A Boy and a Kneeling Mother

The earliest spiritual memory Rev. Alexander Donkor carries is not of a sermon, a crusade, or a moment of dramatic encounter. It is of a small boy running through the house, looking for his mother.

He found her kneeling beside her bed, in prayer.

It was something his mother did often — slipping quietly into her room to be alone with God. She never made a sermon out of it. She simply prayed. And without her knowing, the young Alexander was watching. The image lodged itself in him with the kind of permanence that childhood impressions sometimes do. Long before he could articulate the call of God on his life, he had already seen what a life surrendered to God looked like — quiet, regular, unhurried, and real.

It would take decades for the full weight of that image to find its expression. But the seed had been planted in the soil of a praying mother’s faithfulness.

A Faith Rooted in the Ashanti Region

Rev. Donkor was born and raised in a Christian home at Nkukua Buoho, a small town in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. He completed his early schooling in the same town and, at eighteen, finished middle school with an excellent Middle School Leaving Certificate result — a quietly impressive achievement that would mark him, even then, as a young man of capability and discipline.

Shortly afterwards, he relocated to Suame, a suburb of Kumasi, where the next chapter of his life — and the foundation of his ministry — would unfold.

In Suame, he joined the Assemblies of God Church, plunging himself into every part of its life. Over the years he would serve as Youth Leader, Sunday School Teacher, and Deacon — early, formative roles that quietly shaped him into the seasoned leader he would later become. His zeal and enthusiasm in church activities drew warm commendation from his fellow members, and it was in this same season — full of faith, hard work, and youthful conviction — that he met and married his beautiful wife, Rev. Mrs. Pauline Donkor.

He was also, by any measure, an industrious young man. He started a small business at Suame Magazine, the bustling industrial hub of the Ashanti Region — gaining the lifelong combination of work ethic and entrepreneurial discipline that would later serve him in the costly work of church planting.

A Young Man Looking for Meaning

Returning to the late 1960s and early 1970s, the picture is perhaps a little more familiar than one might expect.

The young Alexander Donkor was, like many young men of his generation, “crazy about music and sports” — football and athletics in particular. He loved life. He chased excellence. He had energy to spare.

But beneath the football pitches and the music of his teenage years lay a deeper restlessness — a hunger to do something that would make a difference, not merely in his own life, but in his community and in the wider world. He could not yet name what was stirring in him. But he sensed, even then, that only Jesus Christ could bring the kind of change the world truly needed.

Little did he know that the hunger he carried was Holy Spirit-inspired — and that the work he was searching for was already being prepared for him.

Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Long Road

In 1980, Rev. Donkor travelled to Germany. Two years later, in 1982, he settled in the United Kingdom.

Like millions of migrants before and since, he had come to London to build a better future — not only for himself but for his wife and their growing family. There were bills to pay, children to raise, futures to secure. By the grace of God, the Donkor children — Esther, Joshua, Abigail, and Aaron — grew up experiencing the dedicated love of parents committed to family and to a future bigger than themselves.

Today, three of their four children are married with families of their own, and the Donkors have been blessed with eight grandchildren — a quiet, growing legacy that gives Rev. Donkor what he calls a “unique perspective on family life and the challenges faced by modern families.”

But even amid full-time work, school runs, and the daily realities of a young family, the call of God on his life — apparent since his late teens and twenties — would not be silenced. It only grew louder.

The 1999 Revelation

The defining revelation came in 1999.

That year, God spoke clearly to Rev. Donkor and his wife about the direction He wanted to take them. They were to start a church.

What followed was not haste, but prayer. The Donkors weighed the vision in the place where they had weighed every great decision of their lives — at the feet of God. And then, in January 2000, they obeyed.

The result was Miracle Centre Assemblies of God — birthed in Edmonton, London, with a handful of believers and an immeasurable measure of faith. From those modest beginnings, a multi-branch church family has grown — now reaching Edmonton, Barking, Northolt, Bedford, and beyond, with countless lives shaped by its ministry.

The Donkors, together, are the pioneers of the Ghanaian community-based Assemblies of God Church in London — a distinction held quietly, but one whose impact will be felt for generations.

Pastoring and Preparing

The early years of MCAG were demanding in every sense. Rev. Donkor pastored the young, vibrant church while simultaneously raising four young children and bearing the weight of leadership in a ministry just finding its feet.

In the midst of it all, he committed himself to the formal preparation his calling demanded. He pursued a Diploma in Ministry at Mattersey Hall College, one of the United Kingdom’s foremost theological institutions within the Assemblies of God family — studying, pastoring, and parenting all at once.

It was not easy. But, as he himself testifies, “through it all, God has been faithful.”

He has, ever since, taken the words of the psalmist and made them his own:

“O Lord, it is You who are my portion and my cup, It is You who are my prize.” — Psalm 16:5

Reflections from a Long Obedience

There is a particular kind of clarity that comes only with the passage of years. Rev. Donkor speaks with that clarity now.

He considers the priesthood a wonderful gift — both to himself and to the Church. He is unflinchingly honest about the weight of it: the long hours, the seasons of discouragement, the temptation to weary when results are not instant. But his verdict on the whole is unequivocal. “My journey as a minister of God,” he reflects, “has been so worthwhile.”

He speaks of the real freedom he has been given — to give of himself, to be involved in many lives, to participate in so many different facets of human experience. He sees his work, in his own quiet way, as “helping to change the world by helping people see the dignity of their lives in Christ, and by helping to build Christian community in London and beyond.”

In proclaiming and preaching the Word, he says, he helps people see “that there is always more to this life — and that in Christ there is always hope.”

A Minister at Life’s Edges

Perhaps the most moving aspect of his ministry is the time he has spent at life’s edges.

When he sits beside the dying — listening to them share their lives, their joys, their regrets — he carries the unshakeable conviction that he is helping them make their peace with themselves and with God. And when he offers prayers at funeral services, he knows the faith he carries offers something real, worthwhile, and lasting.

“The bonds of love and affection that bind us together in this life are not broken, even in death.”

This is the kind of theology that can only be lived. It cannot be merely taught.

The Man Behind the Office

Despite the weight of his role as General Overseer, those who meet Rev. Donkor encounter a strikingly warm and approachable figure.

He is, by his own admission, an avid reader — delving regularly into theological texts, historical literature, and contemporary fiction. He enjoys watching football — a love that has stayed with him since the playing fields of his youth. He spends quiet time in his garden, which he describes as a way of “connecting with God’s creation.” And, when the moment is right, he enjoys singing.

He is, in short, a man whose holiness has not flattened his humanity.

To those within and beyond MCAG, he remains “a great source of inspiration and strength” — not only for the church but for his children, his grandchildren, and every individual who crosses his path.

“As Long as I Still Have Breath”

If Rev. Donkor’s life were to be summarised in a single posture, it would be this: an ordinary man, from a humble background, who was counted worthy by God to be used as an instrument of His forgiveness.

It is a self-description he offers without false modesty — and it is, somehow, more powerful for its plainness. He knows what he was. He knows what God has done. He knows the difference between the two.

His closing pledge is the kind of sentence that needs no elaboration:

“As a priest, I know God is using me to make a difference in the lives of people, my community, and the wider world. As long as I still have breath in me, I shall carry on with the mandate of my calling.”

It is the kind of declaration only earned by a long, costly obedience. And it remains his quiet daily ambition — to keep walking, keep preaching, keep building, and keep loving, until the breath is finally spent.