Baby D has arrived! His name is Cohen Ioan Rain Dunstan. He was born on Friday, August 17th at 12:48 p.m. in Kansas City, Kansas after 43 hours of labor! Hew weighed 7lbs and measured in at 20 inches in length. It was a long and hard journey those last two days but more than worth it to hold our little guy for the first time. Courtney did an amazing job and endured so much to bring him forth. We are so grateful to the Lord for Courtney and Cohen’s health and safety.

The Meaning of His Name

    Cohen is Hebrew for “priest.” The priests in the Old Testament were consecrated to minister to God through worship and prayer. In the New Testament the Church is called, “A royal priesthood.” All believers currently have and will have a “priestly” identity and function in the age to come. (Rev. 1:6; 20:6). Priests are intercessors. They speak to God on behalf of the people and to the people on behalf of God. A priest exists because of three things: the holiness of God, the sinfulness of humanity, and the desire in God’s heart for reconciliation. Jesus is the ultimate High Priest and the only One who could bring full reconciliation between God and man because He is both God and Man. May this little priest follow in the way of his Great Hight Preist, Jesus.

Ioan (pronounced eye-oh-an) is the Celtic/Welsh form of the name John, which means “Yahweh is gracious.” From the very beginning, God has made Himself known as the God who is filled with, and imparts grace. He spoke to Moses saying, “I am the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious”    (Exodus 34:6).

Rain in the Bible speaks of both divine blessing and divine judgment. We believe that as a nation we rightly deserve divine judgment, but we also believe that “Yahweh is gracious” and desires to give us what we do not deserve--blessing.

In Joel 2 God speaks to the prophet Joel about Israel’s current condition and the judgment that He would soon release upon the land because of their sin. God did not, however, leave the nation without hope or without a mercy strategy.

His mercy strategy was for the people to gather together in fasting and prayer and return to the Lord their God at the heart level (see April & May’s newsletters). At the end of the plea from God’s heart for His people to return to Him, God once again reveals Himself as the God who is gracious and longing to turn away from releasing judgment and leave a blessing upon the land.

We named our son Cohen Ioan Rain as a statement from heaven that it is in the heart of God to turn away from the judgment that is scheduled against this nation and leave behind a blessing of revival. In a sentence his name means, “Through the priesthood, Yahweh will be gracious and send rain.”