Meet Dr. Nathan Cartagena, new Scholar-In-Residence

We are excited to share the story of Dr. Nathan Luis Cartagena, one of our former scholars-in-residence. Dr. Cartagena shares his testimony of faith, the migration journey of his family, and how he hopes to contribute to the World Outspoken community.

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More On Dr. Cartagena

A son of the US South (Mom/Madre) and Puerto Rico (Dad/Padre), I was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Somerset, New Jersey. Both sides of my family have been committed Christians for generations. And both sides encouraged me to pursue my teaching gifts to edify the Church catholic. After finishing my PhD in philosophy at Baylor University, I became an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College (IL), where I teach courses on race, justice, and political philosophy, and am a fellow in The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies. I serve as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group working to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latina/o cultures, and a co-host for the forthcoming podcast From the Underside. I am currently writing a book on Critical Race Theory with IVP Academic, and am excited to join World Outspoken as a scholar-in-residence committed to loving God and neighbor through my work for and from the Church. I look forward to contributing neighbor-loving resources through WOS.

Meet Dra. Itzel Reyes, new Scholar-In-Residence

We are excited to share the story of Dra. Itzel Reyes, one of our new scholars-in-residence. Dra. Reyes shares her testimony of faith, how language shapes the experiences of the marginalized, and how she hopes to contribute to the World Outspoken community.

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More On Dra. Reyes

As an academic from el barrio, I strive to engage in scholarly work that honors and gives visibility to my community. My identity as a U.S. Latina woman of faith and as a daughter of immigrants who was a first-generation college student and a teenage mother is an integral component of my academic formation. My faith drives my passion for justice as I seek to reveal the ways in which certain language ideologies are constructed to operate unjustly against our communities. My work acknowledges language as a powerful tool and promotes linguistic diversity in its different manifestations. Bicultural and bilingual identities are at the center of my work. I am a Spanish professor by vocation and truly enjoy teaching my family’s language as a second language, to students who might not have a strong background in Spanish, and as a heritage language, to Latina/o students who are relearning or enhancing their skills in their heritage tongue. These passions, understood from an academic and experiential perspective, will drive my contributions at World Outspoken.

Abuelita Theology with Hna. Matilde Serrano

Bienvenidos to The Feature, a podcast where we highlight individuals who are doing great work in the culture, bearing witness to the Kingdom, bringing about justice, or addressing a cultural change. In honor of Women’s History Month, we partnered with scholars Sito and Ina Esquilin to bring you the stories of two Latina ministry pioneers of the Hispanic church in the US. As second and third generation Latin@ church leaders, we need reminding of the rich heritage of faith and theology that was given to us by our abuelitas. To honor the legacy of these women, the following interviews are en Español. We hope that these stories will remind you to treasure the history of the brown church in the US.

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English Translation

Introduction

Greetings, dear family! My name is Ina Esquilin. In this opportunity, I will be with my sister in the faith, Matilde Serrano. Who has become, lovingly, a grandmother figure to many in the fellowship of Assembly of God in Manhattan, of which I’m, currently, also a part. Our sister Matilde is an example worth following because, in spite of the adversities, she remains faithful to the Lord. In the 70s, after the death of her husband David Serrano, she moved to the big city, where she started a new phase of her life, as a single mother. Here, is where she helped her children grow, get an education, and become professionals. After her oldest son invited her to church, she gave her life to the Lord and that’s where the importance of this interview lies. From that moment on, the Lord has blessed her mightily. Four of her children became pastors of Assembly of God churches, while her other children help, not just the community in general, but mainly help the faith community by providing social services. Currently, our sister Serrano is a tremendous blessing because she shares her knowledge with humility and joy wherever she goes.

In times, such as the ones we are living in, with social distancing being our everyday norm now, it is refreshing to find a person who is always so willing to open her arms and, with everything she has in her heart, warmly embrace anyone she can reach.

Our sister, as a single mother, a Latina mother, a Christian mother, can show us it is possible to make a difference in this world, truly, passionately, and with longevity by believing in Christ.

Interview

I was born on September 5th, 1926, in the quaint small town known as Toa Alta in Puerto Rico.

We were a family of 7 siblings, 4 men and 3 women, of which only I remain alive; all my siblings went to be with the Lord.

I’m second to last among my siblings.

I grew up in a Christian environment but Catholic because my parents were Catholic.

I used to go to church, but I wasn’t really familiar with the Bible. In the Catholic church they didn’t teach much about the Word, but I always went to that church.

I realized that families went to church a lot; the fathers, the mothers, and all the children, they all went to church together. There was a lot of unity too, the neighbors always were willing to help, if one of them had something they would always share it with their neighbors. If anyone was sick, people would go to their house to help that person, if the lady of the house was sick, neighbors would go to her house and do the laundry, make the food, and clean her house for her. The environment was very nice, it was a community of unity and love.

My husband was a baseball player, he used to play with the double A class (AA). He was also a painter, carpenter, electrician, everything! He did it all! But one time he broke a foot and he couldn’t run anymore, because of this he couldn’t play baseball anymore. So then he focused on work, working as an electrician with my brother. He always said to me that maybe, some time, in the future, we were going to live, perhaps, in a better place; that God was going to give us a better life.

But for that moment, God was giving me everything I needed to live a quiet and content life. Living with my husband and my children, we were happy. He was a very good man, a very responsible father, and husband; he was good.

God gifted me 10 children.

All of my children were born there (in Puerto Rico). So once my husband died, my older children moved to the States to be able to help me. In 1970, they asked for me to be brought here with the rest of my children.

4 of my children are pastors. My son Luis was a pastor and chaplain for the New York police department — he went to be with the Lord. My son José, my son David and my son Ricardo are also pastors.

My son José is the pastor of the Jehova Jireh church, and my son David is the pastor of Tesalónica church, and my son Ricardo is the pastor of Tabernáculo de Gracia church. (13) I also have a granddaughter who is the pastor of a church in Florida.

When I and the rest of my children moved here, my son Luis already lived here and was married to his wife, Abigail. They both went to Macedonia church, and they brought all my other children and me, to that church. That’s where I found the Lord. At that time the pastors of that church were Reinaldo and Blanca Romero. They helped me so much in studying the Bible. They helped me so, so much! So that I would have a better life, because I was still a little sad since I was missing my husband so much. These pastors helped me understand that God was with me, that He was going to help me. They told me to be faithful to the Lord and that He was going to provide anything I could ever need, and that has been true in my life.

All of my children serve the Lord.

I believe they have seen me being faithful to God, as a testimony, how I’ve always been faithful to Him. I’ve taught them that the best way to live is being close to God, because He can help us! The same way he helped me when I became a widower, and He provided for me, and I never lacked anything. I always tell them that God is going to help them. They started going to church too, and little by little, they gave their lives to the Lord as well. Now they are all faithful to the Lord and serve him, all of them do.

I went to study in the Juan 3:16 Institute when sister Carmelia was the principal there.

My children were teachers in the institute too. My sons Luis and Ricardo were teachers at the institute. My son Jaime and my daughter Sonia also studied at the institute, and I also got to teach a class there. When I finished my 4th year, sister Carmelia allowed me to teach the Pauline epistles class. That’s what I was teaching for more than a year, after that I didn’t continue because I was taking care of my grandchildren, by then and I was also working here, in New York.

I worked for 10 years at a school; I was working as a teacher’s assistant.

Sister Carmelia always used to tell me: you have a gift, the gift of teaching! She always used to tell me that.

Well, what I always them is that they need to be faithful to the Lord. That’s my main advice to them, to always be faithful to God, to never stop being honorable and responsible. I tell them, “If God has given you a ministry, be responsible in that ministry God has given you!” And they truly are responsible. “Always go to church, teach your children in the ways of the Lord. Just like God has helped me, He is going to help each and every one of you too.” I tell all of them the same things, even the pastors. Because my son Luis and his wife, my son Ricardo and his wife, all of them are Christians, and all their families too. They all go to church with their children. Seeing them all, like a momma hen with their little chicks, that makes me so happy!

I am happy, but most of all thankful to the Lord. That’s the first thing for me. I thank God for everything He’s done with my family. Every day I tell Him: “Lord, my words are not enough to thank you for so many blessings you have given me and my family!” And my prayer is always, “Lord, cover each one of my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren with your protection!” I pray for each one of them every day. I keep on placing them in God’s hands. That is the happiness that has allowed me to live for so many years because my children make me happy. They buy for me everything I may need; they visit me, they are very good to me. I believe that is what has kept me alive all these years, their love for me.

I would like to see a change in this world. I would like to see people being better people, and more love and unity in this world. A lot of times I feel a little sad because I don’t know why people’s love has grown colder, like the Bible says it would. One of my goals is to reflect love in the lives of the people I know. Even in those that I don’t know, I just want to see that— more love in this world, more unity.

I’m constantly praying, not just for my family, I pray for the whole world. I always tell God, “Lord, rebuke this pandemic, rebuke it in the whole world!” I know that there has been a lot of sadness and so much death. That’s why I’ve been asking God, I always pray, at all times of the day, and that’s what I ask God now, for this pandemic to disappear.

I would tell them to draw closer to God, to walk away from those things that can harm them. There’s a saying that goes “whoever leans on a good tree would be covered by a good shade” That’s the saying that my dad taught me when I was little. What I’m saying is that you should look for people that will help you, instead of people who will harm you. One should always follow the path of goodness and not the bad path. If we take the wrong path we will stray. If we follow the right path, we’ll see that God will help us, that God is there! God is always waiting for us to talk to Him, to ask Him for anything. Because He always gives us everything we want as long as it’s something beneficial for us.

I always say that we should draw near God and seek him more, walking away from things that can damage us.

Always look for places that won’t harm us and people who will help us. Anyone who is feeling depressed or sad, look for someone who can help you. A pastor, or a mentor, an older person, a relative, someone who can help, but seek that help. Nowadays, people who don’t see help end up doing whatever they think is best, but it’s always better to find help.

The first thing I do if I have a problem, whatever it might be, is to seek God. That’s the first thing I do, ask “Lord, tell me what I should do, how should I do it, and when should I do it. Help me, Lord! Because I can’t do it on my own.” You know, every time I’ve had a problem, like you said, or when I’ve felt sad, or whatever, I run to God, and I see that the answer is there. There, at that moment, when I seek God, it is like a little green light turns on in my mind and shinning light on me and telling me what I have to do. That always happens to me.

I tell my children the same, sometimes they come to me, and they tell me, “Mom, look, this thing happened, what do you think I should do?” I answer, “Well, first we must seek God!” and I start thinking, and I say, “Wait! Do this thing!” Like in that moment, God tells me what I have to tell them they should do. God puts the answer in my mind, I’ve come to notice that, so God tells me, and I tell them what they should do. That is why I feel so thankful to God.

For example, I have lost tings, like my glasses, or money or something, and I can’t find it, and I go, “Oh my God! I lost this thing!” “Lord, I don’t know where it is, but You do! Please, Holy Father, tell me where the thing is, guide me!” and I start thinking for a while, and all of a sudden, it comes to my mind! Like God telling me, “look in this place,” and I go there and there it is, what I’ve been looking for! “Thank you, Lord, Thank you! Thank you!” that’s all I can say to Him.

I’m trusting, oh Lord, in You. I remember when my son was sick, I kept saying, “I’m trusting in You, Lord!” because we have to trust in Him.

That one (hymn) that says, “You are faithful, Lord, so faithful to me”? That one, right?

“Even though I’m weak, I am trusting, oh Lord, in you!” My whole life I’ve trusted God.

I want to tell you something before you go, you know which one is my favorite Bible verse? It’s Psalm 37:25 “I have been young and now I’m old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.”

About Ina B. Esquilín & R. L. Ortiz, Jr. (Sito)

Interview host Ina B. Esquilín is a Master’s Degree candidate at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and a credentialed minister with the Spanish Eastern District of the Assemblies of God. Esquilín’s interests are missiology, music, teaching and health and wellness within the Latinx Pentecostal Church.

Researcher R. L. Ortiz, Jr. (Sito) is a PhD candidate at Regent University, an adjunct professor at New York Theological Seminary & an ordained minister with the Spanish Eastern District of the Assemblies of God. Ortiz’ research interests are the genesis and development of 20th century Latinx Pentecostalism on the east coast of the United States and contemporary renewal movements within New York City.

A Mija’s Rules

Imagine staring at a screen of faces caught by stillness, a collage of silent observers. While this sounds like the description of a Zoom call subjected to bad Wi-Fi, it is instead a regular rhythm recognized by “Mija Moments,”, an intentionally all-Latina group headed by Pat VerDuin, director of Mija: Leadership and Coaching. In these moments, each participant of the call is honoring the rules of the virtual space. In “Mija Moments” the rules are few, but the big rule is to temper the urge to give advice and instead to learn to hold space for your fellow sisters.  

“Mija Moments” is just one of the services offered by VerDuin’s organization. In addition to these weekly meetings, VerDuin also offers mentoring and coaching specifically to women and girls of color. Why does she set her efforts on only this particular group of people? That answer can be found in VerDuin’s own background and story.

The Rules We Live By 

“It seems that we are all made up of stories, the ones that we are told throughout our lives and the ones that we tell ourselves.” ”

Patricia Marie VerDuin (Sosa) was born on March 11, 1957 the only child born to Petra Olivia Carranza and Juan A. Sosa. Petra and Juan were Mexican migrants who settled in Ottawa County, Michigan. Like many children of immigrants, Verduin learned to live her life in accordance to certain rules. They were the rules that she was convinced would help her fit in the world around her. She was imparted three rules through the experiential wisdom of her parents:  

1. Get an education, so that doors will open.

2. Get an education in the law, so that no one will take advantage of you.

3. Don’t let anyone know that you are Mexican otherwise doors will close. 

These rules show the ways that her and her parents expected to be welcomed into the space in which they now found themselves. To belong, she would have to prove herself and, in some ways, hide parts of herself, namely her Mexican background.  

But not all rules are explicit. Growing up in a largely Catholic household in Holland, Michigan, faith was a big part of VerDuin’s life. Faith seemed to come naturally to her, but communities of faith are not always reciprocal. VerDuin recalls that it was precisely in her faith community when she was awakened to her own sense of racialize identity and how those parts of her identity rendered her an outsider: “Some of the nun’s targeted me and punished me for being of a different color. It was in second grade that I was first painfully made aware that I wasn’t like other kids.” 

These moments of awareness had subconscious effects on VerDuin. Sometimes it is the implicit rules we construct to adapt to our environments that eventually dictate how we navigate our given spaces. As VerDuin remembers, another one of these more insidious rules had to do with the sun and her complexion. Growing up her mother had discouraged her from being in the sun too long, “at the time I didn’t quite understand it, and frankly it has been a journey to understand it still, but I lived by that rule.” Many can relate to this sentiment of holding seemingly harmless rules. Like VerDuin, many women of color have learned to rely on our subconscious to construct these rules not just to help us adapt but to simply belong. 

When The Rules No Longer Fit

VerDuin eventually found herself working in juvenile court, which introduced her to the world of public service. “What I didn’t know then” she says, “was that this was just the beginning of what would be a life-long commitment as a public servant.” She worked in court administration for 35 years. In addition to this, VerDuin was also getting more involved in her church, Grand Haven Presbyterian, and was ready to take on more leadership roles. What she didn’t see, however, was anyone who looked like her in a leadership role in her church. Nevertheless, VerDuin dared to pursue a seminary education—but God’s calling of us doesn’t always look like the straight line we expect or want. Verduin explains that her seminary pursuit came at a moment of convergence: “It was like the two, gender and race, were converging, it was like I was searching” Her search eventually led her into the work of a non-profit, the work of which she did in tandem with her seminary studies. She began consulting in a community foundation, her main project was to lead a community economic development initiative.

After a few semesters of seminary and a project that was gaining momentum, VerDuin left seminary to dedicate her time fully to the non-profit. Her initiative implemented a simple but by no means easy idea. VerDuin found that many children were failing out of kindergarten and this would have spiraling effects into their life, even to the point of delinquency. So preventative measures were needed, thus began a youth mentoring program dreamed up by VerDuin. Before kindergarten children would be tutored and prepped to help them feel ready for the crucial year before primary school. She created an avenue to set these young students for success. “It met this need of my faith, a need to serve,” Verduin explained, “and it also met my need to feel a connection to people who look like me.” It was precisely this work that would animate her present calling of coaching and mentoring. 

As time went on, VerDuin eventually outlived her parent’s rules. She found herself in spaces where her background was an asset and her bilingual tongue was a way to further connect with those she was working with. In her role she noticed something; she found a majority of the students who needed help and educational intervention were latino/a. Being Mexican was an asset.  

“Still”, she laments, “being a woman, a Latina had its difficulties”. She found very few people who looked or thought like her in leadership in these same spaces. She also found herself exhausted due to the amount of effort she put into changing her demeanor from one group to another (her partners, her staff, and the kids she worked with). She found that questions of her race and her gender in relation to her leadership began to arise more frequently, and it struck her, “I need more women of color in my life!” As she began her search, she found this was a real need, particularly for women of color. If she was going to re-write rules, her own and the rules of leadership, then she would need to look at the intersection of her own identity.

Re-writing Rules 

“These rules served me well until they didn’t.””

From this idea, Mija was born. Mija, which evokes the name given amongst Spanish speakers to express endearment and kinship, was at first called Mobius Coaching. VerDuin wanted to engage the particular context of women of color, more specifically Latina women and so the name was changed to Mija. Her organization works to re-write the rules, reframe the common narrative, and to empower women of color into leadership.  

Mija Moments is a form of peer mentoring a “space where women come together to co-create what matters to them in the moment.” These spaces offer women a level of safety they might not otherwise find in their immediate places. A space where they are free to pose questions, long for answers, and meet understanding silence. These are the spaces where women can begin the work of re-writing new rules, explicit and implicit.  

VerDuin found that when women are surrounded by other women who share a same sense of kinship, color, language, and/or gender, that something special happens. These women begin to grow into their calling and into their own embodied selves, and that is a powerful thing. It is what happened to VerDuin, and it is what she hopes to replicate in the space women encounter in Mija Moments. 

In our interview, VerDuin shared what it felt like to participate in those moments of Zoom silence: “We just share each other’s souls. We sit with on another for a very long time, just looking at each other, digitally, in silence. We don’t respond to make each other feel better, we just hold each other’s silence and witness each other’s souls.”  

Having the opportunity to hear Pat Verduin share her soul inspires me, a woman of color, to reconsider the rules I might live by and to consider perhaps finding my own Ates (big sister in Tagalog) who can help me re-write those rules that might no longer be helpful. This provides all the more proof that the work that VerDuin dedicates her life to now is important work. Women of Color need these spaces, the silent and shared spaces, where we are allowed to grow into the women who are un-encumbered by unhelpful rules.  

To learn more about “Mija Moments” or Pat VerDuin’s organization visit: https://www.patverduin.com

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About Jelyn Leyva

A Second-generation Filipina born in Tampa, FL, Jelyn Leyva graduated Moody Bible Institute in Chicago on May 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Women in Ministry and an Interdisciplinary in Theology. She is currently in Los Angeles, CA pursuing an MDiv at Fuller Theological Seminary with her emphasis in Christian Ethics. Having lived in various places in the US, Jelyn’s interest lie in the complex history and multi-ethnic life of the Protestant Church in the US. Her hope is to serve this church and its many colors with the consideration of traditional and contemporary theological scholarship.