The 29-year-old Brunswick native who has been detained with two other missionaries in the Philippines, returned home to Northeast Ohio on Wednesday.
Shaw was welcomed home by his father, the Rev. Thomas Shaw of Brunswick United Methodist Church, and his mother, Susan Shaw.
According to the United Methodist Church website, Adam Shaw was expelled by the Philippine government.
“I think the cruelest part is that I can’t come back, and that is the most painful part for me,” Shaw said, during a July 2 press conference at Manila's Good Samaritan United Methodist Church.
His fellow missionaries, Tawanda Chandiwana, who is in a detention center, and Miracle Osman, who has had her passport confiscated, are still being detained. All three were labeled subversives by the government while taking part in an international fact-finding investigation of alleged human rights violations, including the deaths of nine people.
Shaw is the son of the Rev. Thomas and Susan Shaw, who were missionaries in Tunisia and Germany from 1994 through 2003. He has been a Global Ministries’ missionary in Mindanao since 2016 with Save Our Schools, an education network for indigenous children, and previously served in the region as a mission intern. Shaw told the press gathering that he discovered his adult-self in the Philippines.
“If Tawanda still has not been released, I will be advocating for him and waiting for my next missionary assignment," Shaw added.
The three missionaries were assigned to InPeace (the full name is Initiatives for Peace), a grassroots, interfaith movement that describes itself as supporting sustained peace negotiations among those involved in armed conflict.
WATCH | See Adam Shaw's post-flight interview via the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church