An American church-planting missionary was abducted at gunpoint while leading a prayer meeting at his church in South Africa on Thursday, police say.
Pastor Josh Sullivan was kidnapped from Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, near the coastal city of Gqeberha, late Thursday.
"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, according to Vanguard. "They robbed two cell phones and then took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene."
The husband and father of six has served as a missionary in South Africa since 2018, according to his family's online biography page.
He has served on the staff of Fellowship Baptist Church, an independent Baptist church in Maryville, Tennessee, since 2012 and trained under the tutelage of Pastor Tom Hatley, who has been the couple's pastor since their childhood. In an endorsement statement, Hatley said Josh and Meagan Sullivan have a "tremendous desire to share the gospel with the Xhosa people of South Africa."
Josh Sullivan completed four years of work in a satellite school of Macedonia Baptist College in Midland, North Carolina.
"Please pray for Josh Sullivan, missionary to South Africa," the church wrote on Facebook Thursday. "He was kidnapped at gun point by six men during their church service this evening."
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