Largest Christian outreach event in history planned for 2020
A network of churches and ministry leaders are aiming to put on the “largest Christian outreach” crusade in history across dozens of African countries next May in a movement that will culminate on Pentecost Sunday.
Simultaneous Christian “miracle festivals” featuring African sports, entertainment, and political celebrities will be held from May 28 through May 31 as part of a movement called One God - One Day - One Africa (1GDA). The hope is to “blanket Africa with prayer.”
1GDA is a continental festival of unity the scope of which has never been seen before, according to organizer Jennifer Wilde, the founder of Wilde 4 Jesus Ministries who has served over three decades as a missionary.
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The crusade events will be organized by local churches, religious leaders and ministries in partnership with foreign ministries and leaders. The aim, Wilde told CP, is to have evangelistic crusade events held in as many African countries as possible.
So far, the organizers say they have partner ministries lined up to lead and organize crusade events in at least 30 African countries. But they are calling on churches around the world to help organize crusade rallies in the remaining countries.
“It is amazing, all the unity that God is bringing about for One God - One Day - One Africa,” Wilde told The Christian Post.
The rallies will feature local singers and preachers to best reach their local populations. They will be live-streamed and broadcast to millions, according to Wilde. Funding will be provided to organizers to take care of basic needs such as renting crusade grounds and buying sound equipment.
1GDA aims to send 10,000 local evangelists to travel to villages and towns throughout Africa to bring the Good News to their neighbors.
“It is not just one denomination,” Wilde explained. “We are all one body and God has really put everyone together for this. So this will be the largest Christian outreach actually in history in the world. There's nothing like this that has really ever been done covering an entire continent, not just a country, but a continent with the Gospel of Jesus in one day.”
Wilde, who left her Hollywood lifestyle as the daughter of a Southern California real estate tycoon after getting saved at the age of 25, has spent the past 37 years as a missionary serving in places like Mexico, India and Africa.
She said she got the vision from God for the 1GDA celebration when she was a young Christian. The vision, she said, was that she would talk to “multimillions of people at the same time about Jesus.”
But that calling seemed like an impossibility over three decades ago when there was no internet nor cell phones.
“A few years back after being in ministry for years and years, God said, ‘Now is the time to do this,’” Wilde said. “One thing led to another and we got the best CEO in the world.”
Along with Wilde, the 1GDA is spearheaded by Pastor Siegfried Tomaszewski, who worked for years alongside famed evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, the founder of Christ for All Nations who led millions of people to Christ through his crusades over his career.
Tomaszewski will serve as 1GDA’s vice president and CEO while Wilde will serve as president.
“I thought this is totally God because no one else could do this besides [Tomaszewski],” Wilde said. “He has all the contacts all over Africa. He knows everybody, all the heads of denominations.”
Tomaszewski, who resides in South Africa, said that the goal is to have at least 45 countries covered.
“Picture a fishing net, with each of the 54 countries in Africa representing a knot. We are currently creating this net,” Tomaszewski said in a statement. “We can’t do it by ourselves, so we are networking with other outreach ministries.”
Partner organizations and ministry leaders involved in 1GDA include Christ for All Nations, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Iris Global, the Washington-based African Enterprise and the Maryland-based Jesus is Lord Crusades, according to the 1GDA website.
Christian leaders endorsing the rally include evangelists Heidi Baker, Andrew Palau and Daniel Kolenda.
Each of the multi-day events will culminate on Pentecost Sunday with broadcasts from three to four of the largest venues being live-streamed simultaneously at other venues. Those broadcasts will include a prayer for the entire African continent and seek to unify the body of Christ.
Wilde said 1GDA is working with songwriters to create a song in the style of the 1985 hit charity song “We Are the World.” That song raised tens of millions in charity for Africa at the time. The goal with the new song, she said, is to raise money for charities already working in Africa.
“[W]e're not starting any new ministries or anything like that,” Wilde said. “It will be for groups like Samaritan's Purse, who already have people over there and have low admin costs so most of the money will go directly to education or medical or orphanages or clean water or social issues.”
1GDA held crusade events in three African countries in 2018: Tanzania, Ethiopia and Cameroon. This week, Wilde went back to Africa for events in Ethiopia, Togo and Ghana.
“We've been working in Africa for years now,” she said. “So we've done outreaches in places like Rwanda and we did one on the border of Congo in a refugee camp.”
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