Text Box: Esteban and Debhora Rodriguez Our biography My name is Esteban Rodriguez, I was born on October 29, 1986 in Piedras Negras, Mexico. For most of my life I have lived in Eagle Pass, Texas an am a United States Resident. I am the youngest of four siblings. God gave me the blessing of growing up in a Christian family. My parents are pastors and they gave each of us children solid Biblical teaching according the Word of God. Growing up in a Christian environment and under the guidance of my parents, I’ve learned how wonderful is to serve God and live a life according His will. From my early beginnings I have noticed that I have a special attraction for music. I remember the first musical instrument that I started to play. It was an old drum set that my grandfather had given me. I didn’t had a musical teacher that showed me how to play the drums but somehow, God gave me the ability to play. Through my worship through music I have been able to establish a strong relationship with Christ. At age 10, I started to play the drums in the church worship team. I loved every time that we had the church band rehearsal not only because I had the opportunity to play my favorite instrument, but also because we had the privilege to gather as a team and just dedicate a time of praise and worship with our creator. I wanted to discover more about music and took guitar and bass lessons in a music school. This helped to prepare me for the plan that God has for my life. One weekend our church worship leader had to go out of state for a family emergency. He asked me to lead the praise and worship on the following Sunday service. Even though I had never done this before I was eager to say “yes”. When the Sunday service started and saw the people being blessed while worshiping, my life was completely changed. I knew then that this was His plan for my life. One day as I was in a time of devotional the Lord spoke to me, he made me understand that praise and worship it’s not only singing about Jesus Christ, He gave us this tool to make a difference to guide his people to have intimacy and a better relationship with Him. During my Jr. High years many of my school friends encourage me to play a sport in school, but my passion for leading worship caused me to want to say “no” to all other opportunities. God created us to make a difference with other that don’t know Him. And so, instead of being involved in school sports and extra curricular activities I felt led to begin a Christian band. While many of my friends where on sport trips I was sharing the gospel with this band from place to place. Upon graduation from High School I knew that I had to decide what I would do with the rest of my life. I had some things that I wanted to study such as graphic designing, and recording studio engineer. But I wanted to be sure that I would choose to do only what God was calling me to do After much prayer, I felt led to enroll at Mid America Christian University (A Church of God Bible College). Although I had some offers to become a music pastor I knew it wasn’t the time for that so I focused in starting school and getting prepared to finish a music degree. I completed 2 years of music major in MACU. Everything was going great but due to some medical issues with my arm I had to undergo surgery. The surgery and recovery caused me to delay my studies and I had to miss a year of school. During that year I was given the opportunity to be with worship leader at two congregations. I then began my work with both congregations leading worship in Eagle Pass, TX and Piedras Negras, Mexico. This was a great joy for me. I was putting everything that I’ve learned in MACU into practice in both congregations. When it was time for a new semester of school to begin I didn’t want to leave these ministries so I found a local Christian school where I finished my degree while still leading worship at Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras churches. The name of this college is Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, TX. Everything was perfect going to school and leading worship on weekends in both churches. The Piedras Negras Church was well known in focusing in community outreach they had many events. One day we decided to hole a concert for the youth there. We invited several other bands participated in this event. After the event was over I met a beautiful young lady who attended this concert. Her name was Debhora Lugo. We established a friend relationship without knowing that this young girl will become my wife a year later. Debhora is 23 years old and she was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico. She’s the second of a family of 3 brothers. She grew up in a Christian family where her parents guided her to love and serve God. Since she was adolescent she started to serve in the children’s ministry and youth outreach ministry for a total of 6 years, the result of her effort and commitment lead her to become the director of the Children’s ministry. As a director of the children’s department she had the opportunity to take different courses in drama, choreography, arts, and Bible teaching classes this experience increased her knowledge and capacity to develop a better and outstanding working area with kids. It was important to her to study to refine her skills. After she finish her high school year in Mexico she went to study Business Administration; while she was studying she got her first job in a company, where she was putting in practice all the things she had learned in school. During this time we established a formal relationship and we enjoyed beautiful moments together. One of our special times was the Church of God International Youth Convention 2008 were I was invited to minister to the youth with my worship group The Kadosh Band. We had never imagined that this event was part of God’s plan. A couple of weeks later I received an unexpected call from Pastor Hector Gonzalez from Glendale, Arizona offering me the opportunity to become their full time music pastor. We decided to put this on God’s hands and seek his will. At this time I decided to take the next step I loved Debbie so much I know she loved God and she had everything that I was asking the Lord for. One day, I proposed to her and ask her if she wanted to marry me. She said yes and we got married on October 18, 2008. At 2 months of married and serving God in my parent’s church, we received again another phone call from pastor Hector this confirmed us that we needed to come here to serve God as a full time music pastor. On December 31, 2008 we arrived to Glendale AZ, with great expectations and fully committed to God willing to serve our best in his ministry knowing that this was something that God wanted for us to do there. We felt that we were not alone, God was in control of our lives and he just made us feel that everything was going to be okay. In this 3 continuously years of serving God we’ve learned to totally trust and depend in Him. Always open to serve the Lord wherever he leads us knowing that when we serve him he rewards us presenting us better opportunities. Our goal in life is to most likely to succeed wherever he takes us, create a family and establish a place to make this possible.