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| Late Evang. Reinhard Bonnke |
Reinhard Bonnke (April 19, 1940 – December 7, 2019) was a German Pentecostal [1] evangelist , principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa. Bonnke had been an evangelist and missionary in Africa since 1967. Bonnke oversaw 75 million recorded conversions to Christianity.
Early life
Reinhard Bonnke was born on 19 April 1940 in
Königsberg, East Prussia , Germany, he son of an army logistics officer. With his mother and siblings, he was taken to Denmark during the
evacuation of East Prussia , and spent some years in a displaced persons centre. He was
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 Africa at the age of 10 and sayed that he had the experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit . After war service, his father had become a pastor.
Bonnke studied at The Bible College of Wales in
Swansea , where he was inspired by the director
Samuel Rees Howells. In one meeting after Howells spoke of answered prayer, Bonnke prayed, "Lord, I also want to be a man of faith. I want to see your way of providing for needs."
Passing through London, he had a chance meeting with the famous preacher George Jeffreys, who encouraged the young German student. After graduation, he pastored in Germany for seven years. He began his ministry in Africa , with which he was principally identified, preaching in Lesotho in 1967. He subsequently held evangelical meetings across the continent.
Death
Reinhard Bonnke died on December 7, 2019. [9] He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family. He died on the early morning of December 7
African mission
Early on, Bonnke encountered poor results from his evangelistic efforts and felt frustrated at the pace of his ministry. Bonnke claims to have had a recurring dream featuring a picture of the map of Africa being spread with red and heard the voice of God crying "Africa Shall Be Saved". This led him to adopt large-scale evangelism, rather than the traditional small scale missionary approach. He rented a stadium in
Gaborone, and preached with little cooperation from local churches. Beginning with only 100 people, the stadium meetings grew.
In 1974, Bonnke founded the mission organisation 'Christ For All Nations' (abbreviated 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 9 offices across 5 continents.
Bonnke began his ministry holding tent meetings that accommodated large crowds. According to an account published by the
Christian Broadcasting Network , in 1984 he commissioned the construction of what was claimed to be the world’s largest mobile structure – a tent capable of seating 34,000; this was destroyed in a wind storm just before a major meeting and therefore the team decided to hold the event in the open air instead.
According to this account, the event was subsequently attended by over 100,000 people which is far greater than the 34,000 seating capacity the tents could contain.
Bonnke announced his 'farewell gospel crusade' to be held in Lagos, Nigeria in November 2017. Lagos is also the location of a gospel crusade held in 2000 which, according to CfaN, is the organisation's largest to-date, drawing an attendance of 6 million people. In 2019 Reinhard Bonnke will headline the G12 Africa Conference in Pretoria, South Africa.
Controversy
In 1991, during Bonnke's visit to Kano in Nigeria, there were riots in the city as Muslims protested over remarks he had reportedly made about Islam in the city of Kaduna on his way to Kano. A rumor was spread that Bonnke was planning to “lead an invasion” into Kano. Muslim youths gathered at the Kofar Mata Eide-ground where they were addressed by several clerics who claimed that Bonnke was going to blaspheme Islam. About 8,000 youths gathered at the Emir's palace and after noon prayers the riots ensued, during which many Christians sustained various injuries and several churches were burned. After nine years he returned to Nigeria to preach.
Personal life
After graduating from the Bible College of Wales and returning to Germany, Bonnke led a series of meetings in Rendsburg. He began receiving speaking invitations from all around Germany and the rest of the world. Bonnke met Anni Suelze at a gospel music festival, and admired the grace with which she recovered from a wrongly pitched music performance at the expense of losing the competition. He offered to preach at the church she attended one Sunday and fell in love with her. They married in 1964 and have three children and eight grandchildren.
Source: Wikipedia
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