International Day of Prayer for Africa seeks continent's safety, spread of Gospel
The group founded and led by for more than 50 years by the late evangelist Reinhard Bonnke is calling for worldwide petitioning of the Lord for the peace, health and salvation of Africa.
Christ for All Nations is partnering with One God, One Day, One Africa for the International Day of Prayer for Africa throughout Friday. The prayer schedule moves across CfaN’s nine regions of the world. These begin in Germany, go to Singapore, over to Canada, down to Australia, and finish in the United States. The ministry will broadcast its prayer sessions live on Facebook and end with a special presentation.
Among the prayer topics are humanitarian crises such as flooding in North Africa, locusts swarming in East Africa, drought in the southern part of the continent, the 14 African countries at war, radicalized groups cutting off financial provision, and God enabling the infiltration of those groups by the Gospel.
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“We will pray for our government leaders, for in many places, they are not Christian,” said West Africa Host Pastor William Okae Appiah of Accra, Ghana, in talking with The Christian Post.
COVID-19 and evangelism are other areas needing prayer, according to CfaN and 1GDA.
The groups plan to also cooperate on a crusade across the continent Nov. 12-15. Due to pandemic concerns, preaching will be via Global Media Outreach plus live television and radio feeds to networks, stations and numerous socially distanced gathering places. SIM cards with a recording of the crusade, the Jesus film and Bible passages will be handed out by “boots on the ground” such as missionaries from Cru and YWAM in Africa’s various regions.
“We will get the names of those coming to locations so that we can follow up and disciple them with the Word of God,” Appiah told CP.
One of the greatest obstacles to evangelizing Africa is the militant Muslim population. Open Doors estimates approximately 40% of African Christians experience high levels of persecution and that share is growing.
“We will try to bring Muslims to Christ. It is very hard; they are schooled in the Quran and by their families from childhood, but we believe ‘God’s power can fulfill God’s plans,’” Appiah said, quoting a principle of the upcoming crusade.
The main evangelist at the event will be Daniel Kolenda, who assumed leadership of CfaN when Bonnke died in December at 79. The 39-year-old Kolenda wasn’t born when his Prussian-born predecessor moved his family to Africa in 1967 to minister the Gospel.
“Africa shall be saved!” was Bonnke’s well-known rallying cry. His 52 years of evangelistic events on the continent ranged from preaching in a tent for a few hundred people to a 2000 event reportedly attracting 1.6 million.
CfaN claims 79.9 million “documented decisions for Christ” today and is hoping to surpass 80 million with the rallies next week. Kolenda states on his website that he has led more than 22 million people to Christ through mass meetings and CfaN has distributed over 190 million publications, mainly the “Now That You Are Saved” booklet.
Kolenda said the Lord placed in his heart that this is a “decade of double harvest,” that there will be as many salvations in his group’s work in the next 10 years as the previous 40 combined.
One God, One Day, One Africa was founded by Jennifer Wilde, an actress who said she was led to the Lord by a Christian tract a friend tossed at her as they left a party “all messed up from drugs and alcohol.”
“I’m no longer living a life centered around myself, chasing fame and money,” a testimony on her website reads. “Now I travel to villages in Africa and many places of need around the world – helping the poor, preaching the Good News of Jesus’s love, seeing sick people healed and hundreds of thousands of lives saved through the powerful love of God.”
