IBADAN, NIGERIA 2021 - FLAGSHIP CRUSADE

The word about what Jesus is doing has gone out across Ibadan, Nigeria. The whole town is buzzing. The crowd grew substantially tonight, and there was a palpable sense of expectation and faith. 

As I preached the Gospel, you could hear a pin drop. The people were drinking in the Word of God. When I gave them an opportunity to respond, they broke the doors down, rushing into the Kingdom of God. What a joy to be a proclaimer of Good News in the season of harvest!

There were far too many miracles tonight to mention. A few outstanding testimonies included several from those whose tumours and fibroids vanished.

• One remarkable testimony was from a woman whose breast cancer. She testified that the large tumour disappeared during prayer, together with all pain.

• A young man's deaf ear can now hear and many, many more.

• A man immobilized on one side from stroke was healed and can now move his hands and feet and walk without crutches.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Fire Conference, as well as the night we will both break curses and pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the evening meeting. Please continue to pray for us, especially for the protection of our team.

This is all possible because of you! Thank you! 

Today CfaN history was made! This morning was the grand finale of our Fire Conference here in Ibadan, Nigeria. Fire Conferences are events for registered delegates only—primarily pastors, bishops, and church leadership. This morning over 150,000 delegates attended, making it the largest Fire Conference in history!

Peter Vandenberg, John Darku (African Director), Levi Lutz (CfaN Bootcamp Director), and I were the preachers, but the ministry team consisted of more than 100 CfaN Bootcamp students graduates and coaches. In the final session, they all went through the massive crowd, each one laying hands on hundreds or even thousands of delegates. It was epic and life-changing!

Tonight, the crusade ground was heaving with energy. Eddie James, the Nations Church Worship Director, and the Nations Worship team led the massive crowd in a powerful time of Worship. I preached on the power in the blood of Jesus. Then, receiving a list of well-known local curses, I called them out by name (in the local language), breaking their power in the name of Jesus. We burned witchcraft items (like idols, amulets, fetishes, sorcery stones, and other “juju”) in large metal drums (see Acts 19:19). After this, I prayed over the crowd to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was a mass Spirit baptism as many thousands were filled to overflowing. 

 Finally, I prayed for the sick, and amazing miracles happened. Here’s just a sampling:

• The first testimony was from the wife of my interpreter, who was healed from painful stomach ulcers!

• A man who was totally deaf in the left ear was healed and can now hear perfectly.

• A woman’s painful fibroid (which she had suffered with for 10 years) suddenly vanished tonight.

• A woman suffering from breast cancer for 5 years was healed. 

• An elderly lady who was unable to walk without pain and the aid of a walking stick ran and danced on the platform tonight without pain!

Tomorrow is the final night of the crusade here in Ibadan. The city is already shaking, and I believe the best is yet to come. Please continue to pray for us.

This is all possible because of you! Thank you! 

Another Flagship Gospel Crusade has just come to a close here in Ibadan, Nigeria. More than 1.2 million people attended the four days of meetings and, although the decisions cards are still being processed, I’m sure that registered decisions for Christ will tally in the hundreds of thousands!

Many influential leaders in the Church and government of Nigeria attended tonight’s meeting, including the Governor of Oyo State and his wife. The crowd was absolutely massive—something unheard of since COVID!

One final time, I preached the Gospel with all my heart, and multitudes found their way into the arms of Jesus. We prayed for the sick, and God moved mightily!

One notable miracle happened to a military man who had been in a motorcycle accident thirty years ago. As a result, his skull had caved in (the scars of which are still clearly visible), and a metal rod had been put in his leg, making it difficult to walk. A few days ago, he had fallen in a ditch and was badly injured. But Jesus supernaturally completely healed him at the crusade. He said he couldn’t feel the rod in his leg anymore. He was pain-free and had perfect use of his legs. He even started jumping up and down on the platform. This tough man wept for joy as he thanked God for his healing.

We heard many more amazing testimonies tonight, and at the close of the meeting, long lines had cued up waiting to testify. When I asked how many had received healing during the crusade, literally thousands of hands went up. I told the people to put their hands down. I said, let me clarify. “If you had a problem in your body before we prayed and now after prayer, your problem is gone, and you know for sure that you have been healed, let me see your hand.” The result was the same. Thousands raised their hands.

What’s more, the Bootcamp students who have been on the ground here for the last 3 weeks have conducted more than 1,800 outreaches (Gospel Truck outreaches, Kids Crusades, and village outreaches)! They have also seen multitudes saved and witnessed countless miracles.

This afternoon we had a meal together with the whole team (almost 200 of us), and several of the students shared some of the most remarkable testimonies I’ve ever heard. I plan to share some of those with you also in the days to come. This coming Saturday, the students who completed their initiation will graduate and launch out into evangelistic ministry! These are the days of harvest!

Thank you so much for sending and supporting us through your prayers and giving. A tremendous impact has been made here for the Kingdom of God, and hundreds of thousands of lives have been eternally changed. I will travel to South Sudan for our final Gospel Crusade of the year in a few days.

This is all possible because of you! Thank you! 

Watch this video to see our team and volunteers getting ready for our crusade in Ibadan! The Harvest is Ripe!

I have something so exciting to share with you today! At last, after many months of waiting because of the global pandemic, we are thrilled to announce that we will be in Ibadan, Nigeria, later this week (11-14 Nov 2021) for a CfaN Flagship Campaign.

Flagship Campaigns are what CfaN is best known for and still an essential part of our strategy for the 'Decade of Double Harvest'. This is when the combine harvester rolls out, bringing hundreds of thousands of souls into God's Kingdom in just five days.

So, you can imagine how excited we all are to be firing up the engines and getting ready for what we know will be a massive event.

It's not the first time CfaN has been to Ibadan, Nigeria's third-largest city. We held massive campaigns there in 1990, 2001 and 2009.

The last two saw some of the largest crowds in CfaN history. In fact, in the 2001 campaign, there were 1.3 million people in a single service. That's a sight – and sound – that is unforgettable.

Of course, the city has grown since we were last there. It now has over 3.6 million people living in the main city, which is more than the population of Wales. It's been over 12 years since we were last there, so we clearly felt the Lord telling us that the time is right to return to this bustling African metropolis.

As you know, we always work closely with the local churches to organise a Gospel Campaign. For an event of this scale, thousands, even tens of thousands, of counsellors and ushers and follow-up staff are necessary. The work of preparing the churches begins long before the actual event, with regular meetings and training sessions across the city.

To our great joy, our West Africa Campaign Director, John Darku, has shared that we have a record-breaking number of churches involved. Over 6,000 churches are participating, and the sense of anticipation is palpable.

Finding the right place to hold such an enormous event is no easy task. But God is in control, and we were able to secure an excellent venue with the space necessary to accommodate the crowd. It's also a venue that doesn't require a lot of preparation, such as grading the ground or removing vast piles of garbage – something our team has had to do many times. So, we thank the Lord for His provision and know that He is the one preparing the way for us.

Over a hundred evangelists and Evangelism Bootcamp students have taken to the streets, suburbs, and villages in the weeks before the main campaign. Holding mini-campaigns, kids' campaigns and outreaches wherever they can, they've already seen thousands give their lives to Jesus. This is also part of getting the word out ahead of the campaign and building excitement throughout the city.

Our new children's follow-up booklet, "What's Next?" is being put to use daily through Kids' Campaigns. Thanks to our partners, who have already raised over two-thirds of the costs (only £30,000 still needed!) We have recently paid for the printing of one million copies for use in this region. What a joy to think of each of those booklets being handed to a child who wants to know Jesus – and then sharing it with their friends and families. This is just the beginning – millions more will be needed and printed in local languages.

Nigeria has a tropical climate, with a rainy season and a dry season from September to April. This Gospel Campaign falls in the dry season, but in the tropics, anything can happen.

• So, please pray for perfect weather with no rainstorms and no dust storms.
• Please also pray for the safety and health of the many team members making their way there.
• Pray for favour with the local authorities and protection from any schemes of the enemy that would seek to hinder this great harvest of souls.
• And most of all, pray that the Holy Spirit will prepare the hearts of hundreds of thousands who have yet to meet Jesus. May this be the moment that changes their lives for eternity.

As the preparations continue ahead this week; we face some significant financial challenges. By far, the greatest share of the cost of each evangelistic campaign is due before the actual event – in other words, right now. And those costs continue well after the campaign has ended, with the challenge of processing decision cards as fast as humanly possible, to get new converts into local churches without delay.

This is where teamwork happens. What is impossible for one or a few to accomplish is absolutely doable when we all pull together. And every pound counts! It's not millionaires who make this work possible. It's thousands of faithful partners, giving according to what the Lord has laid on their hearts.

Will you prayerfully consider helping us reach the lost in Ibadan?

While the Ibadan Great Gospel Campaign is happening; I'll be sending daily email reports of what God is doing. I know these will bless you and increase your own faith. If you're not already receiving our email newsletter, sign up on our website at: cfan.org.uk/newsletter. On our website, you can also see all our campaign reports packed with videos, photos, exciting snippets and powerful testimonies – or connect with us on social media Facebook/cfanuk or Instagram/cfanuk. We want you to feel like you're right there with us, a witness to God's power to save and heal.

Thank you – with all our hearts – for faithfully standing with this ministry.

Africa shall be saved!

Ibadan is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its metropolitan area. It is the country's largest city by geographical area. At the time of Nigeria's independence in 1960, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in the country and the second-most populous in Africa behind Cairo.

People

In 1852, the Church Missionary Society sent David and Anna Hinderer to found a mission. They decided to build the mission and a church in Ibadan when they arrived in 1853.

Ibadan thus had initially begun as a military state and remained so until the last decade of the 19th century. The city-state also succeeded in building a large empire from the 1860s to the 1890s which extended over much of northern and eastern Yorubaland. It was appropriately nicknamed idi Ibon or “gun base”, because of its unique military character.

In Ibadan, unlike other Yoruba cities with traditional kingship institutions, the warrior class became the rulers of the city as well as the most important economic group.

Land and Climate

Ibadan has a tropical wet and dry climate, with a lengthy wet season and relatively constant temperatures throughout the year. Ibadan's wet season runs from March through October, though August sees somewhat of a lull in precipitation. This lull divides the wet season into two different wet seasons. November to February forms the city's dry season, during which Ibadan experiences the typical West African harmattan. 

Economy

The economic activities of Ibadan include agriculture, commerce, handicrafts, manufacturing, and service industries. Although the city’s farming population has declined, it is still large for an urban area. Many cultivators are part-time farmers who augment their earnings with other work. Ibadan is an important commercial centre. Virtually every street and corner in the traditional core and the inner suburbs of the city is a market square or stall. Within the city, there are many markets. The largest daily market stretches in a belt from the railway station in the west to the centre of the city and is Ibadan’s commercial core.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ibadan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibadan