A post on Saturday on his ministry’s Facebook page, Reinhard Bonnke- Official Page, announced the passing of the Pentecostal minister.
“It is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.
He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019,” ” the post read
Along with the statement, Bonnke’s wife posted the words in Revelations 15:3-4, which includes the words, “For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”
An hour after being posted, the statement has 22,000 shares and generated more than 30,000 reactions and 17,000 comments.
Bonnke spent six decades preaching across Africa and was best known for his mega crusades across the continent.
He founded the Christ for all Nations (CfaN)—the vehicle for his evangelism which is reported to have inspired 77 million people to make decisions for Christ in the last 35 years.
His autobiography says he became born-again at the age of nine. he made his first missionary trip to Africa before he was 13 years of age.
The son of a pastor, Bonnke, a native of Königsberg in Germany, attended Bible College in the Welsh city of Swansea.
The evangelist’s open-air crusades throughout the world have attracted record crowds. On single nights, some 1,600,000 attendances have been recorded. In Nigeria, a total of six million people attended five days of soul-winning crusades.
According to his records, he has personally preached to over 120 million people,
In four months alone (from November 2012 to March 2013), his crusades recorded 9,120,000 conversions – people who actually stepped forward in response to what is known in Christianity as ”altar calls” and later filled out decision forms.
Bonnke’s farewell crusade in Africa was in Lagos, Nigeria on November 8-12, 2017 and reportedly attracted more than 1.7 million people with countless miracles and thousands gave their life to Jesus Christ.
However, his last crusade in Ghana was from November 3-6, 2016.
After his farewell crusade, he handed over his mantle to evangelist Daniel Kolenda due to his “health challenges.”
“I don’t want it to fall, I want it to go just seamlessly continue and rise. The world is so big and God gave me Daniel Kolenda and I am very very happy,” Bonkke said.
Bonnke spent several years developing the ‘Full Flame Film Series,’ a series of eight inspirational films aimed at inspiring and challenging the church to Holy Spirit evangelism.
He leaves behind his wife Anni, their children Kai-Uwe, Gabrielle, and Susie, and eight grandchildren.