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Dear Mission Partners,

I am thrilled to be going back to Ibadan. I am full of faith and expectation for that meeting in Nigeria’s second largest city with more than 6.5 million inhabitants in the greater Ibadan area. 6.5 million! That is roughly as many people as in the entire Ruhr region and twice as many as in Berlin. It is a huge metropolis. You will find more information about our campaign in Ibadan below.

The last time that we were there was exactly eight years ago. We witnessed a truly outstanding miracle! We had the second largest campaign that CfaN had ever seen. Because of the huge growth of African towns and cities as a result of the rural exodus and the population explosion, which has produced vast numbers of children and teenagers, we know that the Lord is taking us back to that megacity. There are still millions of people who have not yet accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The church fellowships and pastors are longing for the wind that will fan their fire into flames that blaze brightly.

As we prepare to set off for Ibadan, our impression is that, just like the Prophet Elijah, we can hear “the sound of a heavy rain”.

As you can tell, I am already full of “faith-full” expectation. Please read the below carefully – and if possible, prayerfully. I really need to know that you are giving your prayerful support to this important campaign.

I am absolutely certain that, by the grace of God, we will again see millions of precious people coming to the Lord in the 2009/2010 season. That is the reason why he came to earth – so that the lost can be saved.

Thank you for supporting the Ibadan campaign in prayer and with gifts. There is no time like the present!

Yours in the love of Jesus

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke

 

Ibadan – the mighty metropolis of the Yoruba

The overwhelming megacity of Ibadan in the federal state of Oyo is one of the largest on the continent of Africa. Far more than 6.5 million people live in the greater urban area, which is the centre of the Yoruba people.

The Yoruba people, who number around 120 million, form one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa and constitute a linguistic group rather than a single people. Many of them live in western Nigeria, with roughly 21% of all Nigerians being Yoruba. Typical of the Yoruba culture is the early establishment of urban settlements. In the Middle Ages the largest towns already had 100,000 inhabitants.

The city is located 160 km north of Lagos. It takes around three hours to get there by car – on a well-built motorway which travels through the southern rainforest belt – and, compared with the hot and sultry port, the city is a pleasant surprise. The traffic flows more smoothly, the people are more relaxed and it is all less hectic and chaotic. Yet in among the vast spread of corrugated iron roofs there is a great deal of need and misery. Ibadan may be an important city but it is not particularly wealthy.

Nonetheless, in many ways Ibadan has played a pioneering role in Nigeria. For example, it boasts the first university in Nigeria, the first television station in Africa, the first modern football stadium and a lot more. Besides numerous academic and educational establishments, the capital of the federal state of Oyo plays an important role as the region’s commercial and industrial centre.

The town takes its name from “Eba Odan”, which is translated literally as “between forest and steppe”. Until 1970 Ibadan was the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa. It is well-located strategically, on the railway line from Lagos to Kano, Nigeria’s third largest city.

After virtually each of our Great Gospel Campaigns the organisers and pastors say goodbye to Reinhard Bonnke with an urgent, heartfelt plea: “Please hold another campaign in our town soon!” It is exactly eight years since the CfaN team held a major campaign in Ibadan.

In those eight years, the vast cities of Nigeria have experienced amazing population growth. A United Nations study describes Lagos as one of the fastest growing cities in the world. In 1950 it had a population of around 290,000, and in 2010 that figure will probably be 20 million. More than 3,000 people a day are added to the population each day. Things are  not very different in Ibadan. The huge growth alone is reason enough for holding another major evangelistic campaign in that city. “God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

Together with his team, our West Africa representative John Darku has worked tirelessly to mastermind all the preparations for the campaign. In accordance with our tried and tested method, the city has been divided into areas and 16 different planning committees have been set up to deal with all that needs to be arranged, including security, media, transport, music and planning the Fire Conference.

On 17 July the various committees held their first meeting at the Assemblies of God Church in Mokola, Ibadan. Archbishop J A Akinfenwa, the Chairman of the Board of Advisers for the campaign, was delighted that Reinhard Bonnke had chosen Ibadan as the place to celebrate his 50th year in the ministry with the people. In his speech at the constitutive meeting, he said that this second campaign with Evangelist Bonnke would convey the gospel of Christ with a fresh anointing and total freedom. “All we need to do as church leaders is to forget the past, we should shun any act that may bring disunity, and pray for the salvation of sinners’ souls at the crusade,” he said.

A key role is played by the Committee representing the large group of counsellors, who will be positioned throughout the crowd during the campaign meetings. Their task is to give the respondents the follow-up booklet, to help them to fill in the decision card and to accompany them in their first steps as disciples of Jesus. In the churches, numerous training centres have been set up to take the counsellors through the ten lessons in the CfaN counselling manual. Every counsellor is given a copy of the follow-up booklet in advance so that they can study it carefully. The counsellors will later also visit new Christians, invite them to church, pray for them and thus act as an important link in the chain.

The committees for media and PR work also have a great deal to do. Radio spots, TV ads, advertisements in all the daily newspapers, flyers, posters and large banners for the main road junctions have to be organised. However, the most important thing is to encourage Christians to invite their families, neighbours and friends personally to the campaign meetings.

Our last meeting in Ibadan in November 2001 was breathtaking. In total, 3.9 million people were there to hear the gospel. There were more than 1.3 million at the meeting on the Sunday evening. More than 2.6 million people completed a decision card.

The atmosphere at that campaign, which was held at Ibadan’s former airport, was peaceful and expectant. All those in charge were gratefully relieved that this huge event took place without causing any disruption as there were many people among the respondents who had been involved in occult practices, shamanism, ancestor worship, superstition, and other similar things. A large number of Muslims also turned from Islam to the living God. They were baptised and integrated into one of the many participating church fellowships. Very many churches experienced astounding growth, with church attendance often doubling or tripling

Ibadan – and the whole of Africa – shall be saved

 

Pictures by Oleksandr Volyk