With Reinhard Bonnke, Daniel Kolenda and Peter Vandenberg
Launch of the “Double Harvest Decade”
With more than 185 million people, Nigeria is the most heavily populated country in Africa, and has a land mass greater than Germany and France combined. This highly diverse state is home to an astonishing number of different tribes, clans, languages and cultures, and has had a tumultuous history. The land is known for its wealth of natural resources.
The average age of the population is around 17.9, making Nigeria a markedly “youthful” country. By comparison, the average age in Germany is over 44.
A Megacity
It is estimated that over 17.5 million people currently live in Lagos, the city boasting the biggest population in the entire continent. Nobody knows for sure, since the count varies from day to day. Some say it could be as much as 2 million more. With the current rate of growth, it’s fair to say that Lagos will likely soon be the third-biggest city in the world.
In 1901, there were as few as 37 000 people here. By 1921, it was already 100 000, and by 1971, the population had reached 1.2 million. The population census of 2006 gave a resident count of nearly 8 million in the city center, and a further 9 million in the surrounding federal state of Lagos. As with many of the largest metropoles around the world, massive suburbs and satellite towns have sprung up, including, naturally, a number of different slum areas.
Population Density
The population density of the city is about 18 900 people per km². That’s an extremely high ratio. In Munich, the population density is a mere 4 500 people. This ratio is even higher than, for example, Hong Kong, one of the most population-dense cities in the world.
Despite countless city infrastructure renewals, you are immediately aware of the astounding number of people when you arrive in Lagos, especially if you want to drive a car in the city center. Non-stop, round-the-clock traffic jams are the norm here. The roads are packed with vehicles of every kind, many of them rusty and dilapidated, along with motorcycles and scooters. Whenever the traffic grinds to a halt, scores of beggars and traders swarm the vehicles and bang on the windows. There are long connecting streets that have been built as bridges over the water to the “mainland”, because there’s simply no more space in the inner city. When driving over these highway bridges, you can also see the slum areas and countless house boats covering part of the open marine bay.
The Spiritual Situation
In the last two decades – due, amongst other things, to our mighty “Millennium Campaign” in 2000 – innumerable churches and congregations, big and small, have appeared. There are also various mega-churches, with congregations numbering in the tens of thousands. The spectrum is large, and some churches and ministries now operate their own television broadcasts. Many hundreds of thousands of believers stream into the churches on Sunday. As CfaN, we are affiliated in friendship with a huge number of pastors and leaders.
On the other hand, there are still horrifically high rates of crime and corruption, alongside heartbreakingly desperate poverty and need. In this megacity, without doubt, light and darkness operate unusually close beside one another.
Bigger than Lagos 2000?
On the Sunday of our “Millennium Campaign” in 2000, 1.6 million people gathered together. It was a day that fulfilled a prophecy, spoken in February 1984 in Soweto, which said that the day would come when more than a million people would give their lives to Jesus in a single service. On that day in 2000, 1 093 000 decision cards were counted. We are sure that all of Heaven rejoiced.
Nevertheless, in 2017, we find that the Lord is encouraging us to expect even greater outcomes than that.
Unreached by the Gospel
With this gigantic harbor city booming as it is, every day sees an influx of new immigrants from many different African countries and regions. They move here in the hope of work and opportunity, to find somewhere to live, to thrive and to stay. Many come from the northern, mostly Muslim-influenced regions, and that brings a completely new generation of young people, who have since grown up here. That’s why, in this city, there are throngs of people who have never yet heard the Gospel.
It’s time to change that.
It’s time for “Lagos 2017”!
In a few weeks, we’ll send you more information about Lagos, and tell you about our progress with the preparations.
Help us to make the Lagos 2017 Campaign a true success!
“Christianity is either supernatural, or it is worthless. We have a supernatural Jesus, with a supernatural ministry, who founded a supernatural church, with a supernatural Gospel and a supernatural Bible. If we take away the supernatural, then we’ve taken away the life and the heart of the Gospel.”
Reinhard Bonnke
The work of CfaN goes on
We need your help!
Can we call on you in this time for a special donation to support the “Great Gospel Campaign Lagos 2017”? We’re expecting something that will have a truly lasting effect on this enormous city and the entire region. No donation is too small or insignificant – every single one makes a decisive difference to our ministry. You are helping to proclaim the Gospel, and to change the lives of the people of Lagos forever.
Africa will be saved!
Thank you for all your support!
