KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Nearly four months after being kidnapped at gunpoint while preaching in South Africa, East Tennessee missionary Josh Sullivan is back in the country where it happened. He and his family are “testing the waters” to see if they’re ready to return long-term while still living with the emotional impact of that night.
Sullivan said coming back has meant confronting painful memories head-on.
The family’s six-week trip was partly planned around a missionary conference in Thailand, tickets they had purchased the day before the kidnapping, but most of the time was spent reconnecting with their community in South Africa. They made a conscious decision not to dive back into ministry immediately.
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“There’s like a pull to jump back right in to ministry,” Sullivan said. “But we were counselled to take it as slow as we wanted to. That was really good counselling, and we followed that and took it really slow.”…