Reinhard Bonnke, a world renowned evangelist and founder, Christ for all Nation and German Pentecostal pastor, is coming back to Nigeria for his farewell crusade to Africa, between November 8 and 12

• By Anayo Ezugwu

AFTER eight years of his last visit to Nigeria, Reinhard Bonnke, an evangelist and founder, Christ for all Nation and German Pentecostal pastor, is coming back to the country. According to the organisers, Bonnke is expected to be in the country from November 8 to 12, for his farewell crusade to Nigeria and Africa at large.

The crusade is billed to hold at Sparklight Estate, Berger, opposite Opic Event Centre, Isheri, Lagos and will be complemented by a major sideline event tagged ‘Passing the Burning Torch.’

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Monday, October 16, John Darku, Africa director, Christ for all Nation, said Bonnke’s coming to Nigeria and Africa would be his last to minister to brethren on the continent.

Darku said: “45 years ago, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke came to Nigeria on an assignment for the Lord. In between that time and now he has many several trips to Nigeria to minister the word of God to the people, so that souls might be won to God, yokes can be broken and captives of Satan are set free. Now in his old age, our Lord has asked him to gather his frail bones and body to come and minister to brethren in Africa for the last time. This is a sentimental journey for a man who may never see Africa again.”

According to him, with the final crusade in Nigeria, Bonnke would be passing the torch of apostolic evangelism in Africa.

He said for Bonnke, the work in Africa would be over, but for his followers in Africa, the work has just started. “If we look around us, we will observe that there is a lot of despair, hopelessness, poverty, sickness and souls that have no peace. It will take only God to restore peace to the hearts of the broken men and women that you see walking around. But God will also need men to help with the work of the great harvest of souls.

“All of us, the already saved, men of God, the ordinary brothers and sisters in His vineyard, and the gentlemen of the press, must take the burden for the redemption and salvation of the soul of Africa. We must assist out governments and leaders with redemptive work, prayers, even social work to get our people out of doldrums and position our continent for greater work that Jesus Christ said His disciples would do,” Darku said.

On his part, Alexander Bamgbola, chairman, Central working committee Bonnke farewell crusade and chairman, Lagos State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, said the renowned would be coming to Lagos to unleash the power of God on Nigeria and liberate it from the very present demonic forces eating up its socio-economic and spiritual potentials. He told Realnews that the expectation is to reach out to more than 30 million Nigerians with the gospel.

He said they were expecting at least 10 million people to attend the crusade every day and submit to the majesty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the grace of God.

The farewell crusade also expects participants from the neighbouring countries of Ghana, Cameroun, Togo, Benin, Mali, among others. At the crusade, Bamgbola said hundreds of thousands of willing ministers of God in Africa are expected to catch the Bonnke fire for greater exploits.

“Those who are conversant with the Holy Bible know that Prophet Elisha did greater exploits for God after he got a double portion of Prophet Elijah’s anointing by prayerfully taking the burning torch from Elijah. The man of God has made it clear to us that the choice to stage a comeback to Nigeria in the final lap of his large-scale global evangelism outreach is God-ordained and will, therefore, be explosive,” he said.

– Oct 16, 2017 @ 16:13 GMT