I just dont see how they does it

This blogging thing is tough. I remember when I started I thought I would have something to say all the time but now that I'm actually in the midst of it.... I find that it's tough to do. Time is something that I'm realizing is very precious these days... and even more scarce. Anyway... one day I'll actually have time to write something good on here. Someday...


Vic

Elevation

Elevation.... what is it? ..... I'll tell you tomorrow!!!

Tostada

Halloween?

So, Kim and I have been having the whole Halloween trick-or-treating conversation the past few days. I'ts funny because we've heard other people having the same conversation in random places. We even heard a DJ on a christian radio station talking about what he believes.

What do you guys think?

A new member of the family

Here he is.... isn't he beautiful? Ok, so maybe it's just a guitar to some of you but to me it's a work of art..... and let me tell you this thing doesn't just look good.... it sounds amazing. For those of you who are guitar minded, it is a Gibson Songwriter deluxe, glossy finish, fishman active matrix pickup, solid rosewood back and sides and a solid spruce top. And Gold hardware and an abalone inlay to top it off. A beauty that sounds absolutely amazing.

I don't know how many of you know this but being a guy in the pregnancy process is kinda tough. I don't want it to sound like I don't like it or that I'm not excited or even that I'm mad at Kimberly or something. But seriously it's tough. Let me give you an example of what I mean.... Last night I got the chance to feel my baby kick in Kim's stomach (sorry if that's not anatomically correct). IT WAS AMAZING!!! I love feeling things like that. It allows me to connect with our son. That is such a cool thing but one thing that bugs me is that I don't get that all the time. Kim on the other hand does. She gets to carry the baby and feel it kick everyday. Not that I'm complaining that I don't get to carry the baby. I give her props for doing that but still as a dad I'd have to say that it's kinda tough to not have that connection. I was talking to a good friend of mine a few months ago and he agreed with this. He had just had a baby a few months earlier and could relate to what I was feeling. He told me that for him it was easy for him to get caught up in busyness and forget about the baby because of that lack of connection. As a guy I just wanna say that we love our babies! We want to feel connected but it's hard to know how..... well I guess I'll just have to wait to connect while I'm changing diapers. Good enough for now!

Something

Just wanted to write something...

Something!



Thanks

Fall Retreat

Time for the annual Calvary Church High School group's fall retreat again! I'd have to say this is my favorite trip of all. I'm particularly excited because I get to bring the "Elevation Band" along with us. I'm excited about worshiping God this weekend and about playing some great music for God. It's going to ROCK!... In a worshipful kinda way of course.

Ready or not!!!

So we finally found out what we're having.... ready?

We're having....

Gotta scroll down for this one....








keep going......












you really you want to know?.....









here we go.........












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BOY!!!

Mathew John Estrada.... He'll be born sometime around March 10!!! That's coming soon! Kim and I are so excited. Please keep us in prayer. Thank you.

Victor and Kim

The Noise

Sean

Here are some pictures of one of my heros... my best friend Sean has been in Egypt on a missions trip... He's Serving with YWAM and has gotten to go to some cool places. Love that guy..... Miss you my friend!

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Kimberly and I wanted to share the news that God has blessed us with a baby. These pictures are the from first time we saw the baby..... we just got them done on Friday. It was such a neat experince to watch the baby moving around during the ultrasound and it was just as cool to hear the heart beat. WOW MAN!!!.... isn't God so Good! March 10th is the due date.

VBS

This week we had VBS at our church at it was A-mazing.... it was so cool.... there are tons of pictures on our church website Calvary Church of Santa Ana. The coolest thing was that I got to do something I've never done before.... I gave my first autograph..... that was so weird.... of course it was to like a second grader..... it was still cool and don't knock it till it happens to you. Anyway.... here are the pictures!

Hume Lake

Goin' to Hume lake this week with our High schoolers. it should be a great week. See if you can catch a glimpse of Kim or me on the Hume web cam.

Hume Lake web Cams

Have a great week!

Naming a legend

I was thinking today... my guitar needs a good name.... I mean all great guitar players name their guitars right?.... not to say that I'm great by any stretch but still.... so I started to think and came up with the name Larry..... Why Larry you ask?... well it seems to fit since it is a Larrivee guitar... that plus that name just fits it's personality... only thing is that Larry can't be a girl which tends to be the fad when naming guitars or cars for that matter... they tend to be female names right?.... anyway.... what do ya think of Larry?

What goes on in a worship leaders head on stage?

This is a cool article that I found that was written by Eric Owyoung of the band Something Like Silas. Check it out.


What Goes On In a Worship Leaders Head on Stage

• Why does my stupid guitar keep going out of tune?
• Man it's hot in here.
• Jesus, give me the right words.
• I hope I don't get something in my eye.
• We need to practice the chorus some more, we stink.
• That was a cool drum fill.
• My cable is wrapped around my leg.
• Lord, bless that girl crying in the front.
• I wonder if they're getting this song.
• I hope the band remembers how to do the transition into the next song.
• Shoot, what are the words to the next verse?!

So does that sound like a divine experience? Or does that sound just a little too familiar? That's just a few of the thoughts out of the other million going through our heads. The difference between me though and a lot of other guilt ridden worship leaders is that I don't feel that those are wrong. In fact, I think they are exactly the things I should be thinking about! But aren't we supposed to be dwelling on the presence of God? Aren't we supposed to be having an intimate moment with Christ each time? Isn't that what being a worship leader is? I suppose then, I should just drop the guitar, tell the band to put all their instruments down, and lets all have our own worship experience. How lame would that be!!! We're not helping anybody draw near to God by doing that.

Lets start with this. Worship is more than a song, it is more than words. It is more about a lifestyle, the way we live, think, act, breathe. But when we describe a worship experience, we are referring to an intimate moment, a divine connection, a time in which we put aside all distractions and give our attention to God alone. I believe that my moment of worship does not happen on stage near as intentionally or intensely as it does when I worship him off stage. If I am saving my time with God for the moments on stage, I believe that I may be taking away from others intimate moments with God. For example, if I say "God, I want to have such an intimate time with you and I shouldn't disrupt it. Even though my E string is a complete half step off, I refuse to pay attention to it." Man what disaster it would be. I'd have the worshippers praying that worship would be over soon.

Leading worship is like being a teacher. The teacher learns and discovers outside of the classroom. When he come into the class room before the students, his lesson is prepared, he is ready to focus on his lesson plan, not to have any new discoveries. It is much like that in leading worship. The worship leader is required to take the time, to study over, to pray over, and most of all to worship before walking on stage. Those moments on stage require the worship leader to be thinking about what he doesn't want other to worry about. That's being a servant. It's saying, "Hey, come here and relax. Enjoy the presence of God. Come into this place and I'll tidy things up so you don't have to focus on anything but your God right now. My band and I am going to serve you so this can all happen."

I've found the spirit of God moves not because I'm leading the charge, but because the thousand worshippers in front of me are enabled to lead the charge without distraction. I'm just in the boiler room keeping the engine running. I may throw out a few cheers or challenges and stuff, but man the spirit of God is responding to the mass of followers that are seeking after him. That's when something amazing happens.

Why???

Lord, we cry out to You... Lord I know where I'm going but God give me a passion for the people that don't know You. I lift up the families of those that were slain and I pray Your protection on our country and those that oppose these kind of actions. Protect us Lord! Amen

The first thing

Well.... today was a great day!... I love being at Calvary.... it's so great!... I LOVE IT!.... funny thing is that I feel like I'm doing the same thing I did at West Coast... the first thing I did today was go to a meeting and the second?..... make delivery....... WILL THE MADNESS EVER END?

My first day

Today is my first day at Calvary.... YEAH!.... I can't wait to get there....

The Con

The greatest thing the devil has ever done was to convince people that he doesn't exist.

Guitar

I want a new guitar..... but then again... when don't I..... Here are some that I want.

Carvin CC275
Fender Delux Ash Telcaster
Larrivee LV-03RE

and many many more

Two Years Ago

Two years ago today..... that would be two years back or two years ago from this date.... God blessed me with the wonderfully amazing gift of my beautiful wife Kimberly.... Yeah, that's right it's been two years already.... As I told Echo Nation earlier..... it seems like it was just yesterday that I stole her from you....... Yes.... for those of you who are wondering....it is an inside joke. For those of you who didn't make it to our wedding here's what you missed.

- Los Tostadas!!!

Countdown

11 days, 3 hours, 17 minutes, 15 seconds... 14 seconds... 13 seconds.... (you get the point) .... thats how long I have left till I don't have to go back to West Coast Radiology anymore.... Kinda sad but mostly (and I want to put alot of emphasis on that) AMAZING!!! I'm so excited to see what God is gonna do with this stage of my life. I can't wait to see how God works in my life and through my life. That will be awesome to see. Well only 11 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 10 seconds to go..... 9 seconds... 8 seconds......

Toasty

Hello

One day I'll actually update this.... I don't have anything interesting to say...... ummm.... OH WAIT......no....I guess I don't... hope Jesus loves you and GO BEARS! I don't know which bears but.... I've always just wanted to say that. Lates.

El Tostada

The Video

Hey ya'll,

There is a nice video for ya.... let me know what you think.... WATCH IT.... IT's GREAT!

I'm actually currently reading David Crowder's book Sunsets and Sushi and it's funny.... and good... I highly recomend it. Read it..

Victor

Ready?

Here I am at home....it's the middle of the day.... I'm eating a nice bowl of Honey bunches of oats.....WITH ALMONDS!!! You gotta have those almonds.... Anyway, as I was sitting here I remembered that I was supposed to do.... But I couldn't remember what that something was so....I pondered a while..... after about an hour of walking around the house trying to figure out what that this was I finally realized what it was....I forgot to tell you all the news!!! I'm so sorry about that. I'm getting old ya know..... anyway.... here we go.....drum roll please.....

Starting July 1, 2005.... I will finally get to do what I love to do full time..... I know what you're thinking....Why would anyone want to collect lint animals full time?.... well it's not that...it's the other thing I love.... I got hired on as a full time worship leader for the student ministries at Calvary Church Santa Ana......YAY... so.... that's my news.... so I start on July 1st officially. It's cool to see How god opens doors... Anyway... thats about it.... gotta go finish doing nothing.

TOSTADA....OUT!

Sheesh!

Will it never end? Life seems to have dealt me a full deck as of late.... it seems like it's never gonna stop.... but ya know what?... I think actually like it..... in a way it's fun to be busy because with that comes the joy of complaining about being busy.... gotta love that. Anyway..... I have some news to tell you all about but.... I wont tell you until tomorrow so there ya go..... ponder.... wait.... ANGUISH..... I'm sure it's not gonna kill ya to wait ..... i just like dramatics..... anyway I did find something else cool though.... well as some of you might know I have an aversion to music produced by a certain band... namely the DAVID CROWDER BAND!!!! ... anyway... I found DC's blog.... not the band's blog but his.... check it out... right now they are in the studio recording for their next album and they have web cams and all.... it's pretty neat. Anyway....here are the links.... have fun with them.

David Crowder's Blog
Studio Web Cams

LEAVE ME SOME COMMENTS!!!... I like them!!!

What is worship?

Isn't the God we serve so cool? I'm so blessed because I have the opportunity and privilege to worship Him and lead other in the worship of Him.... I love that. With that said I just wanted to share a few things that I've been learning in the past few days. I've recently been reading a book about worship (I can't remember the name of it at the moment because I'm in the middle of reading like 372 books right now). Anyway... here's a little about what I've been reminded of or learned through this book.

What is worship? Is worship just something we do when we're at church on Sunday mornings or on Wednesday nights? Is it the music that we sing when we're at church?.... The answer to that is simple.... YES... those things are worship but what alot of people don't realize is that that's not all worship is about. Yes, we are worshiping God on Sunday mornings and through the songs that we sing but if we stop there we're really selling ourselves short of all that worship is.

Worship is a state of heart.... it's what we do in our everyday lives.... it includes everything.....YES! Everything! .... even brushing your teeth.... Like I said ....it's a state of heart.... if we have the attitude that we're gonna worship God with what we're doing and give it to him.... that can be worship. On the flip side of that I have to say that just because we are singing worship songs or at a worship service at church.....that doesn't mean we are worshiping God. I mean come on.... if you're sitting there in the middle of church during a worship song thinking about the football game and ignoring what you're there for..... even though you're there.... I don't think that can be considered worship.

Anyway... thats what I have to share.... sorry if it's jumbled.... I started it then finished it a month later.... hope it makes sense to someone. Blessings to you all.

Victor

Sorry

Hey sorry for not writing for a while..... I have so much to say. I've been learning so much about worship from life and from books that I want to share with you all... unfortunately now is one of those times where I feel like I can't even sit and do that. Busy busy..... sheesh! Anyway... hope to share some of that stuff soon. Lates!

Something cool

Hey ya'll... I found this cool website on google and wanted to share it with you.... It's a neat map program and you can find your house from a satelite.... I found mine can you find yours? Anyway...here's the link...

Google Maps

Have fun!

Pinecones and Paintballs!

This weekend is going to be another one of those long weekends.... why you ask? Well, because this weekend we have the annual Calvary Church High School Group guys and girls spring retreat!!! Now don't you all get up and cheer all at once. Actually I'm pretty excited about going this weekend... I mean I get excited anytime I get the opportunity to shoot at people and get all dirty.... what can be more fun then that? Actually what I'm really looking forward to is are times of worship we get to have on the retreat. I don't know what it is about it but I love getting the opportunity to worship God surrounded by the beauty of his creation. It's just neat to me. Another thing I am looking forward to is worshiping as a group of guys.... there is really something special and unique about worshiping in that setting.... there is a freedom for our guys... and to be honest I think it comes because there aren't any girls around so there is nobody to impress. So the result is heartfelt, unhindered worship to our creator. That is what I'm excited about!

Because God told us to

Something's been happening in our hearts for the past few months. A stirring, a calling... this week Kim and I decided to accept that calling. What calling? Well it seems that God has called us to lead another trip to Albania this summer. We don't know all the details about the trip but we know that we're going. We invite you to join us in prayer.

Check out our Albania website if you're interested in seeing what God did with us the last time we were there...

VictorandKim.com

The Betrothed

My wonderful wife Kim wanted to share this:

"Suppose, brethern, a man should make a ring for his betrothed, and she should love the ring more wholeheartedly than the betrothed who made it for her... Certainly, let her love his gift: but if she should say, " The ring is enough, I do not want to see his face again" what would we say of her? The pledge is given her by the betrothed just that, in his pledge, he himself may be loved. God, then, has given you all these things. Love Him who made them."

Augustine

Hey guys, I recieved this poem a while ago, but I was just now inspired to write about it. When I first read it, it impacted me greatly because it was a great picture of what was happening in my life. God had provided me with a great husband, cute apartment, and all that I needed. I found myself putting my identity in my husband and consumed by how I could make my apartment look better..Now those things in my life were not bad...In fact they were great gifts from God... Yet they became my focus and God was not. I was more in love with God's creation, rather than God Himself. I thank God that He opened my eyes to this. The prayer of my heart is to constantly remember God as my "Betrothed." Dear friends, let us have the heavenly perspective that God desires us to have.. He is coming soon!.. And now I'd like to leave an awesome closing poem for you guys...

"The enjoyment of (God) is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accomodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean."

John Edwards

Withdrawals....

Yesterday marked one week that my best friend Sean has gone.... again.... I thank God that I was able to spend the month that he was supposed to be here plus a few more bonus weeks thanks to the FBI....(it's not what you think.... visa troubles)... anyway.... I have been pondering all week about just how to express how I feel and I still feel like I need more time.... but here's my best shot at it.

Thank You Lord for allowing me to have a friend who is not ashamed of serving you with all of his heart. A guy who is not ashamed of being sold out for you. And thank you for giving me a living example of how to worship you with my life..... of someone who gave up all that he had to go and do what You told him to and not only go but to stay when you told him to stay.... Thank You Lord for the privilege of knowing someone like that.

Sean You're my Hero and we'll be praying for you and your ministry there in Perth. Thank you for being an example. Miss you bro!

Black backgrounds!

I was just looking at this blog and I come to realize that it's really black..... don't get me wrong.... I kinda like it..... needs more pictures though and more stuff about worship. Maybe sometime soon.

Just so you know too.... the purpose of this site is to give me the ability to share about the things that God is teaching me about worship and how he is using me in that area of ministry..... so in short it's all about Worshiping God... just like it should be.

Pour out my heart

here I am once again and I pour out my heart for know that you hear
every cry you are listening....

Genesis 1:1

In the begining GOD created the heavens and the earth!.... Just so we are all clear on this....in the begining GOD... He was before the earth began and he'll be after it is gone..... same thing here. Just so we're all clear on that.