Dear Pastor and Praying friends,
     
         Psa 18:3 - "I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies."

        After a month here in South Africa we are beginning to settle in. The first couple of weeks were difficult, as you can imagine, but God is gracious. Our God is worthy to be praised and served. We have enjoyed spending time with fellow missionaries as well as our church people. Since we are not at FBC full time we have taken this opportunity to visit other like minded churches in the city. We have loved this and are excited about what God is doing in Port Elizabeth. With that said there are only 11 fundamental baptist churches in our city of 1.4 million people. That is less than 1 church for every 127,000 people. Obviously, more has to be done to reach the lost. Our city needs more churches and I pray that God will allow us to plant one. 

        Exciting News - That last time I preached at FBC Motherwell was the night I was taken hostage. After a long hiatus I was able to preach again at our church. Again I say that God is worthy to be praised! It was a day that began with anxiety and finished with hope. I am thankful that God allowed me to return to the pulpit. Thank you to everyone who prayed of us. I also want to thank those who sacrificially gave to our ministry.

        Thank you - I have recently told a few friends how much money we had to spend last year on travel, rent, vehicles, food, clothing, etc. The number isn't important but it was not something we were prepared for. When we left South Africa for the US we left with nearly none of our belongings. My wife did the best she knew how and we arrived with many needs. Many of you felt the Lord lead you to give and we were able to make it out of a desperate situation with no needs and no debt. Thank you. 

        Our children are now back in school for the first time since April 2025. My wife has been homeschooling for the last few months but we are excited for them to get back to normal. I have been meeting with the young men from our church. Miso is doing well so far in leading the services. I will be traveling this week to accompany missionary Noah Wilkerson as he and his family move to a new city in South Africa. Pray for the Wilkersons and they begin a new ministry in Mbombela this year. 

        Requests - Pray for Miso, Masilakhe, Masiwakhe and Elethu.  - FBC Motherwell - New Bible studies to begin - 

Hello pastors and friends! 

        We hope you enjoyed your holiday season and are reflecting on the goodness of God over 2025. It has been a crazy year for our family and ministry, but we are thankful to have seen God’s hand every step of the way.  

        For the better part of the year, we have focused on healing from a traumatic experience. This has been hard at times, because it felt as if we were being “benched,” so to speak. But God has used this time of waiting to grow our faith like never before. We praise Him for it! 
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        All of that being said, we are excited to announce that we are closing out this year in our own home in South Africa! We arrived back home on December 11th, and have thoroughly enjoyed being back with our South African children and the people God has called us to! 

        As we re-enter ministry and routine in South Africa, we covet your prayers. We are praying for the Lord’s direction and for perfect peace as we take our next steps. After much prayer and counsel, the difficult decision to not return to Motherwell has been made. It is our hope and prayer that God will provide a national leader to continue Fellowship Baptist Church. Until He does, we will work closely with the young men standing in the gap. We are also very thankful for Missionary Mark Coffey, who has been preaching and taking men from a neighboring church to worship with our people. We understand this is God’s church, and we believe He will continue to build it! 

        In the meantime, we will continue to serve and survey potential new areas for a future church plant. We appreciate your prayers and support! 
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        Lastly, thank you to every person who donated monetarily to our family for Christmas this year. Our family can look back and focus on the love of God’s people and the good memories made, rather than just a scary circumstance that happened. We couldn't do that without you! 

Announcement:
        We have purchased tickets! Lord willing, we will be flying back to South Africa on December 9 of this year. Please be in prayer for us as we prepare for our return. We are both excited and a little nervous, but our hearts long to be back with our South African people. These past few months have been filled with travel, rest, family time, training, and challenges, and through it all our desire remains to please the Lord in everything we do.

Continued Prayers:
        Please continue to pray for Pastor Romza as he leads FBC Motherwell in our absence. The church seems to be doing well, with new visitors each week. It is encouraging to see how, despite difficulties, our people have remained faithful and are still inviting others to church. We are asking the Lord to grow the church and to provide a faithful man to serve as the future leader of Fellowship Baptist.

        I also ask you to pray for me as I seek direction from the Lord. Apart from spiritual healing, this is my greatest need. I am eager to return to the work in South Africa but also want to be sure I’m following the Lord’s leading. There is potential for a new church plant, but we also need to finish the work at FBC. Please pray as well for the Tim Johnson family, who will complete deputation and fly to South Africa on December 10 to begin their ministry.
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Travel Updates:
        Over the past weeks we’ve had the blessing of traveling in Mississippi and Georgia, and the Lord has allowed us to gain some additional support. We will be back in Georgia and TN later this month. As the ministry grows, so do the needs, and we are thankful for each of you who faithfully supports us. Please continue to pray that God will meet the financial needs of our family. This will be the third time in just nine months that we have flown our entire family to South Africa, and each time God has provided. We trust He will do so again.

 Dear Pastors and Praying Friends. 

        We can’t believe it’s August, and half of 2025 has come and gone. We hope that you all had a very blessed summer, with fruitful vacation bible schools, and restful family time. 

        Our family has spent the last two months traveling. Before the kidnapping in April, we had planned a family trip to Thailand to attend a mission’s retreat. We decided not to let that trip go to waste. So at the beginning of July, we headed back to South Africa for a couple of weeks, and then on to Thailand. 

        Our trip to South Africa was very healing. We spent time encouraging our people and being encouraged by their faithfulness. While we were there, our church was able to host its first funeral. This is obviously not a happy circumstance, but we rejoiced in the opportunity to share the Gospel with this lost family. We also took part in a soccer tournament at Camp Rhino. We had about 15 young people attend and sit under Gospel preaching. My wife was able to be there to hold our newest church member, baby Zizipho. I had the opportunity to preach at Newton Park Baptist Church, under the leadership of missionary Jeremy Hall. Lastly, I was able to go back and stand behind the pulpit at Motherwell. This was challenging for me, but the Lord truly helped me through it. 

        In Thailand, God did many things in our hearts. We believe that in His sovereignty, He ordered our steps to be there. Our burden for missions was deepened, and we were reminded of the urgency of the call. We were able to spend time with several veteran missionaries and glean from their wisdom. We are so thankful God gave us this opportunity. 

Update:
        Although we have some meetings booked, we have been counseled by our Pastor to keep our traveling to a minimum. If you have contacted me about a future meeting and I have not responded, please know that it was not intentional. I have had over 100 invitations for podcasts, YouTube videos, church meetings, interviews, and newspaper/magazine articles. I have tried my best to return all of them. I am honored to be invited to all of these events, but I will not be able to do them all. If you have not received a response from me, please email me again at my email [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Prayer Request: 

• Madison Brown and Ashley Taylor. These young ladies are single missionaries who were in attendance during the kidnapping. Although they are much better, they are also dealing with trauma from the incident. 
• The future of FBC Motherwell and Pastor Romza
• Direction on when to return to SA

​Hello, faithful friends. 
      First of all, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for your patience over the past couple of months. We have not been great at communication, and we apologize for that. The love, support, and continued prayers have been a balm for our weary souls. We have been taking time to process, and with the help of biblical counselors, we are healing. 
      It has been said, “When you don’t know what to do, just do the next right thing.” So that’s what we’ve been busy doing. We've enjoyed getting involved at our home church through soul-winning, discipleship, and I’ve even had the opportunity to preach a few times. 
      Meanwhile, our church in Motherwell has been busy! In May, we had 13 mamas attend a women’s conference at Camp Rhino. They left encouraged and excited to serve the Lord. The end of June started a three-week winter break for our school kids. This means camp! We had 10 teens and 10 juniors attend. We pray the Lord continues to use what they learned, and many decisions for the Lord will be made. We are so proud of how the church and Bro. Romsa is doing in our absence. 
      We recently took a short trip back to South Africa. It was so wonderful to see our people and be in our home. However, we are currently waiting on the Lord. We are trusting Him to order our steps and give us peace about returning full-time. We hope to return to South Africa by the end of the year. Thank you for praying with and for us! 

Dear pastor and praying friends,  
        We apologize that this ministry update is arriving late to you. Life has been a little busy, to say the least. We trust that you all have seen the news and heard our story so I won’t take the time to get into all the details. Instead, I will focus on what God has done and is doing through this. 
        On April 10, I was taken from our midweek service and held captive for 6 days. I was then miraculously rescued by the hand of God, without ever paying the ransom they were demanding.
As a result of this traumatic  event: 

• I was able to share the Gospel with my captors. 
• Thousands have seen the power of prayer 
• My family has felt closer to the Lord than ever before. 
• Our faith has grown 
• God has graciously given us a platform to tell all of America that Jesus Saves! 
• Some of my loved ones have gotten their hearts right with God. 
• Our church in Motherwell has experienced God’s grace on a personal level. 
• Because we returned to the States, I was able to preach at the funeral of a dear friend’s father. 

        We believe only Heaven will tell what God is doing through this. He has a purpose in every detail of our lives, and that purpose is for our good and His glory! So we trust Him. Our friends and missionary helpers, Ashley Taylor and Madison Brown, were both in the service with us when this happened. They had things stolen as well and are in need of prayer and help. Please keep them in your prayers. ​

        With all of that being said, please know our family is still processing and healing. We will be in the States for the next few months getting the help we know we need. Although we would love to see each and every one of you, we will be keeping travelling to a minimum. Our children really need stability, and look forward to getting that through our home church. 
        Lastly, we want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The outpouring of love and support shown to our family over the last month has been overwhelming! We have been unable to respond to everyone, but please know nothing has gone unnoticed. Thank you for every prayer prayed, every dollar given, and every word of encouragement.  We cannot adequately express our gratitude, but we know there will be many rewards in Heaven for the love shown to the Sullivan family. God bless. 

Prayer requests: 

• Fellowship Baptist in Motherwell. To press towards the mark of the high calling of God. 
• Pastor Romza, as he fills in for me and leads the church. 
• Souls to be saved and lives to be changed through this.
• Safety for those we love in South Africa.
• Healing for everyone involved.

Dear Pastor and praying friends

        March was an exciting month! Meagan and I started the month, by visiting our friends and fellow missionaries, Jacob and Christen Clower in Mozambique. Our trip was a wonderful opportunity to see another African country and grow our burden for the African people. We loved attending a service in Portuguese and seeing all that God is doing in Maputo. Please help us pray for the Clowers as they finish up language school and start their ministry.

        Back home at Fellowship, We saw two women trust Christ as their Savior, and we were honored to baptize two others. What makes these baptisms a little more exciting is that both were the first two people baptized who were not directly invited to our church by me or my wife. They were invited by some of our church members, heard the gospel, and were saved. This is what we pray to see more of in the coming year. We are so honored to see God work in the lives of our people. What a great God we serve!

        Every March we have our special March meetings. This year we had the privilege of having Pastors Lubabalo Sitole, Jeremy Hall, and Khona Nohamba. We also missionary Noah Wilkerson, and a young preacher named Lindokuhle. Our people enjoyed each service, and we were all challenged by God's word. 

        Our young people were privileged to attend a young adult camp at Camp Rhino. We were thrilled to have seven people from our church attend, and by all accounts, everyone had a great time.
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        Please help us pray for a young boy named Iminathi, he is very close to accepting Christ as his Savior but is a little confused. Much like many American Christians, our people have heard preaching from every flavor of church doctrine you can imagine. So when they make it to us they are very confused. Sometimes it takes weeks for them to understand the Gospel of the Bible. Iminathi is not the only person in this position. Pray for the South African people. 
Thank you all for your continual love, prayers, and support. We look forward to updating you again in the next few weeks. God bless!

Dear Pastors and praying friends. 

        Rock bottom. It is a place no one wants to find themselves in. However, the only direction to look when you’ve hit rock bottom is up. Most of the people in our church have been faced with unimaginable struggles. But, Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
        We’re so thankful for rock bottom this month. We have had conversations with several people who are there…lost and desperate for change. People are struggling with sin, sickness, and honestly just the depravity of man. They need hope. After explaining the gospel and the Holy Spirit's conviction, we had one trust Christ as their Savior, and two more we believe are close. Will you help us pray for these dear souls? Without rock bottom, some would never see their desperate need for a Savior. So in that case, it is a beautiful place to be.​

        Church Update
        February was a very blessed month. We averaged over 50 people at every service, with visitors every week. We praise the Lord! We attended a Valentine's banquet, and heard wonderful messages on a Christ-honoring relationship. and we celebrated our son Silas' ninth birthday. We started this month with our annual March meetings. Every year we look forward to having a local missionary or Pastor come and preach our Sunday morning service. Please pray for these meetings. Our church people enjoy hearing native Xhosa speakers preach clear messages from God's word. We were excited to welcome missionary Madison Brown this month. Madison will be working in our church as she studies to learn isiXhosa. We believe the Lord is going to use her in a mighty way. 

        Ministry Opportunity
        Unfortunately, clear Bible messages in isiXhosa are very few and far between. In my research as of late, I believe there are only five churches in all of South Africa that preach God's word in the Xhosa language. With over ten million Xhosa speakers in South Africa, five churches are inadequate. To combat this, God has been dealing with me about revamping our audio ministry. We have already purchased microphones, websites, recording platforms, and needed furniture. We lack a permanent studio to record in. I have been given the opportunity to build a studio at the Bay Baptist Bible College property. Bay Baptist College is an independent Baptist college located in our city. This would provide a centralized location for the local Pastors to record their messages, as well as a training platform so the studio can be used in the future without missionary assistance. This would allow us to reach thousands with the gospel. We are asking for prayer and direction on what project God would like us to take on next. 

        Greetings to our faithful friends, from South Africa! We are thrilled to be back home, and serving the Lord with our church family at Fellowship Baptist Motherwell.

        We were blessed with an amazing furlough, and saying goodbye to friends and family was hard. However, we are excited about what the Lord is doing here in South Africa. On our first Sunday back, we had a full house with many new faces. At the invitation, one precious mama accepted Christ as her savior. We had never met Mama Noncedo before, and after hearing her testimony, I’d like to share a bit with you.

        The week we were to leave on our furlough, a few troublemakers in the community tried to stir up trouble, and “close our doors.” There was a community meeting. In this meeting, our church and myself were accused of many different lies. I had to answer against the accusations and it seemed nothing ever came of it. It was stressful and discouraging, but we surrendered it to the Lord.

        We thought that was the end, but God was working behind the scenes. After we left, there was talk of burning the church down. We had no idea, but Mama Noncedo did. She told us that, although she wasn’t yet a Christian, she knew this wasn’t right. She decided to make Fellowship her church. If they were going to destroy it, they would do it with her inside.

        After attending for the entire six-month furlough, the church never got burned down, but Mama’s heart had been changed. She was ready to be saved on our first Sunday back. Praise His Holy Name! Today my wife was able to share the gospel with her daughter, and we believe she will soon accept Christ. What Satan meant for evil, God used for good!

        We are very thankful to missionaries Brandon Byerly and Ashley Taylor for helping while we were away. They did a fantastic job, and our church matured with their help. Pray for the Bylerys as they move to another church to help.

        We were able to speak to a few pastors about the possibility of mission trips. We are looking to book these trips in 2025 and 2026. If you are interested, you can contact me at 865-978-0485 or [email protected]. We are also wanting interns as well. We are looking for any young people interested in helping/training with a veteran church planting missionary from anywhere to 3-6 months. Thank you for your continual prayers and support.

Updates:
- The young men have matured in the Lord and are continuing to grow.
- We have had many new visitors in the last few weeks
- New discipleship classes started and special events planned.
- Preaching through the book of Matthew
- One woman accepted christ our first Sunday back

Prayer Requests:
​- Two more partnering churches so we can get back to 100%
- Our Pastor and his family due to the loss of his mother. 
- Souls to be saved.

Updated Contact Information:
Josh Sullivan
2335 Pennsylvania Ave
Maryville, TN 37804
865-978-0485

Merry Christmas from the Sullivans. 

         As we draw close to the end of our furlough, we reflect on the wonderful year God has blessed us, particularly the last six months. The first half of our furlough was spent with light traveling, and getting to reconnect with family and our church. We praise the Lord for those that invested in our children, and the faithfulness of old friends. We have spent the last three months with a heavy traveling schedule. Although a bit exhausted, we are so grateful. In October and November, we were blessed to be a part of eight mission conferences and got the opportunity to report back to many supporting churches. It was a joy to teach in many children's classes and schools and be fed by some wonderful men of God. Our hearts were stirred to do more for worldwide evangelism. God's people are amazing, and we are very excited to have so many new friends. 
      
        Meanwhile, back in Africa, Fellowship Baptist Church is doing wonderful. We couldn't be more pleased with how God has blessed us in our absence. Our people have been faithful and seem to be thriving. The last two weeks have been spent at teen camp and junior camp. We haven't gotten a report back yet on salvations; however, we had a great group of kids attend. We are also proud of our older teens, who are now helping as counselors. 

        Please be in prayer for one of our young men named Elethu. He is currently in "Initiation School". This is a cultural process where boys spend about three weeks out in "the bush," to become men. There are many spiritual challenges that go along with this. Please pray that Elethu will glorify God through this process, and with his life. 

        We want to thank you all for the Christmas gifts, and extra offerings this holiday season. We are humbled by your generosity. It is a great blessing not only to us but also to the ones we love in South Africa. It is always fun blessing others for Christmas. 

        We are very excited about our next term. We have about 5 meetings left before we leave for South Africa on January 6, 2025. There have been a total of 9 churches adding us to their missions program. We are praying for 4 more over the next month. Thank you so much for your continual prayers and support for our family. We pray you have a blessed Christmas and New Year.