Kumasi Bonnke Crusade Starts 4pm

Reverend Reinhard Bonnke
Heads of churches and para-church organisations in the Ashanti Region have welcomed the decision by Christ for All Nations (CfAN) to start this year's Bonnke Crusade in Kumasi at 4:00 pm and end at 7:00 pm each day.

The heads, including the top hierarchies of the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Church of Pentecost and Assemblies of God, together with ministries such as Aglow International—who constitute the Steering Committee for the November 6 – 9 crusade at Aboabo Roundabout in Kumasi—say that though the time chosen has no precedence in the history of Kumasi crusades, they had, after much prayer and consultations, come to the conclusion that the reasons for the 4:00 pm take-off on all the four days make sense.

Aside everything else, they said it is on record that last year's CfAN crusade in Accra started at 4:00 pm, 'and from the evidence on video and the reports from churches in Accra, the meetings went well, not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of how mightily God moved,' said Rev Douglas Frimpong, chairman of the planning committee, who also serves on the Crusade Board. He was speaking during his weekly press briefing in Kumasi at the weekend.

The announcement of the 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm was made at an earlier meeting in Kumasi by the Ghanaian Executive Director for CfAN, Reverend John Darko.

At that meeting, Reverend Darko explained that 'crusades are not an all-night prayer session. Besides, it is economically unprofitable to a nation if its citizens are so delayed at crusades that they struggle to get home late at night and are unable to get sufficient rest for work the next day.'

The media wanted to know if the organisers did not take into consideration the convenience of the time to civil and public servants who close at 5:00 pm.

To this, the CfAN Africa Director replied that 'there are hundreds of thousands of people who are not on regular government working time. Many people do their own work. Many more may not even be in employment and may need the touch of God for job openings. As it happened in Accra last year, and has happened in all our crusades in the last few years in the major cities of Africa, the programme starts at 4:00 pm and the regular civil and public servants join after 5:00 pm—in time to receive the message of salvation into their hearts and a miracle into their lives. It worked in Accra last year. By prayer and good planning, it will work this year in Kumasi.'

Venue for the crusade is Aboabo Roundabout. It will feature the renowned German international evangelist, Reverend Reinhard Bonnke, founder of CfAN, and Reverend Daniel Kolenda, the American evangelist who has taken over from Bonnke as president of the ministry.

Rev Darko assured churches in the city that CfAN was not a church and that 'as has always been done in all our crusades everywhere in the world for the past 40 years, the new converts in the four-day Kumasi crusade would be handed over to the local participating churches.

In the history of CfAN meetings, some churches have grown from a congregation of 500 to 3,000 as a direct result of the life-changing gospel proclamation.' He emphasised that 'all that CfAN prays for is that the new converts will be discipled into truly repentant people who fear God, and also, that the communities in which the churches are situated will change for the better, spiritually and economically.'

The Bonnke crusade director prayed that after the Kumasi meetings, the Holy Spirit would occupy the 'miracle-free zones' and empower the pastors, evangelists, apostles and prophets so that signs and miracles would follow the proclamation of the Word of God.

'From this crusade, we will be spreading blessing to the entire city of Kumasi, and from Kumasi, we will export blessing to the rest of Ghana,' he assured.