RT Kendall is asking people to keep his family in their prayers as he prepares to lay his stepmother to rest.  

The beloved Christian writer and speaker shared the news on Twitter that his stepmother Abbie died on Sunday from coronavirus.  She was 103. 

"She will be buried next to my father who died (aged 93) in 2002," he said.

"Your prayers during this time are greatly appreciated."

The announcement was posted shortly after a video message in which Kendall encouraged Christians to keep trusting in God even when life seems bleak.

He said the Scripture verse Proverbs 3:5 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" - revived him when he was facing "the greatest crisis of my life" some years ago. 

"I was in a situation where all looked bleak and it looked like it was over," he said. 

"That's where we are today.  We must not go back to what appears to be, we don't lean on our understanding, we just trust the Lord, and it's been a long time since it's been like this and it's our time show that we really do believe in the living God and we trust Him. 

"And it may look bleak but God has a way of stepping in - never too late, never too early, always just on time."

Trusting God is the theme of Kendall's new book, "We've Never Been This Way Before", which released this month. 

The book attempts to answer the challenging questions of where God is in the pandemic and why God allows difficulties like this to happen, but it also sets out his vision of what Christians can offer the rest of the world at this time.