Nobody but God can take credit for his rescue during an intensive gunfight in which police shot dead three of his kidnappers in Gqeberha (PE), said US pastor Josh Sullivan in a televised interview.
He said the police officer who found him unharmed in the back of the kidnappers’ vehicle after the nighttime shootout on April 15 had looked shocked to find him there and had asked him if he was “the American pastor”. The officer had then called his four surprised fellow officers, saying: “It’s the American pastor”. At a debriefing with the FBI and SAPS the next day, the police officer said to him: ” I know you are a praying man because we were lost when we found you,” Sullivan told WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA on Friday.
Wrong turn
He said he had learned that the police officers had been following up a tip about a suspicious vehicle in the area that night. They had been on their way to a different address when they took a wrong turn. Then they pulled into a driveway to turn around. They had no idea that it was the driveway of the safe house where Sullivan had been held captive for the past six days. At that very moment the three kidnappers were driving from their garage to the gate, which had just been opened for them by two accomplices. The three kidnappers jumped out of their vehicle and started firing on the police who returned fire. The two accomplices fled at the time.
Sullivan, who had had a hood over his head since he was abducted on the evening of April 10 while he was preaching in his church in Motherwell, Gqeberha, said he had lain down in the back of the kidnappers’ car, “just praying”, while about 20 gunshots rang out.
Divinely orchestrated
Explaining how God had precisely orchestrated his rescue, he said the kidnappers had spent time cleaning the house before leading him out to their vehicle, apparently with the intention of collecting ransom money and dropping him off somewhere. On the way to the vehicle he had tripped on stairs twice, hurting his knee and requiring about a minute of recovery time before he could get up from one of his falls. All of these details contributed to the deadly confrontation between the kidnappers and police taking place at precisely the moment the kidnappers were about to drive out of their gateway and the police arrived on their driveway “by accident”.
![](https://gatewaynews.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/5-ways-to-support-gateway-news.jpg")
- Advertisement -
At the time of the shootout, his wife, Meagan, who had been staying with their four children and two children they were hoping to adopt, in a police safe house in another town, had just got everybody to pray together. They had all begun to “sing hymns and pray at almost the exact moment that a gun battle was going over my head”, he said.
“At the same moment there were different stories. I can tell you with Jeremy [Jeremy Hall, a US missionary who assisted with ransom negotiations] that I mentioned, with the negotiation — something else that was happening with him. Something else that’s happening with the police,” said Sullivan.
‘God performed a miracle that night’
“It was just a complete miracle and we love to tell the story because I don’t want to undermine the work of the FBI or the SAPS — South African Police Service. I don’t want to undermine the work of my wife who worked so hard. But I didn’t save myself. My wife didn’t save me. Jeremy didn’t save me. The police were there at the moment but they can’t even take credit for it. They were there by accident. There’s nobody, –even a lot of work was done to find me — there’s nobody that can take credit for what happened. God performed a miracle that night.
“I don’t know why He chose us. I have no idea. There’s a lot more skilled people He could have chosen but I just believe He did all that so we could continue to get the Gospel told to those who haven’t heard,” he said.
Sullivan told the interviewer that during his six-day ordeal in the safe house, he shared the Gospel with two of his three kidnappers. One had shown interest and asked questions. The other listened but showed no interest. All three kidnappers had entered eternity, “a lot quicker than they probably expected”, he said.
“I have no idea where they are. I can’t say. But we are all going to be faced with entering eternity one day. Life is quick,” he said.
During the interview, Sullivan said that after his release he was shocked and grateful to learn how many people all over the world had been praying for him and his family. “Prayer works. I am a testament to that,” he said.
He said he was deeply grateful for the time he and his family have been granted in the US to rest and recover from the trauma and to enjoy quality family time. But he said they were also sad to be away from their church family in South Africa and looked forward to returning to continue their ministry.
The Sullivans have been living in Gqeberha for seven years. They felt called to serve the Xhosa people and learned the language during their first two years in SA. They had planted a church, Fellowship Baptist Church, in Motherwell, a township in Gqeberha.
Please help us to keep on publishing news that brings Hope in Jesus:
>> Donate >> Become a Super Subscriber
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/gatewaynews100
COMMENTING GUIDELINES
You are welcome to engage with our articles by making comments [in the Comments area below] that add value to a topic or to engage in thoughtful, constructive discussion with fellow readers. Comments that contain vulgar language will be removed. Hostile, demeaning, disrespectful, propagandistic and off-topic comments may also be moved. This is a Christian website and if you wish to vent against Christian beliefs you have probably come to the wrong place and your comments may be removed. Ongoing debates and repetitiveness will not be tolerated. You will also disqualify yourself from commenting if you engage in trolling.
