Pastor from Tennessee shares miraculous story of surviving gunpoint kidnapping in South Africa

A Tennessee preacher who was abducted at gunpoint from his church in South Africa shortly before Easter is sharing his account of the harrowing incident — and the divine intervention that spared his life.

Joshua Sullivan, a 34-year-old pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church and a missionary stationed in Motherwell, was seized by a group of armed, masked individuals who forcibly entered his church in the Eastern Cape Province on the evening of April 10, confiscated cellphones from congregants, and fled with Sullivan in his own vehicle.

“Prior to the service, we had our customary prayer time, and… I got ready to deliver the sermon, but just as I was about a minute into it, four masked gunmen stormed into the premises. Given the previous incidents of robbery we had experienced in South Africa, we initially assumed they were there to pilfer some phones. Since I was using an iPad for my sermon, I anticipated they might take it, but when one of them struck me on the head with a weapon and then grabbed my wife, I realized this was a more serious situation,” recounted Joshua during an interview with Madison Scrapino of Fox News.

The pastor recalled doing “whatever they wanted” him to do when they broke into his church, fearing they might kidnap his wife Meagan, too.

“While we’re sitting in the driveway, the guys just jumped out of the car and began firing their weapons,” he said. “Of course, I don’t know what’s going on. And then… [for] about five to seven minutes, I hear a gun battle. Nothing hits the car, nothing around the car. But I just hear guns going off, and I’m just laying back there praying. I didn’t know what I should do. Should I run? Should I get out? I didn’t know, so I just laid back there and prayed. Then I hear the battle is ended.”

Josh Sullivan has a passion for sports and used to play football. (Facebook)

He heard footsteps come toward the car and someone open one of the doors, and a man asked if he was “the American pastor,” to which Joshua responded, ‘Yes.”

“He takes my hood off my hood, and I see the police uniform, and he says, ‘OK, we’re the police.’ And I just lost it. I just began crying and just, that’s when the shock began. I just got thrown into shock. I just got on my hands and knees and praised the Lord. But the police were so surprised. They were in shock that I was in there,” he said.

Joshua later discovered that the police received a tip about a suspicious vehicle earlier that day. They went to chase down the lead to a different location, took a wrong turn and ended up in the driveway of the house where the pastor was being held captive to turn their vehicle around. It was then that the kidnapping suspects got out of the vehicle and began firing at the police.

“It was is a sovereign hand of God. It was a miracle. It was a complete miracle.”

— Joshua Sullivan

Three suspects died in the shootout with police.

Joshua said the turn of events that led to his recovery was “undoubtedly a miracle.”

Josh Sullivan’s family are pleading for answers after his April 10 kidnapping. (Facebook)

“Whether you’re a believer or a nonbeliever, I know that doesn’t matter. What happened to us, what happened to me, it was a miracle from God,” he said. “The sovereign hand of God was on it because as we were speaking before the interview, things like this happen all the time… and in this case… what else could you say besides God performed a miracle in our lives? … I think he did it to show the world.”

Meagan said it was “horrifying” to watch their children “scream and cry and for their daddy,” but they “got to see that faith isn’t just something that mom and dad talk about.”

“They got to experience it because they saw God work a miracle in their own lives,” she said. “They prayed, and God answered their prayer.”

The Sullivans said they both feel more strongly about their mission to teach Christianity in South Africa after Joshua’s kidnapping.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Africa said in a December 2024 report that the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) annual crime statistics show kidnappings increased by 264% from 4,692 in 2014 and 2015 to 17,061 in 2023 and 2024.

Most kidnapping incidents over the 2023-2024 time period “were perpetrated during aggravated robberies, such as car or truck hijackings or armed robberies at businesses, homes, or in public spaces,” the ISS Africa report reads.