Prophet Temitope Joshua, the founder and senior pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) has received a national award presented to him by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

Newsmen learnt that Isreal’s Ministry of Tourism identified as Yariv Levin bestowed the award of ‘Tourism Ambassador’ on TB Joshua.

Recall that prophet Joshua held a two-day event in the historic hometown of Jesus Christ which attracted thousands of religious tourists from across the globe.

According to the report, the event was held at the Amphitheatre of Mount Precipice was fiercely criticised by local religious figures and nearly faced cancellation due to the intensity of attacks.

A protest was even or­ganised with hundreds trouncing through the city in Northern Israel with placards decrying the coming event and people shouting: “Let this witch get away from us!”

Despite the ‘noise’ sur­rounding the event, it was held successfully with Joshua preaching a mes­sage on love and minister­ing “healing and deliver­ance in Jesus’ name” to the large crowds that gathered.

The event was also attend­ed by a group of religious figures who even visited the venue of Mount Precipice af­ter the event and performed a ‘cleansing ritual’ with wa­ter, leaves and salt.

The event, which was broadcast on local tele­vision throughout Israel and featured in The New York Times and Reuters, subsequently attracted the attention of Israel’s Min­istry of Tourism, which gave an award to the Nige­rian cleric and made him a ‘Tourism Ambassador’.