Restoring Community, Abounding in Love
12-01-2021
Guided by the Spirit of community, Melanie Quiñones Hernandez and Jonathan García Rodriquez are serving the people of Puerto Rico.
Four years ago, Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico, leaving downed power lines, tons of debris, and homes in ruin. Those images are hard to forget, especially when you walk by them every day. But Melanie Quiñones Hernandez, MAM ’21, and Jonathan García Rodriquez, M.Div.’21, are not just walking by. They’re walking into their community to meet the needs of the people, rebuild their church, and restore faith in Jesus Christ.
“I think that the word ‘community’ is the center of our ministry,” says García Rodriquez. “We have been developing a sermon series about what the church is. We are teaching that we are the community of the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us to serve people.”
One of their first acts of service has been helping to rebuild Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, the church Quiñones Hernandez and García Rodriquez pastor in San Juan’s Rivieras De Cupey. Its walls were badly damaged by the hurricane. “Once that’s done, we can use the building to hold classes and therapy sessions for youth, conduct training for missionaries, and host community meetings as well as be a safe place for survivors of human trafficking,” García Rodriquez says.
He and his wife, Quiñones Hernandez, understand that while the reconstruction process is necessary, the church is not a building. The church is the body of Christ, and that fact encourages them to face community issues in godly ways, taking the Gospel beyond the walls of any building.
“There is the need for the physical repairing of church buildings in San Juan,” says Garcia Rodriquez, “and there’s the work of shepherding Puerto Rico’s most neglected residents through gospel teachings and missionary work. The message of our ministry focuses not only on how to operate as a community of believers, but also how to work with communities.”
García Rodriquez describes his community as having some good parts and some vulnerable parts. Those vulnerable parts are filled with some of San Juan’s poorest residents living in caserío, or public housing. “We understand that our preaching, our development, our ministry is to be with vulnerable people,” says García Rodriquez who received the S. Kim and Mae Leech Award at this year’s commencement. Inaugurated this year, the Leech Award is given to graduates who bring resources and wisdom of historical study to their commitment to urban ministry.
“We have taken from McCormick skills and theological perspectives about liberation theology, working with the community, being with the community, understanding justice and seeing how the Cross needs to intersect with the streets,” says García Rodriquez. “We are not going to be a community…we are not going to be a church if we don’t include all.”
The journey to and through McCormick
García Rodriquez and Quiñones Hernandez began working as youth leaders in their Pentecostal church while still in their 20s. It was there that they first understood God’s call on their lives to be pastors.
In 2014, they founded Aliento a Las Naciones, Missionary Agency Encouragement of the Nations, Inc., an organization that trains youth, mission leaders, pastors, and churches for evangelism. García Rodriquez continues to serve as the agency’s director and partners with La Escuela de Entrenamiento Misionero Nations College, The Nations College Missionary Training School.
Through the missions training program, García Rodriquez and Quiñones Hernandez have accompanied volunteers to Peru, Uganda, Japan, and several other countries to carry out the call to serve and minister to people about Jesus Christ.
For Quiñones Hernandez, the mission trips represent an exchange of cultures that brings people from different nations together. “During these kinds of trips, we expand our understanding that God is the God of all cultures,” she says in Spanish as García Rodriquez translates. Quiñones Hernandez was one of the first graduates from McCormick’s Master of Arts in Ministry degree program that is taught in the Spanish language.
While international missionary work expands the couple’s global perspective, attending McCormick helped to widen their theological lens. “McCormick gave us a new perspective about the Spirit and how the Spirit moves in the world and in the history of humanity,” says Quiñones Hernandez. “Now we understand that the Spirit is here leading us to work for justice for vulnerable communities.”
After earning master’s degrees from McCormick, Melanie Quiñones Hernandez and Jonathan García Rodriquez returned to Puerto Rico to help rebuild Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, the church they now pastor in San Juan’s Rivieras De Cupey.