Reinhard Bonnke, special blessing to the world, say Bamgbola, Olaleye

The world-renowned evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke is dead. He died yesterday in Orlando, United States of America (USA) at the age of 79 and in the presence of his family. The German-born preacher, who visited Nigeria in November 2017, when held his last crusade in Nigeria at a large expanse of land by Sparklight Estate, diagonally opposite OPIC Plaza, Isheri Osun, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, used the occasion to announce Evangelist Daniel Kolenda, as his successor.

Describing the founder of Christ for All Nations (CFaN), the Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos Chapter, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola said: “Yes, I have confirmed from his African team in Abeokuta; they confirmed he passed on this morning (yesterday) in Orlando in the United States with his immediate family surrounding him. They told me that he told them in the last few days that he was on his way home. We thank God for his life. Some people are a special blessings to the world and he is one of them. He took the gospel and carried it to the four corners of the earth for Jesus Christ. The Lord raised him to be a blessing to his generation in the last and this century. The Lord used him so much. We thank God for his last crusade and the Lord told him to end his ministry where he started it from and you know, he started his ministry in South Africa and the Lord told him to end it in Lagos, Nigeria.”

As the chairman of Bonnke’s crusade in Lagos, CAN Chairman added: “His crusade here in Nigeria was very successful and millions of people attended and he was so satisfied, being his last message and last crusade. We thank God for his life and certainly I want to join the saints in glorifying God and rejoice with him that he started well and finished well. He is going to receive his crowns in heaven. I believe he is going to enjoy his rest at the feet of Jesus Christ. We pray that the Lord will keep his immediate family and his ministry.”

For Bishop Abraham Olaleye, who was Bonnke’s crusade mobilisation chairman in Nigeria, he noted: “He was a man with great fire and great compassion for evangelism and for Jesus. For the Christian community, it means an end to an era and the beginning of a new one. It also shows that all of us must work very hard for the kingdom …He lived a life full of passion in order to save souls and he worked so hard to plunder hell in order to depopulate evil. He was passionate about the gospel and people, including me that is speaking I got a lot of inspiration from him, as an evangelist like him.”

Bishop Bob Alonge of The Capital Assembly, Abuja is emphatic that Christendom is celebrating the man with a gospel of salvation through millions of souls that were saved from his several crusades.

Bonnke during his last five crusades in Nigeria had 9,120,000 people embrace the Christian faith by giving their lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. He returned to the country in 1999 after nine years of forced absence on the invitation of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
 
His visit to Kano in 1991, was greeted with riots in the city.
  
Born April 19, 1940 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany to an army logistics officer, he was taken to Denmark with his mother and siblings during the evacuation of East Prussia, and spent some years in a displaced persons centre.

He became born again at the age of nine after his mother spoke with him about a sin that he had committed. He left for missionary work in Africa at the age of 10 and announced that he had the experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
 
In 1974, Bonnke founded the mission organisation CfaN. Originally based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the headquarters were relocated to Frankfurt, Germany in 1986. This was done primarily to distance the organisation from South Africa’s apartheid policy at the time. Today CfaN has nine offices across five continents.