American missionary Kenneth Danforth, who is also known as J.R., is missing after a boat carrying him capsized off the coast of Tanzania.
“He was traveling by boat from the east coast of Tanzania to Mafia Island when a storm blew in,” his mother Tammy Stevens told CBN News.
On May 3rd, Danforth and five other people were making the two-hour trip by boat to Mafia, a small Island off Tanzania’s east coast, when they encountered rough weather.
“The captain was rescued after he managed to swim to a nearby island, but none of the other passengers have been found,” Stevens told CBN News from her home in Van Vleck, Texas.
For the past year, 35-year-old Danforth has called Mafia Island, with its population of some 40,000 people, mostly Muslims, his home away from home.
“My son had a heart and passion for missions straight out of high school,” Stevens told CBN News. “This is simply his calling; He loves it over there and just loves the people and the country.”