Stephan
November 15, 2010
5.30 am – Departure from the hotel. I’m glad I don’t have to stay here any longer. We rushed onto the bus. Perhaps I slept just a bit too long. But we weren’t a minute late. We drove from the hotel to the Governor’s house for the last time. By now, I am familiar with the streets. I feel as if I’ve been here for six months, although the time has just flown by. It was all so intense, challenging, arousing.
In the semi-darkness, I quietly say goodbye to the slowly dawning day. I don’t really know the people here and I’m glad to be able to leave this place behind me. Yet I sense a strangely strong bond with the people.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 15, 2010November 14, 2010
Today we were allowed to have a lie-in … until 8 am. All the same, the night wasn’t particularly great. Beneath our window a group of football fans celebrated until 3 in the morning. When the alarm rang, I had nonetheless had a pretty good rest. Taking a shower doesn’t bother me any more. I’ll still be happy when I don’t have to see or use the hotel room any more.
I enjoyed breakfast and the African morning in the open air on a white plastic chair in the tent belonging to the “God’s favor rental” company – Africans don’t have any sense of pain.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 14, 2010November 14, 2010
I woke up feeling absolutely whacked. I’m not going to be able to manage with so little sleep for long. I long for my bed in Heilbronn. I took a shower but it didn’t feel good. The frog didn’t reappear, though. Lars said he’d gone to get his friends. I didn’t think that was very funny. Anyway, I always croak when he goes into the bathroom. He doesn’t think it’s funny.
Today was the day when fire was supposed to fall. D-day for hell. The day started on a very promising note from Reinhard during the morning meeting. To be honest, I don’t remember what he preached about. But the penny dropped and I understood what it means to believe. Yesterday we had a theological discussion in a small group about something that I think is unimportant. But one sentence stood out: “I have to understand before I can believe.”
Stephan Mittelstädt November 14, 2010November 13, 2010
5.30 am We’re back on our bus travelling in the dark through the still sleeping city of Ogbomosho. I’ve only had four hours’ sleep again because I spent too long talking to Lars about all that had gone on. I wonder how long I’m going to be able to cope with this lack of sleep. 6.00 am – breakfast. It’s slowly becoming a routine. However, I feel a bit like a prisoner. Our hotel is surrounded by barbed wire and there are security gates like a prison. The Governor’s house is surrounded by high walls topped with broken glass. There are always guards with machine guns standing outside. On the campaign field, our area is cordoned off and we always have a police escort when we travel to and from the hotel, the Governor’s house and the field. When we drive back from the campaign in the evening, there are sometimes ten dark four-wheel-drive vehicles ahead of us, some of them with a blue light, and the column is closed by a truck with soldiers on the loading platform. I suppose a president feels like that, too. I don’t want to think about the fact that it is for our safety. That makes me a bit nervous.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 13, 2010November 12, 2010
The second bad night. I’m sure I hadn’t had more than three hours’ sleep when the alarm went off at 4.45 am. We dragged ourselves out of bed and tumbled into the bus still half asleep. Because our group was twice as big this time and a team from Brazil had joined us, we were going to eat in two shifts. Unfortunately, we were the first. The breakfast made up for it all again – just like yesterday. I was in amazingly good form and was looking forward to the morning prayer meeting with Reinhard Bonnke at 6.30 in our little group. To think that he preached to us with the same passion as he did yesterday to a crowd of 150,000 is really amazing. I’m thankful that I can be so close to such a great man of God.
Daniel Kolenda sat next to me and talked to his 6-year-old son.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 12, 2010November 10, 2010
5.30 pm: We set off for the campaign site. It was amazing to see how many people were heading in the same direction. A whole family on a motorcycle passed us – the daughter sitting in front of her father and behind them the mother with a baby. The motorcycle was fit for the scrapheap, they were not wearing helmets and the safety for the baby was an absolute disaster. However, I have rarely seen anyone in Germany beaming with happiness like they were. We overtook church buses plastered with “Bonnke posters” and packed to the brim with people; some cars even had people travelling in the boot. Our driver tried to steer the bus through the crowds. We drove past food stalls run by street traders and book stalls with loudspeakers blasting out praise and worship songs, drowning out the sounds of the people.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 10, 2010November 10, 2010
Haven’t slept much. We’re staying in the best hotel in Ogbomosho but the rooms are small. There’s no wardrobe, the air conditioning isn’t working, the ceiling fan wobbles and only runs at top speed, and the toilet has no seat or lid.
In the room it was hot and stuffy and I sweated a lot. Difficult for a German who likes to sleep with the window open. I did not dare to take a shower; it was too revolting. Perhaps I’ll be able to cope better tomorrow.
For breakfast we travelled to a lodge owned by a church, where Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda are staying and where the team chef cooks for the CfaN team and around 35 international guests. There was everything you could want and it made up for the bad night. We then drove 20 minutes back to the hotel and I wrote about what I had experienced the day before. It took me 1½ hours. I had a lot to think about and digest and writing about it helped.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 10, 2010November 9, 2010
2.45 pm – the police escort arrived. We were off – incredible! Full of anticipation, we got into the cars. At 3.30 pm we drove out of the hotel grounds. This was the first time that I had seen an African city. Yesterday evening it was dark and you could see next to nothing.
I was really shocked by what I saw: a chaotic tangle of electric cables, a lot of rubbish, corrugated iron huts, merchants selling used goods in home-made wooden lean-tos. I had seen pictures like that in books and on the television but thought that it was only part of the truth. Here, it is like that everywhere. A sea of corrugated iron huts, dense traffic and a vast swarm of people. Many of them looked happy, despite the conditions in which they live. Another thing that struck me was the presence everywhere of Jesus. Bumper stickers, signs on motorcycles.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 9, 2010November 9, 2010
Six hours after we had crawled into bed, the alarm rang – 5 o’clock. Time to get up; the convoy to Ogbomosho was to set off at 6. We were just about properly awake when the telephone rang. It was Ilka. The departure had been postponed until 10 am. We sank thankfully back into our beds and slept for another three hours. I did not sleep very well; a strange bed, the lack of air and the noise of the air conditioning kept waking me up.
Then I was wide awake. We did not bother with the 40-dollar breakfast and I ate a muesli bar instead. After my private devotion, we packed, checked out and waited to leave. The other CfaN guests gathered in the lobby. Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda gave us a friendly welcome. It is amazing to see how down-to-earth they are; they seem so ordinary and caring.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 9, 2010November 8, 2010
After a night with little sleep – as usual before an adventurous journey – we boarded the train to Frankfurt at 7 pm. I was accompanied by Lars Kortkamp, as my wife had to stay at home to look after our small son. At the airport we met Herbert Fischer, Thomas Meyer, our travelling companion, Ilka Johnnie and a cameraman. I was interviewed briefly by Herbert – a strange sensation in the middle of the airport terminal.
And then we were off – my first intercontinental flight. The plane had three rows of seats and a TV screen for each person. Now I had a chance to chat to Lars again. We had a six-hour flight ahead of us.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 8, 2010November 5, 2010
Stephan, how did you get the idea to participate in “Win a free trip to Africa”
I am a student with ICI and study Evangelism. So when I was browsing the internet looking up that subject you can’t miss CfaN. My eyes fell on the ad and there was a longing in me to also see something like this in my own life.
Did you know CfaN or was this your first encounter with Evangelist Bonnke, Kolenda or the ministry?
Well, I know about the ministry and Evangelist Bonnke for many years, but never had a real connection. When I went to the bibleschool “Beröa” for a sneak-peak around Easter this year, I saw a poster in the hallway which truly caught my attention.
Stephan Mittelstädt November 5, 2010