From across the globe, particularly from Africa, pastors, prophets, evangelists and bible teachers will gather in the capital of Africa’s most populous nation between November 8 and 12, 2017. The purpose: to tap into the anointing on the life and ministry of German international Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke as he mounts the crusade platform for the last time after over 40 years of evangelistic work.
Many of these evangelists, prophets and teachers were influenced in their decision to go into ministry by the powerful gospel presentation of Bonnke, seeing the signs and miracles that characterized the preaching of the word of God.
A major highlight of the November Lagos event will be what has been tagged, ‘Passing a Burning Torch Conference’ during the day sessions, targeted at leaders and all kinds of church-workers. Evangelist Bonnke is believing for many thousands of pastors and evangelists from around the globe, including hundreds from West Africa, including Ghana.
Like the Old Testament prophet Elisha, the relatively younger ministers from Africa and other parts of the world will have one request on their hearts, namely: to receive a double portion of the anointing on the life of Bonnke.
In Nigeria, word is that hotels, hostels and home-stay facilities in Lagos are receiving record number of requests for accommodation from many parts of Africa by church groups, fellowships and other ministries which are sponsoring participants to the four-day event.
About the forthcoming crusade itself, Reinhard Bonnke is quoted as saying: “The Lord spoke to me, that I should go back for one more campaign in Africa. I want not only to see a gigantic harvest of souls, but to pass my burning torch to this generation. Recently, I traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, to meet with the spiritual leadership there and they gave their unanimous support. I believe God is going to do something I have never seen before.”
Peter Vandenberg, CfaN’s Executive Vice President, predicts that “this November, Evangelist Bonnke will enter and leave Africa possibly for the last time, bidding a bittersweet farewell to a continent and people whom he very much loves and have been the center of his life’s mission.”
Evangelist and CfaN current president, Daniel Kolenda, says: “I am thrilled to join with Reinhard in this vision, and know that the results of this campaign will be farther-reaching and of even greater consequence than we can even imagine.”
To these words, the ministry’s dynamic Ghanaian African Executive Director, Rev John Darku, adds: “This campaign will be like none we have seen before. There is great excitement from all the churches in the country, and we are expecting a spectacular harvest of people coming to Christ.”
CfaN is a non-denominational missions organization aimed at taking the Gospel message to the world. Christ for all Nations is primarily known for its historic campaigns in Africa and recently surpassed a milestone of 76 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ at major events in Africa and other parts of the world. CfaN has offices in countries around the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
It was in Maseru, Lesotho in 1969. After seven long years of missionary work, in the traditional way, God showed Reinhard a vision of a “blood-washed Africa.”.
Open-air crusades became the order of the day as hundreds of thousands flocked to every meeting. According to the CfaN website, Bonnke has personally preached to over 120 million people, leading 72 million souls to Christ. These are people who responded to the call of salvation by filling out decision cards and were ushered into the church follow-up programme.
Beyond Africa
The ministry increased the number of campaigns held per year in Africa and also began to branch out to Asia by holding one campaign per year in that part of the world. Campaigns followed in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and India, with three or four taking place in South America as well. Each event resulted in tens of thousand receiving Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and multitudes were healed and delivered from demon forces.
As news of what God was doing went ahead of the team, people in high places also began to take note of the huge crowds and the positive impact that the Gospel was having, and Reinhard Bonnke soon found that he was being asked to meet State Presidents and to address Houses of Parliament. Many leading national figures opened their own hearts to the message of the gospel while meeting privately with Reinhard. To date, he has personally met with 15 different Presidents in Africa.
In the industrialized North, the literature outreach known as ‘From Minus to Plus’ has reached into 95,000,000 (ninety five million) homes in 12 different countries with tens of thousands of churches receiving converts from the resulting enquirers including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Hong Kong, Canada and the United States of America. This vision still continues actively at this present time in Finland, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Reinhard emphasizes the importance of passing the baton to the next generation for the harvest to continue. Over recent years he has been working shoulder-to-shoulder with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda, his successor serving as the president and CEO of Christ for all Nations.