The Magical Miracle Tour

Travel Stories: When a German evangelist arrived to save Africa from Satan and his evil witch doctors, Frank Bures went along for the ride

08.01.02 | 10:59 PM ET

The Second ComingPhoto by Frank Bures.

A boy in front of me held a shiny blue booklet.

“Can I see that?” I asked him.

He shook his head and shouted, “No!” He pointed behind me.

All around us, tens of thousands buzzed with anticipation. We were waiting for German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke to bless our dusty, East African city with his presence, since his coming had been pasted to trees and cars and bars for months.

So effective had his publicity machine been (made up of every last born-again in the province), that it felt like the second coming. They said he could work miracles. They said he could cast down witch doctors. They said he could heal the sick. They said he was stronger than Satan.

Reinhard Bonnke and his Great Gospel Crusade were here at last. Witch doctors beware!

Behind me, where the boy pointed, stood a Great Gospel Crusade “Counselor” with a stack of blue booklets titled, “Now That You Are Saved.”

“Are they free?” I asked.

“Yes,” said the counselor, whose name was Godwin, “but normally we ask you to fill out this card.”

He opened the back of the booklet and showed me a “Decision Card.” It was a tear-out form that declared my decision to accept Jesus as my savior, and would be used to register the number of those saved at the Crusade. The price, in other words, was my soul.

“Sawa.” I agreed.

Godwin took my name, address and phone number.

“Do you attend church regularly?” he asked.

“Yes,” I lied.

“Do you want a personal visit?”

“Definitely not.”

He checked yes.

“Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your savior today?” he asked. His eyes wandered as though the routine were killing him. He’d probably asked the question a thousand times.

“Not yet,” I said, “but maybe after this.”

“It would be a good idea if you did,” he said and checked “Yes” again. He put the sheet in his pocket and gave me the booklet.

Looking over my “Convert’s Copy” of the Decision Card, I saw Godwin hadn’t even told me about some more appropriate choices, like “Has major spiritual problems,” or merely, “Other.”

Far across the field, several Germans wandered onto the stage and a murmur ran through the crowd. Under the giant banner that said, “Jesus Christ Sets You Free,” the Germans looked small. The speakers crackled to life and a Tanzanian preacher named Mzee Muro came out to greet us with a rousing Swahili call and repeat cheers. Then he went backstage and returned when some bass guitars and a synthesizer launched into a happy African gospel tune. The ocean of people around me burst into swaying song and dance.

The stage, too, was packed with faithful dancing for Jesus—Germans and Tanzanians alike moving side by side, the Tanzanians in time, the Germans as if on wooden legs.

Then the music stopped.

Slowly, the stage cleared and amid the silence, Reinhard Bonnke emerged.

A cheer went up, and the show began.

It was a well-orchestrated scene that has played out again and again across the continent since 1974, when Reinhard Bonnke first took his show on the road in Botswana and allegedly healed five ailing believers. It was, according to legend, the fulfillment of a prophesy: When Bonnke was just ten years old, a woman came to him and said she had a vision of “a small boy with thousands of black humans following him.”

Reinhard Bonnke was that boy.

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