What a heart breaking moment today as my daughter showed me a post on Facebook that was 16 minutes old. It read how a Hero in the faith, a compassionate and loving friend had just passed away earlier Friday morning. I will forever remember the night I met Donnie Moore. The week prior to my meeting Evangelist Donnie Moore back in November 1984, I had went to visit my mom in Morgan Hill. This visit was to let her know how messed I was and hadn’t been to church in over three years, since my dad had moved our family to Stockton, (mom and dad divorced at this time). I told my mom how I felt like mud, and she said she was going to come up to Stockton and take me to a church of God in East Stockton. However when she arrived in Stockton on November 11th, 1984 she decided she wanted to go some place closer to my sister’s house who lived in North Stockton with easy access to the freeway because she would be going home after church. So we started going through the yellow pages and ran across Lakeview Assembly on Quail Lakes drive. We decided to go here because it was easy access to the freeway and The Pastor at the Baptist church at that time had told me I would be happier over there than at his church based upon the church I attended in San Jose before the move to Stockton. So we went to the 6P.M. church service and there was a female guest speaker not Donnie, but he was there, I just didn’t know yet that he was there. So after she preached a message entitled “Taming The Wild Mustang” she gave the altar call and four times she postponed praying for the people who had already gone forward saying that God was telling her that there was one more person who needed to come forward for prayer, but it wasn’t until she started praying for all those who were already up front at the altar did I decide to go forward. As I was standing up there I challenged God, saying if you are really here like my church back home then you need to have that lady stop praying for those other people and come pray for me. I did this twice and after she still didn’t come to pray for me, I said in my mind, God I knew you weren’t here like in my church back home. No sooner than those words had entered my mind, a man approached me and asked me how I had heard about the special that night and I replied I hadn’t heard of any special, he then asked how I had heard of him. I replied I don’t know who you are either, he then asked a third question which was and I quote “may I ask you why you are here tonight?”, and I said no, it’s kind of personal. At this time he said, that is okay, God is speaking to me right now and I am going to tell you why you are here tonight. He proceeded to tell me the things I had spoken to my mom about a week earlier. He prayed for me that night and baptized me the following Sunday, That man was Donnie Moore. And my life was forever changed. I remember going to Chi Alpha meetings at U.O.P, I remember taking a week off of work one year to volunteer to help set-up and clean-up at school assemblies in San Joaquin county which led up to a night assembly called “The Night of Champions. I just wanted to get close to and get to know this image maker named Donnie Moore. I can honestly say that all I ever felt from Donnie was love and acceptance and that I mattered to God. I remember that Donnie did not ever want the spotlight to be on him but only on God. I can hear his words so clearly even today, “Father God I pray that Donnie Moore would slip away unnoticed but that your word would go forth in power and in truth.” A humble spirit, a man filled with so much of God’s love that it would spill over into the lives of those around him. Donnie you will forever be loved and forever missed. I will not ever forget how God continually used you to bless and impact my life. Although you have gone home you left me enough good friends to finish feeling up my hand and I will be forever grateful for that, good friends and brothers like Jon Pritikin, Darwin Benjamin, Juaquin Fabela, Terry Douglas, Leighton McIntosh II, and Pastor Joey Steelman. Writing this as tears stream down my face. I love you Donnie.
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To friends and family
I remember during one of Donnie’s messages at Lakeview he had told this story about how this young man approached him and asked him how he was able to bench press 500 lbs. and he said he told the young man “Everyday for a lunch I have California Chicken sandwich at Payter’s.”
Donnie was genuine, he was real, he loved God and he loved people. He was the reason I rededicated my life to Jesus on November 11th, 1984. He will be forever loved, he will be forever missed.