By Ammar Awad
NAZARETH, Israel, June 24 (Reuters) - Evangelical Christians
have flocked to Israel for a mass faith-healing by a celebrity
Nigerian pastor outside Jesus's hometown of Nazareth.
Some worshippers sang in various languages while others
collapsed and even vomited during Sunday's event, presided over
by T.B. Joshua, who has amassed millions of followers on social
media from his base in the Nigerian city of Lagos.
"Jesus's father, Joseph, and his mother, Mary, came from
here. What a blessing. No other place would have been better for
Jesus to come from. It was God's design," Joshua told the crowd
gathered in a sun-baked stadium on Mount Precipice.
When the self-described prophet descended from the stage to
bless attendees, placing his hand on their heads, several
declared themselves healed from sickness or infirmity.
Attendants stood ready to catch those who fainted in excitement.
Minerva Resendiz, from Mexico, said she had come to see
Joshua as part of the two-day gathering "to ask for healing, for
a breakthrough ... to resolve conflicts in the family".
"I would like that (all people) could see a miracle through
Jesus Christ," Resendiz, 40, said. Other pilgrims came from
China, Russia and African and South American countries.
Joshua founded and leads an evangelical ministry called The
Synagogue, Church of All Nations. His Christian television
network, Emmanuel TV, says it is Youtube's most subscribed to
ministry channel with well over one million followers.
Evangelicals made up roughly half of the more than 2 million
Christian pilgrims who visited Israel in 2018, according to the
International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which oversees
evangelical outreach to Israel.
(Writing by Rami Ayyub
Editing by Gareth Jones)