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Over seven years ago, I came to the Central Valley to be a part of this wild adventure known as Sunrise Community Church.  As I look back, I can see the Lord’s hand in preparing me for this time and place.

I grew up in the cornfields of northwest Iowa, but from my earliest days had a strong desire to travel and to learn about many different places and peoples.  At age 16, I began to study Spanish in high school and took to it like a duck to water.  In college, I had the chance to travel to Spain and to get a degree in Spanish.

After graduating from seminary in New Jersey in 1991, I served churches in New Jersey and in Queens, New York and loved the hustle and bustle of East Coast life.  In 1996, our family moved to Wilmore, Kentucky where I did a year of post-graduate study.  In 1997, I returned to my home region in Iowa and for one year helped with a ministry to the Mexican immigrant population in that area.  It proved to be the perfect preparation for what I am doing now.

In 1998, I accepted the call to come to Tulare and the Central Valley to plant Sunrise.  I immediately fell in love with this area.  There is a mixture of everything from my past here.  Tulare is a small agricultural town with big city problems, where Spanish is spoken nearly as much as English and people of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds come together.  At Sunrise, I have the opportunity not only to share my love for different people, but also the greatest love of my life, Jesus Christ.

My wife Mindy and I are the proud parents of two boys, Jason and Bryant and we have shared 18 years of marriage together.  My hobbies include travel, reading, hot peppers, gourmet coffee, training leaders, and racquetball (I will take on all comers!)  If you ever get a chance to stop in my office, I’d love to meet you.

Russ Siders

Martin Mora

Worship Arts Minister

martinmora@sunrisecommunity.org

I was born and raised in Costa Rica and I remember when I was about 16 years old, I told my parents that I was going to dedicate myself to music. From the time I was 13 until that moment, my hobby had been to play music with a praise group that my father started and with other Christian groups. But when my parents realized that I was talking about dedicating myself to music professionally, they almost had a heart attack!  In those days, dedicating oneself to music and especially to Christian music, meant to die of hunger. They suggested I study something else, they counseled me, they told me that if, one day I got married, it would be very difficult to provide for my family with music. It turned out, they were normal parents after all.

I don't have the least doubt that God is the one that gives skills and abilities to be used in his kingdom and he had given me music! He had chosen me to be one of his musicians!

While I was studying at the University of Costa Rica Conservatory, I had the opportunity to play with some very talented musicians, both Christian and secular, travel through Latin America and the US and accumulate a lot of experience in different areas of music: musical production, arrangement, recording, etc. Everything necessary for survival!

I arrived in California intending to continue to produce Christian music in Spanish, but after a few years, I discovered that God had set a trap for me! He brought me here to show me a new facet of my spiritual life, which I wouldn't change for anything in the world!

Being far from my country of origin, my family, my contacts, my whole world, I had no other choice but to go to that heavenly place which Jackie Velazquez speaks of when she says to "rest in Him and know him in a very special way..."

I came to Sunrise in October of 2000 after praying for some months, asking God, with a wealth of details, for a job change in "his company", I felt diluted because I was working for 2 churches, one in English and the other in Spanish, as well as for the band called Viña, with recording sessions, etc.

I remember that in speaking with Him, I told Him that it would be great to be able to concentrate myself in one place where I could use all of my knowledge.
 
    Sunrise was the answer: A bilingual church where we sing from hymns to the most contemporary music you can hear on the radio.

Besides the great joy it gives me to train church members of all ages to serve in the field of the arts and music, I love to spend time with my wife, Floryzul and my children: Matias, Camila, and Emma. I love to play ping-pong; racquetball and I love to go bicycling.  I also enjoy a good coffee.

Long distance hugs from Tulare, CA