AOCF with Steve Dunne

It was a day to remember for most of us, especially among leaders here in Auckland Overseas Christian Fellowship. Steve Dunne, a pastor from Richmond Baptist Church, Nelson came to Auckland for a visit and requested specially to have a 2 hour session with AOCF. AOCF took the opportunity to spend those 2 hours with him today (Saturday, 19th September 2009).

As stated earlier, Steve is a pastor from a church in Nelson,South Island. He has 8 children in total, with 3 of them are adopted. He was sharing about his life with his family by showing some pictures and his contagious laughter. He shared about his youngest adopted daughter. Her name is Promise Rose Dunne. She is an Asian girl and she suffered with a hole in the heart, lungs failure and Down syndrome. The doctor said that this girl will only live up to 6 months after she was born. Also, she was born too early. Many people asked him why would he even bother adopt her when she cannot live for long and it costs quite a fortune to adopt a child. He said "Yes people has been asking me about it, but 3 years ago, God spoke to my wife that they will adopt a child which no one will want to do so". So, both Steve and his wife, Emma adopted her to show how much God loves everyone and He does not discriminate. God's love are shown by people's action. What a miracle, the baby girl is now 2 years old and living happily with the big family.

He also add one verse in his stories. When we pray, we always state about 3 things, which are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He was saying that some of us do forget about the Father. He pointed out a verse on John 16:27. It says "No, the Father himself loves you because you have love me and believed that I came from God". He added by saying how our earthly father now loves us. Our heavenly Father says everything's ok if we have done something wrong in our lives. It is also stated in Hebrews 12 about how our Father treats us like His children.

After sharing his stories, he invited all of us to pray together with him. We stood up together with him, closed our eyes and bow our head and pray. He told us to think about our sins, what we did towards people and people towards us, what and why are we so ashamed about ourselves. He asked us to place our 2 hands and form it like a bowl and think of all the shames and sins that we have commited in our lives. After thinking, we release our hands and said "Father, please fill me with your love. Please forgive me...". It may sound really simple here, but it was hard to really open up to Him when praying. Some emotions were poured out during the time of prayer. There are so many things that we are so ashamed about ourselves but we do not know how much God really loves us. Sometimes we may dislike ourselves but like stated earlier, our heavenly Father does not discriminate. He loves each and every one of us no matter what we are. It does says in Romans 8:39 that "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

It has been a priviledge to have Steve Dunne to join AOCF during his visit here in Auckland. It was really an eye opening event and a day to remember. Thank you Steve Dunne and may God bless you always.