.
