Welcome to a new feature on the website. Consider this section a treasure hunt, a place to discover more about those we sit next to in church. Musicians who lead us in worship, volunteers who provide our potlucks, manage our media, teach our children, maintain our church. Couples who stay married for decades, parents who birth children, members who use our new wheelchair ramps, people who survive life-threatening accidents. We have almost 2800 such treasures right here in our church family. Come and see who they - who YOU are!
Hector Estrada
After forty-one years, many Sabbaths spent in the front rows of LSU Church, and several mission trips, Hector Estrada made it "official" and was baptized last Sabbath (9-13-08). He says that he does feel different since taking that final step, "I feel relieved!" And his wife Norma was so happy, she didn't even want to talk to him about it (after making his decision and before the big day), because she was afraid she would somehow "jinx" it.
Hector and Norma met in High School and were married in a mortuary because he was Catholic and she was Seventh-day Adventist. For 41 years, they have been married and Norma has been faithful to her religious identity while Hector has observed and participated from within their shared life. They have had their occasional struggles with the SDA church, but the picture of God that Norma and this church painted for Hector prevailed.
He said that the reason he made the decision now was that he had never before really "gotten into the Bible . . . I didn't understand it and I am still learning about it, but now I know how to figure it out." He said that the Bible studies he participated in recently helped him answer questions about what Seventh-day Adventists believe, "Reading it out loud really helped it come together for me."
When I asked Hector how it felt to be the only non-SDA in his family, he laughed and said he wasn't the only one, "there have been several coming in and going out of the church." He said that there is now, only one remaining who hasn't gotten baptized and while he doesn't think he ever will, Hector would like very much for them all to feel the relief he has since being baptized.
Hector is a pipe-fitter plumber. He and Norma also own a hair salon "Norma and Co." at 10759 Magnolia in Riverside. Almost every Sabbath, you will find them in one of the first two rows of church (sometimes on the sides), and you have enjoyed Norma's beautiful voice as a regular in the praise team. They live here in Riverside and have 3 children (two daughters and one son) and 3 grandchildren (two girls and one boy).