In 1987 a large faith conference took place in Frankfurt am Main. It was announced
as a five-day Fire Conference with the promising subtitle: Evangelism with Signs and Miracles
At that time I was very close to a Bible school where I had begun a theological education. But I probably wouldn't have ended up at that Fire Conference if there hadn't been a lack
of folders. So some of us Bible students were recruited. I was one of them.
The conference took place in the large exhibition halls. Several thousand visitors
visited the most different events every day and as a steward I had a lot to do. Nevertheless, of course I got a lot of information about the events and some experiences were deeply engraved in my
memory.
For example the afternoon event where Loren Cunnigham, the then leader of "Youth with a Mission", said in front of thousands of people: "God has shown us in prayer that the Berlin
Wall will soon fall!"
To be honest, I was quite amazed at the announcement. The man
really had a good reputation to lose. To say something like that in public, he had to be either foolhardy or pretty sure of himself. As we know today, history proved him right.
Outstanding from all the stories experienced there is the one from Saturday evening. It's really quite extraordinary!
That Saturday morning started with a praise march through the city of Frankfurt.
Together with a few hundred other Christians I marched through the streets singing Christian songs. In between there was a loudspeaker announcement of an escort vehicle, in which we were invited
to the evening event: "No matter who you are, come by! Bring your sick with you. There will also be prayers for healing tonight. And signs and miracles will happen. Hallelujah!" That or something
like that was the announcement.
In the evening the main hall was filled to capacity. The sermon was delivered by Reinhard Bonnke, an African missionary known in the Christian scene. Anyone who has
once looked into the videos, where he preaches publicly in front of hundreds of thousands of Africans, can hardly remain uninvolved. But that is another topic.
At the end of the sermon Bonnke called as usual for a decision for Jesus. And as usual in his meetings many people came forward to give their lives to Jesus. Then he made
a second call for the sick: "If you are sick and want to be healed, come forward. Jesus healed earlier and will heal again tonight. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord". In the hall it echoes a thousand
times "Hallelujah!
"Yes," Bonnke shouted now," he has done it and will do it again. "Come! Flocks of people streamed forward and were received there by the preachers and
pastors.
I stood in one of the back rows and observed how many small prayer groups formed on
the large platform and how a life of its own developed there. A camera team from Hessischer Rundfunk came on stage, but filmed discreetly in the background.
Maybe five minutes might have passed when I suddenly saw a young, pretty woman in Hotpants walking down the aisle. On her arms she was carrying an elderly woman, who obviously
consisted only of skin and bones.
Arrived in front she rose the small side rise to the platform and put there the older woman then on the ground. Nothing else happened for several minutes. The small
prayer groups were busy with themselves and the young woman continued to stand next to the woman lying on the floor.
Suddenly a prayer group disbanded and a few seconds later Bonnke stormed in. A short exchange of words with the young woman, then she grabbed the microphone, raised her
left arm and said: "Please rest in the hall, and all prayers on the stage please stop".
14,000 people stopped singing, and the prayer groups on the stage also looked at him, the young woman and the older woman. One could have heard a pin drop. The Hessian
Television television team, which had previously kept in the background, sneaked onto the stage very close to the three people in the focus of the action.
And then Bonnke asked the young woman pointing to the woman lying on the floor:
"Who is that?" She replied: "My mother!" "What about her? Bonnke asked further. "She has terminal cancer. I heard the invitation this morning during the city march. And there I took my mother and
brought her here.
Bonnke he bent down to the woman and gave her the microphone: "Do you believe that Jesus can heal you? A moment of silence, then you heard a fragile "Yes, I believe that!
Immediately Bonnke straightened up again and with a loud voice he announced: "Jesus cannot only heal you, he will heal you tonight from your cancer.
Hallelujah!"
A moment of unbelieving amazement. Then a hurricane broke loose in the hall. "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah." The cameras of the television team swung over into the audience. Then the team
moved very close to Bonnke and the two women. Close-up!
I had followed the action on stage like a spell. But now he has hung out his window
quite far, it went through my head. If the miracle doesn't happen now, he's dead! They will tear it apart in the media.
But Bonnke was already further. "Lord Jesus, we ask you to reward the faith of these two women and heal the cancer," he prayed out loud. The cameras were now fully directed at
him and the woman. And then the command: "In the name of Jesus. Get up!" The woman remained lying!
Even before an embarrassing silence could arise, he turned to the audience. "Please all pray in the hall! In the hall began a thousand voices of murmur. And then Bonnke
shouted: "In the name of Jesus! Get up!" At the same time he pulled it up with one hand.
And then she stood! Looking around unbelievingly! Her daughter slapped her hands in front of her face. Bonnke called. "Go! Go!" The woman began to take a step. Bonnke
yelled: "Go up and down! You are healed! Jesus healed you and then she began to walk. Once to the right, once to the left, the TV team's cameras fully pointed at her.
In the hall and on stage an indescribable tumult broke out. Mother and daughter were in each other's arms, the hall was raging. And Bonnke drowned everything
out: "Jesus did it again! Halleeelluuujjaaaah!
The next morning at the closing service of the 1987 Fire Conference, the hall was
filled to capacity again. Again Reinhard Bonnke was the main speaker. But with quite a hoarse voice. He smiled: "I was asked why I was so sure that the woman would be healed". A question that
probably everyone asked themselves the evening before.
"Well," he continued, "I had just finished praying for a sick person when I received something like an electric shock. I drove around and saw the woman lying on the stage
amidst all the sick and praying people. No one seemed to care for her. And at that very moment an inner voice said to me: "This is the key miracle tonight".
He took a meaningful break and then said, "That's why I knew this woman would be healed!
I have to say that this event had really touched me deeply. I was all the more
surprised when I heard that in a report on Hessischer Fernsehen this obvious miracle was not mentioned with a syllable.
Instead, everything was presented as "religious rip-off". As evidence, extensive collection calls and fundraising were shown. In addition it is to be said that the execution of
such meetings simply costs money.
What remains to be seen is what happened to that woman. Perhaps everything was just a set-up? A year later I saw a photo of that woman. The "skin and bones" woman had become a
normal older woman, standing next to Bonnke, smiling friendly.
The photo belonged to a newspaper article that reported about the Fire Conference the following year. She was invited there as a guest of honor and told thousands of listeners
her view of the events at that time.
After the miracle of healing she had been examined again. And to her great amazement, the doctors who had previously diagnosed a terminal cancer and sent her home to die
could no longer find cancer. According to her own testimony, and clearly visible, she had gained about thirty kilos by now and was leading a normal life again.
And that ends my little memory of a quite memorable event. After almost twenty-five years I felt a real need to write it down and publish it.
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