This story has been updated since it was originally posted.
Friends and family on social media are urging prayer for a missing missionary in South Africa. Josh Sullivan, a U.S. missionary and pastor, was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday evening (April 10), while delivering a sermon at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, South Africa.
According to multiple media reports, four armed and masked men entered the church around 7 p.m., robbed congregants of two cellphones and abducted the 45-year-old pastor in his vehicle, later found abandoned nearby.
“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, the Associated Press reported. “They robbed two cell phones and then took [Sullivan] with them and fled the scene.”
Financially motivated?
Sullivan’s wife, Meagan, and their children were reportedly with Sullivan at the time of the attack but were left unharmed. Authorities believe the abduction may be financially motivated, consistent with a rising number of ransom-related kidnappings in the region, according to media reports.
Sullivan and his family are members of Fellowship Baptist Church, an independent Baptist church in Maryville, Tennessee, where Sullivan has been on staff. Other than their home church, The Baptist Paper was unable to identify any other organization or group that the family is working with at this time.
The U.S. Embassy has reportedly acknowledged the incident and is monitoring developments.
