MIDLAND It wasn’t easy for Emiliano “Milo” Rodriguez to get where he is now, the graduate of a rigorous two-year ministerial training program who is about to join a big church in Mexico City as its assistant minister and youth leader, but he says the process amounted to his thorough preparation for the future.
The 26-year-old El Paso native attended Northwest Vista College for a year in San Antonio, welded for a fabrication company and worked as a waiter for three years till undergoing a spiritual transformation and setting out on his true career path.
He recently graduated from Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock and he will work at Iglesia de Christo Metropolitana in Mexico City.
“Being a waiter taught me how to be a servant and care for others,” Rodriguez said. “But I encountered many unworthy things during that time. I was in a dark pit.”
Serving as intern here at Downtown Church of Christ till his wife Rut gets her green card and can travel freely between the United States and Mexico, Rodriguez said he confessed to a minister and was told to “go lock yourself in a closet and tell God what you just told me.
“I talked to God for an hour and a half,” he said. “Once I got started I couldn’t stop. I feel a lot of passion about proclaiming the Gospel. I love to preach the message because it is 100 percent real and true. It’s not just any story. It is the most important story in the history of mankind.
“I want to deliver God’s word in such a way that people want to hear and know more.”
Rodriguez and his wife are alumni of Sunset International Bible Institute’s Adventures in Missions program. They have a year-old son, Boaz.
Rodriguez’ favorite scripture is John 3:30, which quotes John the Baptist as saying about Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Downtown Church of Christ Minister Greg Fleming said Rodriguez had been preaching on alternate Sundays and “has been a great asset to us.
“I first met Milo when he was with AIM in Mexico City,” Fleming said. “He was part of a five-member team that was very effective and he was a key part of that effectiveness. “He loves people and wants to share the love of God with them. He has a great interest in learning more and more about the scriptures.”
Fleming said Rodriguez’ chief interests are in discipleship and evangelism and that Rut, a native of Mexico, is well-grounded in the scriptures.
“Milo’s life enhances the work he does,” the minister said, adding that Rodriguez and he had been preaching from the Book of James in mid-September. “I’m very excited about the future for Rut and him. She is equally effective in the work they will be doing.”
