MATTAPAN, Mass. (WHDH) -- Hundreds of people were at a Mattapan church to celebrate a beloved pastor's homecoming. They heard, for the first time, Michel Louis describe how he and another woman were held captive in Egypt and why he volunteered to go along after kidnappers took her hostage.

“I'm coming from far to be here today,” said Louis.

Hours after his return, the 61-year-old Pentecostal pastor thanked parishioners who kept him in their thoughts while he was held captive for three days. Louis said kidnappers moved him all across the Sinai Peninsula after he was captured July 13th during a missionary trip. His tour bus was making its way from Egypt to Israel when he said it was stopped by the three truckloads of men armed with machine guns.

Louis told the congregation that armed men boarded his tour bus and beat an Everett woman travelling with his religious group. The reverend said when they tried to take her and the bus driver hostage, he volunteered to go too.

“She's a member of our or church, it'll be better for me to go with her,” Louis told his parishioners.

The pastor's son said his father and the two other captives weren't hurt after that. Louis said he was moved around Egypt without a shower or medicine for three days. On Monday, the reverend's family members learned he'd been released.

“Prayer moves the world. Prayer moves the world.”

Home now, with the parishioners who prayed together a week ago for his safe return, the grateful pastor says he's praying for peace in Egypt and even the men who captured him.

Michel Louis and the two other hostages release was negotiated when Egyptian officials apparently agreed to reconsider the imprisonment of one of the kidnapper's uncles.