My Story

Why I Became a Missionary

     Everyone has a story. Usually, when one stops to look back to see how one gets to a certain point in life, it ends up being a series of both small and big decisions and events that get you to where you are. My story is no more special than yours. Simply put, it is my story.

     I gave my life to Christ at a very early age. Growing up in a Christian home was a blessing. My parents, although not perfect, tried to be living examples of Christians. My sister and I would grow up seeing our parents become leaders in the congregation. Myself, well I was far from perfect. On the outside, I appeared to be the shinning star! My walk with Christ was not all it could have been. Maybe some of you can relate with that.

     During my high school years my father would battle cancer. That hit my very hard. My father was always an example of strength and faith during his life andespecially during the illness. I witnessed during these difficult times how the church family can be there for you. I realized there were people in my life that truly loved us and supported us. The missionary team in Miami were there for us as a family. They often visited our family both at home and in the hospital. The Morgan family has always been a big part of our lives. During these difficult years my friendship with Rachel Morgan blossomed into love. Rachel was my friend and often listened to my struggles. I went away to Pepperdine University on a scholarship while Rachel waited for me and finished high school. When I came home for Christmas break I realized my father was dying. I decided to stay home to be closer to the family during this difficult time. Both of my parents struggled with my decision. My father made me promise him, that I would not stop going to school. My father also often told me, “I hope one day you become a preacher for our congregation.” I knew that if I wanted to, I could probably preach. But, that is not what I wanted to do. My father died six months later in June of 1992.

     As you all know, we got married shortly (3 months) after Rachel graduated high school. In my mind our future was well planned out. The plan was to go to school to become a Physical Therapist, make lots of money, and have a family. Oh yeah, and on the side I could help out with the teens at church. See, what really happenned is that God had different plans. Our congregation found itself without a person to lead or teach the youth. I was asked to help teach the Bible class on Sunday mornings. I gave it a try. It was really weird because I was only a few years older than most of the young people I was teaching. Rachel and I really enjoyed helping out with the youth. We did this for a couple of years. We often talked about how wonderful it would be to be able to reach out to all of the Spanish speaking immigrants entering our country. We felt amazing when we were working with the young people. At that time, Rachel was working full time as a dental assistant and I had been working on all my prerequisites for a physical therapy program. Getting into the programs was and continues to be very competitive. There was a new program opening up the following semester at Florida Atlantic University. They were only accepting 14 students for the first class. Rachel and I prayed about getting into this program. We prayed constantly. Entering into this program worked well with our plan, it was what we always dreamt about. However, we both felt a struggle within us. We were always excited about working with the young people, and we were seeing God do amazing things through the mission team like “Con La Biblia Abierta.” So we prayed some more. Then, out of the blue, an elder from the Sunset Church of Christ in Miami called us and said, “We are looking for a new youth minister, we think you should be the guy.” A few days later our good friend and mentor Joe Roberts from the Suncoast Church called us and said, “our church is looking for a youth minister, I have talked to the elders and they want to meet with you.” As you can imagine Rachel and I were excited, honored, and confused all at the same time. This, although really cool, was not what we were praying about. This was not part of our plan. We felt like we needed help in making this decision. So we went to the leaders of the congregation at Hialeah, which also included the missionaries there. They responded, by telling us that they

needed us, and we actually got an invitation from the mission team to join the work.

     Once again, we were excited and confused. Rachel and I prayed and thought about becoming missionaries. We knew life would not be easy, but we felt a peace and excitment about the possibility. This all happenned in one week. On Friday that week we received a phone call from the director of the new Physical Therapy program at Florida Atlantic University. The director told me, “Luis you know we are just accepting 14 students to this class. Luis, you are number 15. I am sorry you are not part of the class, but congratulations you are our first alternate, should anyone drop out before the classes start you can take that position.” As you can imagine, I was devastated. Rachel and I prayed and just like that, we knew God had been answering our prayer all along. We knew right then and there that we would become missionaries. I am proud of the decision we made so many years ago. Rachel and I have never regreted it. There have been difficulties along the way, but never regret. God has blessed us in so many ways because of our decision to become missionaries.  Jesus said to go into all the world to preach the Gospel. That is what I signed up for. That is what I live for. That is my passion. Television and radio has given us the oportunity to preach the Gospel into all the world. Now, the internet, allows us to reach even more people.

     The future of our mission work is bright. With your support, we will continue to preach Christ crucified and resurrected, to the ends of the Earth. Not everyone will leave their cities to preach. Not everyone will give up careers or jobs to preach. That is okay. But, we are all missionaries to the people in our lives. Just the same way God blessed our little and big events in our lives,God is doing the same for you. Look, the harvest is plentiful, we need more workers.

     This is my story. Not better or special. Simply put, my story.

Planning for future

Hellow family and friends,

     We continue to move forward with development of new program.  However, there is a lot of other great works going on.  Christian Productions International is producing radio programs that are reaching millions with the Gospel of Christ. 

November 1: Monday night at 9:00-10:00 PM EST La Voz Alegre, The Happy Voice began broadcasting to Latin America from Radio Miami International, WRMI 9.995 kHz shortwave. Also, the program will be streaming live at WRMI.net. Invite your friends to listen in!


From Miami to South America, La Voz Alegre, The Happy Voice will be broadcast. The strongest radio signal will be in the Caribbean, including Cuba.

Isn't this exciting? 

     Rex and I have also been meeting, to plan our follow up strategies for the hundreds of contacts we receive locally from the TV and Radio programs.  We are planning "World Bible School" training seminars for the churches of South Florida.  We look forward to their participation and help.  We strongly believe and have seen in the past that as the local churches become involved with the follow up work, the more excited they get and the more they want to help.  We always need the support of the local congregations of South Florida to help us with the follow up and as talent for our radio and TV programs.  In February we have the Spanish churches biyearly fellowship.  We are planning on promoting Christian Productions International's work and the contact follow up training seminars. 

     Please keep us in your prayers.  Rachel and the kids have been sick with a stomach virus.  Pray for their speedy recovery, please.  We pray for you as well.  We need you in our lives and God needs you all for His Kingdom.

Your servant,

Luis

Focusing on the most important things.



Brianna with Alexa and Alyssa at Ignite.



Hi friends,

     I hope you are all doing well.  Where does our time go?  Why does time go by so fast?  Feels like we were just celebrating getting out of school for the summer.  Now were are already eight weeks into the new school year. 

     I believe that one of the areas that the Devil tries to attack us most often is with our time.  As long as he can keep us busy, we don't have or make the time for the most important things.  We know that our time on Earth is limited.  So, often, many of us live as if we are running out of time.  I know that I fall into this trap.  I must confess that I often feel "guilty" of not doing enough.  I have to remind myself that Jesus took time to just be alone with God.

     When we do have a minute or two, we often choose the wrong things to focus our time and attention to.  That's were the enemy gets us.  We should be spending our time on eternal things.  Such as our relationship with God.  We should also be spending our time on our relationships as we can have opportunities to share the life saving Gospel with a loved one or friend. 

     As we focus on developing this new TV program, I do feel a true sense of urgency.  No, not from my bosses, sponsoring congregations, or anyoone else for that matter.  I feel a sense of urgency that I believe comes from the Holy Spirit.  There are millions of souls dying without God in their lives.  Millions more living without God in their lives.  We are facing a world where younger people are searching for God, but are dissapointed with established religions and denominations.  People are hurting and looking for relief.  I believe that we are in a time of great change.  God has put it in my heart: What am I going to do about it?  Maybe you can ask yourself the same question. 

     I may have shared this with some of you before.  Our new program will have to be a brand new concept.  We need to be able to reach those that are lost.  Our program will be produced for the "unchurched."  We need to present Christ in all truth.  We can not worry about offending others or having to be nice.  We do need to worry about the lost.  We don't need to purposefully be mean or look to offend, but this generation of seekers are looking for genuineness.  Seekers are not looking for scripted answers, but reallity.  The format we are coming up with will be "magazing style."  A 30 minute program made up of various shorter segments.  Each segment must present a message completely.  We are working on segments such as: finances, recipes, culture, family counseling, church outreach, etc.  If you have any ideas, please let us know.  We are open to ideas and suggestions.  In fact, we have been praying for the Holy Spirit to lead us and we have asked for God to raise up people that will help us in this great endeavor.  If you have an idea, please put it to prayer as it may be the Holy Spirit touching you to help this project.



Luke with Alyssa at Ignite.



     I have been working alongside Buddy Ragan in the initial stages of coming up with a budget for a pilot program.  Please pray for this process.  I have also been busy with preaching.  Most recently I was asked to speak at a youth rally at Griffin Road Church of Christ called Ignite.  I have included some pictures of Luke and Brianna with their cousins at the youth rally.  The message was well received.  I have also been asked to prepare a bilingual message for their Missions Sunday.

Thank you for your support.

Luis

Visiting our Family at Robertsdale

     I hope you all are doing well.  We had such a busy September.  I can't believe how fast time is going.  Recently with some friends, we were just comenting on how quickly time goes by as an adult, but as children it seemed as if the days never went fast enough.  As a child you were always waiting for the next big thing.  Maybe it was your birthday, christmas, or your favorite holiday. And so it felt like the days could not go fast enough.   Then we grow up!  Jobs, children, and other responsibilities keep our lives going a hundred miles per hour.  One day it's Labor Day, and the next time you check you are almost in September.  I think, we need to be more child like, in the sense that we should always be looking for THAT GREAT DAY COMING!!  You know the one.  The ONE.  When our Savior Jesus comes back for us.  Maybe if we lived that way, we would get more done.  Maybe we would appreciate the time we have more.  Maybe we would choose some things over other things.  I have been asked to speak at a youth rally in October and these are some of the thoughts that have been going through my head.  Please pray for me, and that the Holy Spirit will lead me and direct my thoughts to say what HE wants to say.  Please pray that I get out of the way of God, so that He can do His thing!

     In the beginning of the month Rachel and I helped chaparone the Griffin Road youth group to Sonquest in Orlando.  It is a yearly youth rally in which an average of two thousand young people come from all over the Southeast US.  The conference and classes were great, and it was wonderful to see how the young people and adults were touched by the messages.  During the weekend we were able to catch up with friends we had not seen in a while.  Many of you are familiar with TORCH Missions.  We were able to spend some time with our friend Nathan Reeves.  Along with Joshua Meyers and Chad Roberts, Nathan has a vision of doing the most they can do for God as directors of one of the Torch mission groups.  These are wonderful yong men that want to their very best for God.  They asked if we could help them out in any way possible.  They have invited the Estrada family to help them either through giving direction and advice or even going directly with them and work along side of them.  After talking to them I felt so encouraged, to know that these young men have a heart for missions.  Please pray for them as they work on developing this trip.  Please pray for us as well, if it is Gods will to allow us to go on this trip it would be a great opportunity to film for the new TV program.  We could showcase some of the work that God is doing through His people in Honduras.  Please keep this in your prayers.




Rachel and I.  It is so great when we can travel together.




Paul Baswell and I.



     Just a week and a half ago we were priveleged to be able to visit our loving family at Robertsdale Church of Christ.  They are such a warm and loving family.  The trip, since we drove, was long and grueling.  However, we would do it all over again and again to be able to spend some time with them.  The elders at Robertsdale allowed me to make a presentation during the Bible class time.  I shared with them some of what we have been busy doing and the future plans for the TV program.  They were encouraged and in return encouraged us tremendously.  We got to spend time with Paul and Rachel, which are such a loving and interesting couple.  I hope I have half the energy of Paul and Rachel when I am their age.  This couple could run circles around me!  On Sunday we had an awesome lunch with Scott and Tammy at a wonderful restaurant.  I can't remember the name, but I will never forget the food and especially the company we were with.  Then it was time to get back, we drove and got home around midnight.  We are so thankful to God for blessing our trip to Alabama.  We are thankful for all of the lovely family that encouraged us and made us feel so welcomed.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are partners in Christ to do the job He has given us to do.  Thank you again for all the prayers and support from Robertsdale.  God bless you for all that you do for the Lord's Kingdom.

 




Brianna, Luke, and I infront of Robertsale building.

 

To Save a Life

The Week of August 8, we had our 4 Annual Spanish (language) Week of Camp.  God helped us out, as always and it was a much bigger success than what we could have imagined.  This is my fourth year coordinating this week of camp.  The idea is to encourage the Spanish speaking youth of the churches in Florida.  For many years the camp had no participation from the Spanish speaking congregations.  Now, this is changing.  Not only is our week of camp growing, but some of the young people are falling in love with camp and have even ventured into other weeks as well.  Also, the unity among the Spanish churches is growing as a result of this week of camp.  The young people come back really excited and want to continue doing activities with the young people from other congregations. 

This year we ended up having 47 campers and 23 staff members from spanish congregations from Central Florida all the way to Homestead.  We grew from last year by five campers.  But, what is really cool is that the majority of the children that participated this year were first timers.  And, they all loved it and had a great time.  Our theme was based on the movie "To Save a Life"  Of course we called it "Salvavidas."  The young people were challenged to look for opportunities in their daily life to save a soul for Christ.  The greatest news of all is that at the end of the week we had two baptisms.  I am proud that our daughter Brianna Estrada obeyed the Gospel and was baptised.  What a great feeling it is to baptise your daughter.  I will never forget that moment.  We are also very proud of Marcello Santamaria that decided to make Jesus his Lord and Savior through baptism.  Please pray for these young people as they begin their spiritual journey.  Thank you for all of your prayers and love.

Spiritual Growth Workshop

As many of you know we had the Spiritual Growth Workshop the last weekend of July.  I was asked to speak on the Spanish program.  I thought a class on "The Lord Reigns In My Heart."  I spoke infront of an all male audience, which afforded me the opportunity to hit on some "manly" topics.  For the spanish language program, this was the greatest year ever.  The greatest both in substance and turnout.  We had Christians join us from as far as Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, and south to the end of Florida. The weekend was also very special because we had a special tribute for our dear brother Armando Alaniz.  Brother Alaniz, passed away a couple of months ago.  Armando was instrumental in helping us establish the eldership at Hialeah, he was also a professor at Atlantic International Bible Institute in Miami until he and his family moved back to Houston.  This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as Armando, he was a teacher at Sunset school of preaching, a counselor, missionary, mentor and father.  Armando was honored at the workshop through a slide show presentation and several leaders had their turns honoring him with a few words.  Armando will be greatly missed, we pray for his wife Jainey, his children Armando Jr, Gloria, and Angelica, as well as the rest of his family.  We can't wait to see Armando in Heaven some day.   

Something else that was great was Rex Morgan gave all of the preachers that were present a complete copy of our program Con La Biblia Abierta.  They were all very happy as this will be a great tool to help them preach the Gospel.  We can't wait for the next workshop.  This year we had approximately 400 christians join us.  Maybe in two years we can double this!!  We can acoomplish all things through Christ.

Sizzling Summer

     Wherever you are, chances are it is HOT outside!  Well in South Florida, no surprise, it is also very hot.  Since we last updated you guys we have been put through a series of tests, increasing the heat in our lives.  About a month ago Rachel called me and said the words every husband dreads to hear..."Honey, I think the air conditioner is breaking."  This was the beginning of a very challenging journey.  Losing your air conditioner when the temperature is in the 90's outside is no fun.  I would like to introduce you to our dear brother in Christ Gary.  I called Gary about the ac unit, and he said I will be there tonight after work to take a look at it.  Poor Gary, he had no idea what he was getting into.  He worked until late in the evening so he didn't make it to our house until very late.  But, he made it and filled our a.c. with the freon it needed.  We slept well that night, but as the sun rose, so did the temperature in the house.  Soon enough, it was evident that the leak was much bigger than expected and something else would have to be done.  I am not going to give you all the boring details, but 10 days later at about 3 a.m. in the middle of a thunder storm Gary finished fixing our air conditioner.  Gary sweated, stayed up late, took time away from his family, and sacrificed greatly to help us out.  We thank God for Gary and his family.  Isn't it amazing to be a part of the family of God?  The days that we passed without air conditioner we could not sleep in our house.  Working in our house was torturous.  On either end of the a.c. incident we had the weddings of two cousins that were out of town.  So, between all of these events it felt like we were nomads, having a home, but unable to be there.  This is kind of what our life is when we don't have Christ in it.  We were challenged and uncomfortable, but we learned a lot.

     Despite all of the challenges, we continue to move on with the development of the new media ministry.  We are considering to name the new program "Viva Vida."  Which means: live life.  A simple name that hopefully will make the viewer curious to see the program.  What we want is to encourage the viewer to live their life to the fullest with Christ.  One can not truly live life, without Jesus.  So in order to live life you need Jesus.  Very importantly we are trying to reach the unchurched.  So, it is no mistake that we have left out "religious" terms or words out of the title.  Our prayer is that as we develop a high quality program, a person that is not a Christian will be lured by the title and give the program a chance, and at the same time give the Gospel a chance.  Please let us know what you think.

     I would like to ask you to please pray for our 4th annual Spanish week of camp that is coming up August 8-12.  Every year we have grown, both in number and we all grow closer to God.  Please pray that God will bless this week and we can serve the spiritual needs of the Spanish speaking young people of Florida.

Rachel and the children are well.  A couple of weeks ago we had to go pick Luke up from Bible camp, because he was sick.  When we picked him up he had a fever of 104!  Turned out he had tonsillitis and had to be put on antibiotics.  He is all well now.  This week we are heading to the Spiritual Growth Workshop in Orlando.  If any of you are there we would love to see you.  If you have any questions about our work please call us before hand and we can make the time to meet with you.  We are expecting our greatest turnout ever for the Spanish program.  I will let you know next time how great this was.

Thank you for all of your love and support.

The Estrada Family

New Beginnings - Part 2

Dear Friends and Family,

 I have a lot of good news to tell you all...

I have informed many of you that as a family we were transitioning out of the local work at Hialeah and into the more global work of the TV program "Con La Biblia Abierta." Although working ourselves out of the work at Hialeah, was always part of the mission goals, it was not easy. When you grow up at a congregation and then you see it grow and sometimes suffer, you feel especially attached. So these last 6 months have not been easy. However, we do feel that God is the one moving us and leading us in this new direction. I say new, but really it is not new.

Rachel and I have been part of the TV ministry almost since the beginning. When Rachel and I decided to become missionaries, we challenged our supporters to help us become the future of the TV program. Well, I guess the future is now. We have 138 programs that are on the air in 23 different countries throughout Latin America, Carribean, and North America. In the U.S. we are on all 50 states. The Spanish speaking population continues to grow in this country. There are approximately 585 million spanish speakers in the World. Of those that live in Latin America, there are less than 50,000 that are members of the Lord's church. There is an emergent need to preach the Gospel of Christ to those that are lost. We must continue to develop our TV ministry to reach the lost for Christ.

This last weekend, our family was invited to meet with the missions committee of our sponsoring congregation in Madison Tennessee. We were encouraged and showered with love by every member of the missions committee. Rachel and I brought to them our dream and vision for the future of the TV program. God touched everybody's heart and spirit as everyone was in agreement that God is calling us build on the foundation we have before us. Rex Morgan has worked so hard to get the program on in so many places throughout the world and we realize that if we don't take advantage of that, we will be wasting a precious opportunity that God is giving us.

With the approval of our sponsoring elders and missions committee we will develop a new TV program that will target a new audience using a new format. Our target audience will be the "unchurched." People that are lost, that will not walk into a church building, that would change the channel if they new they were watching a "religious" TV program. This means a lot of work. This means shooting a pilot TV program and raising funds for the production of this new TV program. These are really big dreams!! Let me remind you that the God we serve is even BIGGER!!

In the meantime we will be working on developing attention grabbing public service announcements, that will hopefully be aired for free, calling on people to look for Christ as the answer to their problems. We will be developing short video segments for people to download on "youtube" in order to share Christ with the lost. We have a goal of making every new program HD and closed captioning so that an English speaker can share the TV program with a friend and actually know what the TV program is teaching. Actually our goal is to be able to reformat all of our existing programs with this technology so it can better be used as an evangelistic tool. Wow, don't get me started!

Friends, we need your support now more than ever. These tough economic times have affected all of us. Many have lost jobs, homes, cars, etc. Our family has lost $600 of support a month.  We understand that everyone is hurting. We pray that the enemy doesn't use this situation to affect the preaching of the Gospel. We have lost support from several sources. Right now I am in need of a computer (laptop) since our desktop and laptop both decided to call it quits. This is not in our present budget, but we need a laptop to develop a new TV program. Besides our personal budget, we need to work on raising funds for production of the TV program. Again, we know this is going to be big, but our God is bigger. We will be keeping you updated as to our progress.  We also plan on being able to see you all more often, since our focus is not in local work anymore.  We look forward to seeing you soon.

We want to thank you for your love and ongoing support. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. As you know, when we are trying to do something great in the name of Jesus, the enemy Satan is never too far behind. Please pray that we will remain strong, pray for our lives as we strive to serve God and His Kingdom. We love you in the love of the Lord.

Your brother,

Luis