By: Mandy Park
Founder, Kingsway International Christian Centre KICC, and convener of Christ Compassion to the Rural World Foundation (CCRWF) Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo, has officially announced the “CCRWF Ibadan This Is Love Crusade 2024”.
The crusade which has been tagged the biggest in the history of Oyo State and infant the country will hold at the Liberty Stadium Ibadan, Oyo State between Monday, November 25th and Saturday, November 30th.
Speaking at a World Press briefing to announce the compassion crusade, the renowned clergy said that the four nights of healing crusade and three mornings of distribution of gift items is being held to unite the body of Christ.
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Some of the food items to be distributed include: Rice, beans, garri, Noddles, sugar, groundnut oil, plastic buckets, public address system for evangelists, Bibles among others.
Said Ashimolowo”We are in Ibadan to preach the word of God. We are not just here to share food. As workers of God, we know what we are doing.
“The CCRWF Ibadan This Is Love Crusade 2024″ will have about five or six legs. The first leg will be surgery, like I told you earlier, it’s a compassion crusade to meet the need of the people. There are people in Nigeria who can not afford surgery, and so we will make effort to make both major and minor surgeries available.”.
Speaking further, he noted that prior to the official announcement of the crusade, they gathered 33 surgeons in Ibadan to screen people to be attended to.
According to him, they had planned for the screening to last for six days but had to cut it short to three days due to an overwhelming crowd.
“We had instructed the surgeons that we could only pay for 400 people, but after the screening exercise they ended up with 711 people. This means that 711 people will benefit from surgery from the CCRWF crusade in Ibadan.”
Shedding more light on the crusade proper, the God’s servant disclosed that from the night of the 25th, when the crusade kicks off, God will be releasing his healing and salvation power, emphasizing that in the morning of the crusade from Tuesday to Thursday, there will be distribution of the gift items.
Ashimolowo said that the CCRWF had also made provision for 10,000 packs of sugar, 10,000 packs of salt, 10,000 bottles of oil, and several other items to be distributed in the morning.
Speaking on distribution logistics to avoid stampede, and ensure crowd management he noted that the Liberty Stadium has been dived into four equal place to avoid women and young children being harassed by stronger people. He added that the younger men would be placed in one place with the young ladies placed in another section of the stadium, adding that the older men and women would be put in a section together.
He confirmed their preparedness for the distribution of the gift items, adding that only those who collect vouchers during the night crusade would be entitled to the gifts the following morning.
Analysing plans that have been made for the medical day, Ashimolowo noted that due to the massive crowd population recorded at the medical day of the last crusade held in Ikorodu, Lagos State where between 5,000 to 10,000 people were expected, but recorded over 50,000 adult attendance and over 20,000 children at the Igbobo Stadium, they have decided to make the medical day a 2- day programme for the Ibadan crusade.
According to Ashimolowo “With this two days of medicals, we are lining up 200 doctors, about 150 pharmacists, about 100 nurses and other medical personnels. What we are doing on Friday and Saturday at the CCRWF crusade is simply making the place a hospital. It’s not like they are just testing people and telling them go and be well. You have to go through all the processes you go through in a hospital. You will be checked, your vitals will be taken and you will be passed to a doctor who will now give you the prescription, then you will be passed to the pharmacist. Within that two days, we are preparing for between 100,000 and 150,000 people. For the two days, we will start 8:00 AM and close 6:00 PM.”
The revered clergy added that the greatest motivation for the CCRWF is the love of God and the salvation of souls, stating that they are motivated to show that at a time like this, under pressure, God still cares about his people, God still loves them and the church of Jesus Christ is not about give me, give me, give me, but give you, give you, give you and showing you why Christ came to die for all.
He further added that his vision, mission, desire and dream is not just to make an impact, but to make an impact that will last and last, stating that on Wednesday and Thursday of the crusade between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, there will be a School of Ministry led by Steve Mensah from Ghana, Dr. Festus Adeyeye, from New York, Dr. Mensa Otabil from Ghana, and the duo of Jerry Eze and Poju Oyemade from Nigeria to attend to about 5,000 to 10,000 Pastors and Ministers of the gospel being expected.
He Said Bibles will be distributed to pastors and other evangelism tools.
