Praise God, an American pastor is safe and miraculously unharmed after a deadly shootout between South African Police and the four gang members who had abducted him from his church service days prior.
Pastor Josh Sullivan was kidnapped during his church service in front of his wife and their six children, the youngest of which being two years old. He spent five frightening days in captivity at a home in Motherwell, South Africa.
Sullivan’s family and home church in Tennessee called on Christians around the world to pray, and the people of God responded on social media and in prayer chains.
The gang members who took the 45-year-old pastor at gunpoint from the church he planted in South Africa in 2018 were demanding a ransom. That’s when South Africa’s elite police unit, known as the Hawks, responded with tactical precision. Three of Sullivan’s captors were shot dead trying to escape in a vehicle with Sullivan.
Kidnapping for ransom, unfortunately, is an ongoing problem in South Africa, with statistics showing a 264% spike in the last decade.
Pastor Josh Sullivan previously discussed the risk of being a missionary in Africa, telling his church, “Once you leave the cities and begin to go out into what they call townships—Motherwell is the largest township in Port Elizabeth—you go from a nice European, first world country to Africa, to a third world country. We have normal police, just like here in the States, but they don’t police the townships. They don’t go out there.”
Sullivan’s mother, Tonya Rinker, says it’s still too soon to talk publicly, but she did share an image on social media of her and her son with the caption “#NewProfilePic.” Sullivan’s wife, Megan, led the prayer effort, writing on Facebook, “We beg you to continue storming the throne room until Josh is safe at home.”
As Romans 12:15 says, let’s “rejoice with those who rejoice.”
Psalm 31:15 declares, “My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me.” This Holy Week, with believers around the world praying, that is exactly what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did.
