Season 1, Episode 26: "Streams in the Desert" A Conversation with Puerto Rican Pastor Melyssa Cordero

Melyssa Colon Cordero - is a Florida based Pastor, preacher, wife, mother, worship leader and racial justice fighter. She works with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the Latino Fellowship Ministry.

We experienced heavy internet traffic due to COVID trying to record, causing delays in getting started.

Melyssa talks about “COVID life” which started for her four weeks ago when her kids went on Spring Break and did not return. “Everythign has been destabilized.” It is adjusting to a new normal. She and her husband are both working from home, her kids are doing online learning. Melyssa jokes that she is teacher, guidance counselor, cafeteria lady, custodial services, tech support, maintenance…Doing it all! And not getting paid for it. “It has been really challenging, but I’ve found really restful moments of God’s grace and favor.” It’s been pretty overwhelming with all the emotions at once.

Maggie asks what self-care looks like for her: Melyssa wakes up 2 hours before her kids in order to center herself over a cup of cafe con leche with Jesus. It is a space for quiet before the chaos of three boys. She has lived in her house for the past ten years but is just now finding her porch to be a gift from God in this season. Plus the weather has been amazing! She barely remembers life before Corona. The porch is restorative. "There’s something about being out doors that breathes life into you.”

She gets her kids outside by going on walks around the neighborhood, taking in her neighbors with new eyes, appreciating things with new eyes things always existed but that she didn’t see because she was so busy and distracted with life. There are thing she is doing now that she wants to continue when COVID is over.

Danielle feels her tears are close, that there is such grief held in not being able to leave your home but also having a renewed appreciate for things you have. It’s a huge privilege what we have.

Melyssa’s kids have been playing outside more, even though they are like every kid in America that wants to stay inside and play video games and watch you tube… She said they are choosing to go outside now. This is something new and she loves it! There is something new being birthed amidst the death that is around us. Not just deaths as in loss of lives, but also loss of the ability to hug someone, loss of jobs, loss of the ability to celebrate birthdays the way we would…

Melyssa was recently hired with InterVarsity to work with the Latino Fellowship, an ethnic specific ministry. Right before the shelter in place order she was in Puerto Rico [Mar 4-7] leading a time of worship and fellowship. Her primary focus is to raise support and she doesn’t even know how to do that during a recession. She finds herself readjusting her expectations of what raising support looks like in this season. It looks more like CARE right now, it’s not just about asking for money.

As a Latina is she is highly relational and finds that any support or fundraising starts with building relationships —- she already naturally wants to connect and care about people.

This past week she is gone back and had to ask her boss to decrease her hours because she really feels called to be present with her family in this season. He recognize that she doesn’t have the capacity to do it all. She believes that God is doing something in her family and she needs to be pay attention; Something that is going to have long term implications. Her boss’ priority is what’s best for her and her family, not just what’s best for the company. And Melyssa recognizes this isn’t forever, it’s just a season.

“God is doing something and I want to have the ability to see what He is doing!”

Danielle breaks it down:

1. She is still listening. She’s paying attention in this season
2. She’s heard something; She has noticed something in her family.
3. She’s in it for the long haul: investment in her family. 

It is lovely, beautiful work, inspiring, encouraging and challenging. Not only are we all pivoting to working at home, there are other things we need to pay attention to at home.

Presence and capacity. Recognizing what you can and can’t do. It takes the ability to be aware of your own capacity.

Melyssa talks about not having a very good track record with motherhood in ministry. She’s been in full time ministry for almost 20 years and her children always felt like a barrier to her leadership, to her call. She admits that she has made some decision that have been harmful to her family and the God is in the process of now healing those places of hurt. She feels a transition from just healing to actually flourishing and strengthening their bond as a family unit. Prioritizing her family has not been her history so this is a big shift for her—her family is a part of her call not a stumbling block. She is paying attention, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and responding to it. God has done a work in her!

Danielle asks how she envisions her ministries impact on her family in the face of COVID… Melyssa was born in Puerto Rico but moved to Florida when she was five. Her mom remarried and her step-dad is African American. She grew up with African American community, and it feels very close to her, she feels very protective of her family.

She says COVID has exposed racial injustice that is not anything new. People who don’t have access to health care, food deserts, low income…the data shows the disproportionate impact on people of color. Every single institution in America has got to change. This is not just now happening, it’s been in the making for a long time

What more can she do in her current situation? She can pray and she can be a true teller with her kids. For now, honesty about this situation is important to God and to her family and friends. She lives in a predominantly black and brown neighborhood. She wants to be aware of her neighbors and what their needs are.

It's not just old people, this thing is coming for everybody.

It’s important to remember that this [COVID] is not just a medical problem. It’s a racial problem and an economic problem.

Danielle reapplied for insurance and they were no longer accepting her husband’s US Passport and instead wanted his original naturalized citizenship certificate… Danielle said no way! She called her state representative and this has been a problem for other immigrant families. So her husband is still uninsured and when COVID hit she looked at him and said, “Dude, you better stay healthy!” They really need the insurance but she is protesting that all of a sudden his passport is no longer good enough for the insurance and she is unwilling to give their original documents over.

Everything is compounded when you have a crisis like this.

It feels like you can’t really trust the news. There’s a hopeful mindset, you want to believe that the money Trump is sending is actually coming. Danielle heard a report that China maybe started in November, a warning was sent out in January. Then you ask yourself, what is the real story? The numbers don’t add up for the virus starting late.

Melyssa asks, Who can you trust? Are we just all on our own now

As she reflected on Palm Sunday, where people cheered “Hosanna please save us!” as Jesus rode into the Jerusalem, Melyssa feels that now; “Please save us!” It feels like there is no one we can look to that has our best interest in mind.

Melyssa has been asked by her church to share the Easter Homily [online of course], how do we make sense of resurrection power in the midst of all of this? She felt the Lord give her Isaiah 43:18-19 where God says we need to forget the former things. That God is bringing up something new, can we perceive it? God is making a way in the wilderness, streams in the wasteland. All around us feels like the valley of the shadow of death, but this idea that God is making a way in the wilderness, of making streams in the wasteland, that feels like resurrection power. Jesus making dead things coming to live, birthing new things.

What is happening with her kids and her family feels like a stream in the wasteland — God is choosing to bring a peace and unity and strengthening their bonds in this particular season! As Melyssa hears other people creatively hustling when they’ve lost their jobs, or even finding a new job so they thriving in this season, to hear that feels like streams in the wasteland. It feels like “death where is your sting?” That is the power of the resurrection. Right now our world has been turned upside down.

“We are never going to be what we were. Returning back to the normal, I just don’t even know that that’s even possible.” Things have changed and there has been a lot of loss leaving long term emotional impacts. And yet, there are things that God is doing! He is bringing life and liberation, healing and deliverance. . . We have to hold those two things in tension. Death and resurrection. Lament and mourning along with joy and celebration.

 

Connect with and support Melyssa and her work:

Twitter @melyc03

Instagram @melcordero03

InterVarsity Latino Fellowship: http://lafe.intervarsity.org/about

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: Underground Network preaching Melyssa Cordero

 

Melyssa is reading: The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone

Melyssa is listening to: 90s R&B

Melyssa is inspired by: her kids!

Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.