Edward Donnelly is one of the greatest blessings to the church in our day. He is a model of godly humility and pastoral wisdom. He is also one of the finest preachers I have heard. You can listen to his sermons here.

The following is an except from a letter written to a friend of mine regarding an urgent prayer need for Rev. Donnelly. He has suffered a severe disability from a case of encephalitis. Please commit him to prayer as there has been no improvement to his speech as of yet.

Pastor Donnelly was taken to hospital ten days ago with a suspected minor stroke.  However, after several days of steady deterioration in his speech and motor skills the doctors finally diagnosed encephalitis, a rare and serious disease of the brain.  He is receiving IV antiviral medication and will continue to do so for the next two weeks. It's impossible to know at this stage how much recovery he will make, but any recovery will be very slow. At the moment he seems to understand everything that is said to him, but can't speak easily himself - just a few words. However as of Friday/Saturday it seemed that the deterioration stopped and he hasn't got any worse since, which is a wonderful answer to prayer.

Please pray that God will grant him steady improvement, however slow that may be. But his condition remains very serious, and it is currently not possible to predict how much of his powers he will recover.  Please also uphold in prayer his wife Lorna and his family and congregation in Northern Ireland (which he has pastored for 35 years) at this difficult time.