{"id":41071,"date":"2025-04-16T04:28:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41071"},"modified":"2025-04-16T04:28:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:28:59","slug":"kidnapped-u-s-pastor-rescued-in-south-africa-after-high-intensity-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41071","title":{"rendered":"Kidnapped U.S. pastor rescued in South Africa after ‘high-intensity shootout’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The American pastor kidnapped at gunpoint last week in\u2002South Africa<\/a> was rescued late Tuesday in a \u201chigh-intensity\u201d shootout that left three people dead, local authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Sullivan, 35, was abducted by a group of armed men last week who raided his small congregation, a branch of Fellowship Baptist Church in the southern town of Motherwell, as he was leading a prayer service, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pastor has been living in South Africa with his wife, Meagan, and their children since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was successfully rescued near a safe-house where he had been held around 14 miles away from Motherwell in the city of Gqeberha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawks<\/a> \u2014 the branch of the South African Police Service that investigates organized crime \u2014 carried out the recovery operation with various other police teams after they received verified intelligence, South African police said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police said they opened fire on three suspects attempting to flee the safehouse in a vehicle, responding \u201cwith tactical precision, leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan, who was inside the vehicle, was found \u201cmiraculously unharmed,\u201d police added, saying that he was immediately assessed by medical personnel and is currently in \u201can excellent condition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan’s mother Tonya Morton Rinker said in a Facebook post Tuesday that the pastor had returned home with his wife and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA sad situation but I\u2019m so thankful my son is home alive and safe. Thank you Lord!\u201d Rinker said in a post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an earlier statement Monday, Rinker told NBC News that Sullivan is \u201can exceptional father, husband, and son, embodying kindness, strength and generosity\u201d and added that his \u201chumor and wit are a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week Sullivan’s church, the Fellowship Baptist Church, urged its followers to \u201cplease pray for Josh Sullivan\u201d in a statement on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church, which is based in Tennessee, said Saturday that in the days since Sullivan\u2019s kidnapping, it had faced growing questions, including what it described as \u201cmalicious and hateful\u201d messages about why it deploys missionaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African police said it would continue to investigate Sullivan\u2019s abduction and asked anyone with information about the case to come forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe extend sincere appreciation to all role players that includes our law enforcement members, the public, international partners, both local and international media whose support and vigilance were instrumental in this success,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American pastor kidnapped at gunpoint last week in\u2002South Africa was rescued late Tuesday in a \u201chigh-intensity\u201d shootout that left three people dead, local authorities said. Josh Sullivan, 35, was abducted by a group of armed men last week who raided his small congregation, a branch of Fellowship Baptist Church in the southern town of Motherwell, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[32984,32986,2862,22150,32985,32987],"class_list":["post-41071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-american-pastor","tag-gunfight","tag-kidnapping","tag-rescued","tag-south-africa","tag-three-people-died"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41073,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41071\/revisions\/41073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}