A pastor from Tennessee, who was abducted at gunpoint in South Africa just before Easter, is now sharing his story, including the extraordinary event that ensured his survival.

Joshua Sullivan, a 34-year-old pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church and missionary based in Motherwell, was forced out of his church by multiple armed, masked intruders in the Eastern Cape Province on April 10. The assailants confiscated cellphones from the congregation and left with Sullivan in his own vehicle.

“We usually have our prayer session before the service, and as I began my sermon, only about a minute in, four masked gunmen burst into the room. Given South Africa’s reputation for crime, we initially assumed it was a typical robbery. We’ve been targeted before, so we thought they were there just to take some phones. I even expected they might grab my iPad. However, when one struck me on the head with his firearm and then seized my wife, it was clear this was something more serious,” Joshua recounted in his discussion with Madison Scarpino from 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.