An encounter with Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke

December 13, 2019 Janet Karim 27 Comments

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ — Matthew 25:21

On Saturday, December 7 2019, legendary global evangelist Reinhard Bonnke peacefully passed away, surrounded by his family.

Bonke: Rest In Peace Man Of God

His passing marks the end of a vastly fruitful 60-year journey of evangelical work through large crusades, mostly in Africa, including Malawi.

He was 79 years old and oversaw the conversion to Christianity of millions of people worldwide. I was one of them. He is definitely getting his red-carpet welcome and the long-awaited “well done, good and faithful servant”.

There are some people that have argued that Bonnke was not such a great church leader. Such sentiments were held following riots in Nigeria where youths burnt churches and Christians were attacked.

Many blamed Bonnke for the attacks, citing his anti-Muslim comments. In Malawi, during his 1986 crusade, former editor-in-chief Vic Gardner inferred that Bonnke was part of the manipulating Westerner that were skinning poor Africans of their hard-earned money.

As one of the converts, I strongly disagree with either viewpoint. On his first crusade to Malawi, I recall Bonnke telling the maximum capacity gathering that stretched from behind the High Court in Blantyre up to the French Cultural Centre of his recurring dream featuring a picture of the map of Africa being spread with red.

He said he heard the voice of God crying “Africa Shall Be Saved”. This led to his adopting large-scale evangelism as opposed to the traditional small-scale missionary outreaches.

This was in June-July 1986, the evangelist brought to the country large trucks, marked “Christ For All Nations” (abbreviated CfaN). Bonnke partnered with local Christian churches and created a vibe that drew the curious, interested and those desirous of cures for their ailments.

As a features editor at The Daily Times, I recall sending my two colleagues Robert Chilenga and Ralph Banda to attend the meetings for an article on the social and religious pages. After two visits and “Janet you should go and hear this guy preach and the women, they know the Bible. Janet please, go to the crusade!”

While I was happy to hear the positive report about women knowing the Bible, I did not get an article from Rob and Ralph, so I decided to go myself. Thus, on one cold July evening, I asked my husband for keys to the car so I could pick up a story for my features pages.

Here are my seven takeways from the encounter I had at the Reinhard Bonnke Crusade, 1986.

1.       I sat at the outer edges of the crusade crowd, almost at the French Cultural Centre;

2.       I vividly recall two points about the evangelist’s message as follows:

(a).       When he goes on evangelism drives, he likes to go to the bars, not the churches. This is because it is in the bars where prospective converts are in plenty of supply;

(b).      He asked the gathering if we are chickens or eagles. He gave the differing characteristics of the two: the chicken (pecks at grain, eats worms, and does not fly); the eagle flies high in the sky, has 20/20 vision and can look at a school of fish miles in the sky and determine which fish it will catch—and catches it, it does not eat worms.

(c).   One day a naughty farmer stole an eagle’s egg and had its chicken sit on it along with its chicken eggs. When the eagle was born, the mother hen fed it grains and taught it to peck the ground for worms. This lasted until the eagle saw her baby eagle pecking on the ground. She flew down, scooped her eaglet up to where it belonged.

(d).      This is how we are: we are children of the King of the universe.

3.       At the time of altar call, I was at the foot of the stage and into the arms of Barbara Tippett (Malawi’s first female pastor whom I had featured on Meet Prominent Women column). We hugged and cried for a long time;

4.       I gave my life to Jesus and was born again. I joined Blantyre Christian Centre, currently known as Word Alive Ministries International;

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

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27 replies on “An encounter with Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke”

  1. I think this religion thing is crippling many minds…. do your surveys study the history… you will never go wrong, if your life is full of zowuzidwa ndi anthu you are on verge of perishing, a lot of things are miss informed to the mass,,,, check the history of Israel research the saducees (sp) and the farisee (sp)… follow the chronological events of the words you believe… its all falling apart…. we saw the trucks and we followed, then we heard Bonke is healing people, we were excited then later the healed testified they never got healed long after Bonke had gone with the trucks and probably uor offerings from the mass gatherings… If really God was the one who told the guys to write those words from his mouth in the Bible as we say it is God’s word.. then we are also claiming god is a confused being… if you follow the books closely. ngati pali wa makani ayambise tione ngati susiya kukhulupilira mukumanamiza anthuzi… dare me we will get to the point if as long as you are not just mumbling your words than talking facts and logic.

    I this article, the writer is curried away by memories that can be proved wrong at any cost, as we should accept that everything is created with amazement whether a chicken or an eagle… they are perfectly created by God in such a way that comparing the two is like saying God should have not created the chicken as it is serving a lesser function than the eagle. a worm is a perfect creature in its purpose not comparing to an elephant. if you are going to say a fish is less important than an eagle then only fools will line up with you so as with your guy.

    its not wise to believe lets live life as God has given us at this moment lets accept that what we know we know, what we dont know, we dont know – because to believe is to accept as true things that you are not sure of, just because others say so. just because you believe, it does not mean that you know. to believe that Bonke is now welcomed is one endless clues of madness you are going to create here and for those who will think along your lines.

    Just as you are telling the stories of Bonke is how the Bible was constructed…. in fact the Bible in greek means “the Books” later the meaning was said to be the Words of God, and if so… amwene you dont read the Bible coz mulungu is not a confused being, he is very orderly just like life if you see the very smallest creatures are very orderly created and belt to live a life, sooo detailed and amazingly constructed…. welenga bible with curiosity muli chipwilikiti osati maswewla.

    1. Aaaaah excellent. At least a refreshing perspective from a thinking mind. Osati enawa. They’re just regurgitating the same holy nonsense. It’s as if they are afraid to think critically about this god stuff. Kuopa supernatural nonsense

  2. I echo the author of this article. This was a great man of God indeed. I was part of his audience early 80s in Kitwe’, Zambia, then I was a still a Student at the University of Zambia. I was one of Ushers of these Crusades now Rev. Dr. and Nevers Mumba was the interpreter. during these Crusades. I rhad remarkable and lasting experience – for it was the time when I had received the Holy Ghost in one of his Crusades. This man touched my life too. May his Soul Reign forever with the Lord, Amen!!!1

    1. Lol holy ghost. You mean you started convincing yourself that you could speak in spiritual tongues? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. You need to go to a psychiatrist bro.

  3. This is inspiring. You have preached to all of us. That no matter what, we need to focus on the message that one preaches and get into their convictions. Thanks Janet. Salvation is very close to all but only a few know and take advantage.

    1. Heaven doesn’t exist. Have you ever seen it? Have you ever watched the movie The Island? In that movie, clones were deceived into thinking that their whole purpose in life was to stay pure to be chosen to go to the island. They believed that the island was this paradise where all their dreams would come true though none of them had ever seen this so called island. They were just going by what they had been told. Well, when our protagonist finally went to the island she realized that it was nothing but an organ harvesting factory. The real humans on the other side were rearing these clones just so that they could harvest the organs which they needed once theirs could no longer function. Well, at least the island was real, though f-ed up. But What guarantee do you have that heaven even exists?????

  5. Janet, thank you so much for such a heart warming article.

    I attended his 1986 open air crusade in Lilongwe when I was 9 years old. I then attended the 1996 crusade in Blantyre. Certainly will never forget how he presented the gospel in its simplicity. He never preached about prosperity but he was so rich in Spirit, he never preached of complex supernatural ideologies but certainly he was spiritual.

    I certainly recommend reading his biography “Living a life of Fire” – I guarantee you, you will be challenged. It made me write to him, just to say thank you for impacting my spiritual life, thank you for the crusades in Malawi and thank you for answering the call to serve in Africa. Millions and millions of Africans were saved from his preachings.

    I was watching a feature piece program on BBC TV just hours after his death and one fact about him stroke me really hard. During his preaching life, he led 79 million people to Christ and he has died at age 79.. that’s like leading a million people to Christ each year of his life. Remarkable!

    1. You mean 79 million people went to the front after the altar call because they were excited with his show? Let’s not get carried away here. After being so called led to Christ, the whore realized she still needed to survive and went back to the streets. The drunk realized he was still thirsty and went to the local shabeen. Wanyere ndiye anakoka ku crusade konko. Let’s not waste time with these superstitions. What we need are economic transformation programs, investment in science and technology and progressive leadership. NOT JESUS!!!

  7. Ka Yesu kakuchepera kaba. Nanga bwanji kalolera the so-called great man of god azime after surgery? Tisamanamizane guys. Za Yesu Yesuzi ndi nthano chabe. There’s no power in Jesus. It’s just fairy tales.

  9. Rev Bonke was a powerful man of GOD, Malawians mostly were very religious but not true followers of Christ then. I was there in 1986 as a 29 years old young man, the crusade was very organised and I could feel a different atmosphere of Air filling the whole place. It was my first time to feel the presence of the Power of the Almighty God, even before Bonke took to the podium to preach people had already started experiencing and encountering healings, many people got delivered, received their healings. I understand Bonke had trained local intercessors led by a South African lady called sister Suzzet who were interceding for the meetings, preachers and the crowd. That week was powerful, the destiny of Malawi changed from that year(1986) despite resistance from mainline churches
    the power of GOD moved, things happened, many leaders from many Churches got born again and some were ex communicated for attending Bonke meetings. The truth of the matter was that Bonke brought great revival to Malawi, most of the Ex communicated leaders, because of their Spiritual Revival, some started pentecost revival in the Country, established Pentecostal Churches which now are big Churches. The things I learned from that Revival are,
    God is the same yesterday, today and for ever, as opposed to the teachings we had then that Miracles had ceased way Back, I also learned to put my Faith In Jesus and believe that its not by my effort but by faith and believing in him that I get Salvation, Understanding and feeling the presence of the Holy Ghost who moved powerfully at Chichiri Grounds touching people and destroying all the evil works of the devil because witches repented, talismans were destroyed, witch doctors powers were destroyed and rendered useless by the blood of Jesus which Bonke preached. Though he was unfairly attacked by the Editor of the Daily Times, Religious leaders, we are still enjoying the revival he brought, it was Malawi’s first big pentecost revival that changed Malawi forever. Thank you Madam for your article

    1. Lol za ziiiii. Meanwhile atheist nations are progressing in science and technology while you linger in disease and poverty with your Jesus. Rubbish!

  10. Wow!

    Thank you for sharing Janet.

    He was truly a faithful servant. I attended his Crusades in both years too.

  11. That is why we are ALL different. I have a very different experience of Bonnke. I was there in 1986. I avoided him or was away in 1996. Or maybe i am too full of Erich Von Daniken.

  12. Well written Janet. May the soul of the departed Man of God rest in eternal peace. He played his role, akapume ku zolemetsa za pa dziko lino

  13. I attended the entire crusade! With Chris Daza as his interpreter . I still have tapes for that crusade! When he came again in 1996 I attended the crusades.
    He showed me the way to Christ with his simple gospel messages.
    MHSRIP

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