The Everyday Apostle - Ep001 - Jorge Rodriguez

Voiceover
Announcement
00:01
Welcome to the Everyday Apostle, where ordinary lives meet extraordinary faith. Join our host, Kendall Peterson, as we explore how everyday men and women bring the gospel to life wherever they live, work and play. Let's dive into it right now. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
00:29
Hello and welcome to the first episode of the everyday apostle podcast. So overjoyed to be here with you guys today. This has been a real labor of love making this happen, pulling all of this together, and so thrilled to be able to share it with you. This podcast is all about highlighting individuals who are living their faith in their daily lives, whether it's work, whether it's sports, in their families, wherever they are, and I am just thrilled to death. This has been a flavor of love and there are a lot of people that I would love to thank that have been an integral part in this. 

01:02
First of all, the community in Miami's community newspapers who has offered us this space in the studio to get started T3 Medical, or These Three Medical, who has sponsored this episode of the show. And my first guest, who so graciously said yes when asked. This is gonna be such an honor to get to spend some time with him. So let me start with that introduction. Our guest today is a is a gentleman that I got to know a couple of years ago. He is a remarkable man of faith, a remarkable family man, businessman. Let me introduce to you Jorge Rodriguez, also known as "Chiqui". Welcome cheeky to the everyday apostle podcast. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
01:55
Thank you, kendall. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
01:56
Thank you for inviting me so I am starting a tradition, since this is the very first one. Everybody who joins me on the podcast is going to get a gift, so here's your gift, Chiqui. It is what I'm wearing on my wrist. 

02:13
Oh wow, thank you so much and in our faith, we know how powerful Saint Benedict is and I know I certainly need his, his intercession for me. So with that, let me start by introducing you through your bio. Jorge Rodriguez, or as he's more commonly known, Chiqui, is the Vice President of International Programs at Blue Missions. If you want to check out Blue Missions, it is. If you want to check out Blue Missions, it is bluemissionsorg. Jorge is a double FIU grad, with a bachelor's in electrical engineering and a global executive MBA. As an executive in his former position of 30 years, he led sales teams throughout Latin America, traveling to 45 countries on over 1,000 flights through his career. I guess that means he got a lot of frequent flyer miles. 

03:08
Just a few. Jorge left his executive role in the for-profit world to join Blue Missions and help scale operations to connect more communities in Latin America with access to clean water and sanitation, and to connect more volunteers with their purpose. He leads a team of 35 members between Miami and the Dominican Republic, encouraging each individual to develop further for the good of the mission. When he's not thinking about Blue, he's running. Actually, he thinks about blue while he runs as well, and he is also serving in local faith ministries. To cheeky. Service is the key that unlocks your purpose. I love that and I think that sums you up perfectly, so let's dive right into it. 

Chiqui, where did you grow up? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
04:03
up some. My parents are Cuban and I was born here in Miami. I was raised in Little Havana my first 10 plus years and then, as my parents were able to financially be a little more successful, they moved to the wetchester area where I was raised for the next 30, 20, 20 years or so until I got married. So we live in the southwest area of Miami. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
04:28
Okay, so you guys went uptown from Hialeah to Westchester?

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
04:31
Yeah we improved a little bit, even though we love Little Havana.

Kendall Peterson
Host
04:35
What was your faith like growing up? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
04:38
So the way I like to remember it is my dad. I have a younger brother. The way I like to remember it is my dad. I have a younger brother, and my dad would take my mom, my brother and I to church on Sundays in Little Havana for probably the first 10 years of my life, and it was at that point where my dad had an encounter with the Lord. He went to a retreat that changed his life, and that's when he joined us as a full family of faith, and that was when we made the move to the Westchester area. We then participated at St Timothy's Catholic Church for the rest of our lives basically, even though I've been at St Augustine for the last five years or so, st Timothy's really became our hub as a family and that's where we, together as a family, started practicing our faith, with my dad included. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
05:31
Okay, so prior to that, prior to the conversion or that big experience for your father, was he just kind of the drop off and pick up guy, more or less? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
05:40
Yeah, you know I mean I was young, right. So for me it was just normal. Yeah, you know I mean I was young, right, so for me it was just normal. Dad would just drop off my mom and my brother and then hang out at the shopping center across from St John Bosco in Little Havana, and that was just normal for us. And then, obviously, when he went to his retreat, what changed was suddenly we were having dinners and, you know, prayers were taking place, you know. 

06:03
So when I was 11, 12, 13 years of age, there was definitely God being brought more into the household. I was seeing how my father was also getting involved with Cursillo, which is the entity that you know was his faith moment, that retreat, and I would see that he'd go back to these retreats or go back to these meetings. So as a young man I saw my dad more involved and he definitely was a person of action. My mom was a little more low key, more at home, but that typical pious female mom that would take us to Mass, but she was more at the house with us while my dad was maybe going to these meetings and participating more. He was more of an action person, okay. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
06:48
And so what did that do for your faith? As you were growing up, what was your faith like? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
06:53
Yeah, I went to Catholic high school. I went to a Marist school in Little Havana Champagnat is the name and you know we were also being taught at school about our faith and I have to say that you know I was probably a pretty good kid most of the time. There's probably a lot of things that people don't know about the dark side of Chiqui, maybe when he was a teenager. But I definitely walked that, you know, kind of walked that fine line between good and bad. You know, like all of us right, where I knew there was a conscience I had to live up to, or maybe it was my dad right and from a discipline standpoint, but then I also did my things right. I did the things that I also wanted to do that weren't right and and I could see myself going to those two sides. 

07:41
And it really wasn't until I was graduated that I graduated from high school at the age of 19, that I encountered a moment in my life of like being scared. You know, fearing the transition from high school to college was big for me, was a big shock. And my brother had started to go to these retreats called Youth Encounters and he had invited me to go numerous times and I never went. I never wanted to go. But I found myself in that moment of fear, in that moment of even to some levels, maybe a mild depression that I felt I had that maybe I should pay attention to this invitation. And that's when I went on my Youth Encounter on. I never forget the date, but it was January of 1983. And that's when I had my encounter with the Lord and that changed my life. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
08:31
So it was a profound encounter. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
08:34
Yeah, it was it. Basically, as I like to say when I explain this moment in my life, is it changed me from being a traditional Catholic to a practicing Catholic. It gave me a sense of responsibility. It was in meeting this, you know, Savior that I realized that now my job had a new, or my role in life had a new added job description to it, which was to hopefully bring others to that lord so what was? 

Kendall Peterson
Host
09:08
what was the change? What did you start doing that you weren't doing before? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
09:12
Um, this is a time in my life when I also was in the process of getting my degree, eventually getting married, meeting my future wife, which happened in the same entity that I participated in, my retreat. So I went to one encounter which was all boys, and there was another encounter that was all girls, and God gifted me with my current wife, Nancy, which we've been married for 37 years already. And it was in that connection with having my encounter with the Lord, meeting my future spouse, that both of us felt the need to continue working in the church. So it became like a magnet. It was almost like the explanation of what my dad went through, where he had his encounter and then he started to get involved in church. I had my encounter, met my wife or girlfriend at the time for three years and then we both got very involved in church and that started at the youth encounters. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
10:13
Wow, that's amazing and I think we'll hear a little bit more. But knowing the story and knowing you being with somebody on the journey is pretty critical, and what a blessing to be able to do that with your wife right. That's the strength of the marriage, the strength of the union, and the strength of the faith that comes out of that is undeniable. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
10:36
Yeah, yeah absolutely. That's amazing. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
10:40
So then you went through college and you were active in your college years and all of that, and then probably another transition point, right, just like going from high school to college. You then have to transition out of college into the real world, the big real world. What was that like for you? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
10:57
Yeah, I don't think we have enough time in this interview to go through everything, but I will tell you that what I just explained about that fear from high school to college became fear from single to married, fear from having a degree to having a job and fear from being someone that didn't have children to having his first daughter. You know, those three chapters were very dramatic for me. Obviously, blessings all of them, but still fear was a big part of it. Right, and there was those moments of the difficulty with a change, right, you know, and and and being single to being married Not that I didn't love my wife, but it was just different the fear of being in a secluded, safe place like the university to now being with an employer. 

11:46
I started traveling for the first time in my life. That was a big, difficult moment for me to leave my family, abandon them. For you know, weeks at a time, and it turns out I did it for over 30 years. For you know, weeks at a time, and it turns out, I did it for over 30 years. So you know God has been good to us. You know both in. You know the fact that you know I was gifted with these opportunities from a professional standpoint, but also gifted with the ability to deal with those difficulties right. So God became a big mainstay in the process of dealing with those changes. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
12:16
Tell me a little bit more about that. How exactly did you leverage your relationship with God in dealing with those pretty big events in your life? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
12:27
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. You know, I think that in one sense you don't want to go through difficulties right in life, you want to avoid them. They hurt, they're difficult, they scare you, they create anxiety, depression, all sorts of things. But when you look back at them and you see how you had God next to you, helping you during that process, it then helped deepen your relationship with God, and not so much as a dependency but as a real kind of understanding of his role in your life, in being with you in the good, in the bad, in the happy moments, in the not so happy moments. So it solidifies your relationship with your Lord, which I think a lot of people that maybe are struggling with their faith and maybe not understanding and maybe listening to this and saying, man, this guy met this God when he was 18, 19, and it changed his life. And it's hard to convey that to other people that maybe are, you know, having a normal life, you know, or a good life. So I have to say that there's a lot of good in the difficulty right, because it's when you're in that difficult situation that you have to, like, struggle and try to figure out how do I get out of this hole? How do I get out of this pit? 

13:53
My brother was inviting me to retreats for years I didn't go. Why? Because my life was great, and it wasn't until I feared and had difficulties that I said maybe I should turn to that God he was talking about. And in doing that I met him right, not only because he took me out of the hole or took me out of that situation, because the holes continued right in my life, but that he introduced me to that very special person in your life that we should all meet. And when we truly meet him, then we can say, wow, I've just found my best friend. And if you really believe that blindly, then that best friend stays with you for the rest of your life. Hopefully that's what we're working towards, right. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
14:32
All right. So then you move into your professional life and you're traveling all over the world and you're collecting frequent flyer miles and that's a struggle in itself, right Time away from your family, and you're having kids and all of that. Why don't you talk briefly about your kids and who you have in the Rodriguez tribe? 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
14:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have three children Nikki, who's the oldest, she's 36. Danny, who's the middle child, he's going to be turning 34 in a couple of months. And Camila, who's my youngest, and she's 26. Nicole, all three are married, but Nicole, my oldest, is the one that's been married for 10 years now and I have four beautiful granddaughters who are the biggest joy in my life right now. So I try to steal as much time from you know, blue Missions, my wife and everything to try to spend more time with them. So that's a challenge on its own Right, trying to balance that new situation. That's a challenge on its own right, trying to balance that new situation. But yeah, you know, I've got three beautiful children. I know we'll talk about it a little bit more, but my boss is my son, where I work at today. He is the founder of that organization and, along with my daughter, who was the co-founder when it first started, that's amazing, amazing story, so let's kind of get into that. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
15:58
So you're, you're, you've got a 30-year career in sales in in latin america, um, by all accounts, successful I would imagine um, and then one day you you get offered an opportunity. So talk a little bit about that. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
16:18
Yeah, well, I mean to try to explain it correctly. Our family started to do mission trips to the Dominican Republic when my children were in high school. So Nikki was 16 when I first took her on a mission trip with a nonprofit called Lifo Missions, and two years later I took my son, danny, when he was 16, on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Eventually, camila, who was the youngest, went on a mission trip when she was also in high school. So our entire family, through a certain span of years, was able to start doing this missionary work in the Dominican Republic. Little did we know that my two oldest children would fall in love with the country, with the mission, to the extent where they founded the nonprofit Blue Missions 14 years ago. Danny was 19, nicole was 21. So this Blue Mission started flowing. My wife and I, you know, would support the mission and everything we could, participating in the gala, making our regular donations, always hearing the stories from Danny more specifically, who stayed on as an employee of Blue while my daughter got married and things like that. My daughter is part of the board, but we would just be just kind of innocent bystanders. You know, big supporters of Blue Missions, and it was one day, about five years ago, that Danny had asked both my wife and I to help him interview different people for two different positions that he had open, one of which was a growth manager, someone that would come in and help out with growth for the organization, both on the trip side as well as on the fundraising side. And you know, we helped him out with these interviews and eventually got to the point where we were going to select some candidates. I gave him my opinions on who were the proper candidates. He made an offer and the candidate just said no, he wasn't interested anymore in the job. 

18:18
So Danny, one day, you know, came back and I think it was maybe a couple of days after this happened and, um, I told him. I said Danny, let's uh, let's just look for more resumes, right, let's just start again. Right, you just start this process. And he said no, dad. I said he said I think you're the right person for this job. You know, I was 55 years old at that point and I said Danny, are you crazy? I did use some choice words that we can't use on this podcast with the are you crazy? And I said you know, your mom and I are now just starting to plan our retirement. You know, now all three of you are out of the house and we're spending a lot you know, less on you guys, so we get to save a little bit. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
19:00
He said, dad, I think you're the right, the right guy, you know, and that must have been unbelievably powerful to hear that your son wanted you to join him in the organization and thought you were the right thing, but also scary at the same moment. Another scary transition ahead of you. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
19:26
Yeah, I said to myself, I wasn like got to me, was. He said, dad, you've always taught me that money wasn't the most important thing in your life, that money wasn't the most important thing in your life. So you know he's, he's a sharp kid, right, you know he knew where to get me and, and it's so true though, right, so I gave him the, the, the, the rebuttal right On. You know your mom and I are trying to save, you know, for retirement. And he hits me back with, you know money's not the most important thing. And he also knows that I love mission, right, that I love this whole thing. So I said, danny, we'll pray about it, I'll talk to your mom about it and eventually, you know, we came to the conclusion that this was okay to make this move. 

20:30
You know it has been challenging because at the end of the day, you know your finances do change when you move from a corporate world to a non-profit world and you know those plans you might have on saving and things like that, you know might, might take a different, you know, format. You know, and and we're still working on it as we speak, you know, with my wife trying to make sure everything flows well, but thank God, everything's gone well, you know, and I feel so blessed, you know, I feel so blessed to be working in an environment where we are serving others who are immediately serving us back Right, and that's like an eternal circle of, you know, service that kind of feeds you more than you feed it Right. And then you know, the dynamic of working with your son is also interesting. It's a topic on its own right, but it's really a blessing to be able to be with someone that you know, at such a young age just you know saw the light right, the light of service, and be able to practice it right in his demeanor and the way he manages the team and the way he runs the organization. So, you know, I feel very blessed, you know, to be in this situation. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
21:43
So that's a big change and it's unbelievable how you know somebody can make that change and make that decision and, yeah, he knew the right words to give. Obviously, tell me a little bit about how Jesus fit into that decision-making process and how you relied on your walk and all of your faith and everything else about that relationship that was key to making that decision. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
22:14
Yeah, I mean it was an obvious fit, not necessarily easy because of the financial strains that we kind of put on ourselves right In this society where you're always planning ahead and everything gets planned and all that kind of stuff. But in our faith journey my wife and I we've been involved with many ministries and worked with many ministries, whether it's the youth early on when we were together as boyfriend and girlfriend, eventually with marriage retreats when we were in our early stages of marriage. Fast forward 37 years and Arlene and you and Nancy and I are involved now and fully engaged at St Augustine, which is marriage prep again. So it comes back again. Even in your own life as ministry is coming and going. 

23:10
In the middle of that, I was very involved for about 20 years with a prison ministry, an ecumenical organization called Kairos, and those were probably the most amazing retreats I ever have gone to, you know, and life-changing retreats inside an institution dealing with people that have, as close as you can, zero hope for their lives and seeing those transitions. 

23:34
So going to the Dominican Republic and doing that mission work that we see on TV right where you go to another country and do something, was a bucket list item I had when I took my children, I took them as much as I wanted to take myself, because it was another thing that I wanted to live in my experience myself, because it was another thing that I wanted to live in my experience. 

23:57
So then, coming to a point where you can actually work at a nonprofit and make it your nine to five, but really, like 24-7, was an amazing opportunity as well, right, Because in corporate world, even though I loved my job in the corporate world and Jesus was in it as well this was a more obvious fit, right, when what you're doing is what you know you are actually doing what Jesus would want you to do More direct service. It's much more direct in every sense. The people you're serving, the people you're working with. The mission on its own is godly, you know, and whether you call it Catholic or don't call it Catholic, it's serving your fellow man and that's what we get to do 24-7. So you can't complain. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
24:39
It's amazing, great segue into man. I wish this could be a three-hour podcast. I really do so. I have one final question for you, just to kind of wrap all of that up. Just to kind of wrap all of that up. I heard years ago but a challenge and that was if you were on trial for being Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you? Now, I would certainly convict you just based on what I heard here, but I also know you and I think that's a great question. That's something I think about a lot. Right, is there enough evidence to convict me? There hasn't always been, and I'm sure you've had moments in your life where that on how they could be more convictable. 

Chiqui Rodriguez
Guest
25:39
Well, first of all, I hope you'd be on the jury to help with that conviction. I think the answer is I don't know. I hope so, I really hope so. But having said that, I know all the evidence because I know myself. So I know the good stuff that we've done and I know the not so good stuff that I have done and continue to do, and it's wrong. So for that I thank God, for our sacrament of reconciliation. It helps reset that. But I do want to highlight something that's a big part of my life, which is my group of formation. 

26:19
I've been together with a group of eight men for the last 20 plus years where we meet. Initially it was twice a month, now we're doing it once a month. But this is a group of men that we're all striving to be better Christians. We're all striving to keep Jesus first in our lives. That's our mantra. We're all striving to be better Christians. We're all striving to keep Jesus first in our lives. That's our mantra. We're all striving to build our house on rock. 

26:40
That is, you know, our main reflection. You know when that group got started and it's through that community that you're able to maintain. You know your walk towards Jesus, right your walk towards that proper conviction of being a good Christian. So if I'm messing up, you know as good as you know Cheeky could be on the outside and he's Blue Missions and wow how wonderful, and look at that great family he has. He also has a downside. But guess what? Every two weeks or every month I have to sit down and do an accountability study with my brothers and if I'm really honest I have to say, hey, look, I screwed up. You know what do you guys think, right? And they're the ones that pull me out. So I've been gifted that. You know that is a blessing to be with that group that started many years ago and these seven men you interview them and they are perfect examples, or better examples than I am, in being able to show others how to live a life as a Christian. 

Kendall Peterson
Host
27:42
That's amazing. We are almost out of time and I wish we had more. Thank you, Chiqui. Thank you so much for your honesty and for living a life of example. I am very, very grateful that it was you that was here for this very first one. I would love to thank Miami's Community Newspapers for this location, these three medical for their sponsorship of this episode, medical for their sponsorship of this episode and for Rachel, our producer, who has put everything into making this possible, because I certainly couldn't have done it. And, over and above all of that, I would like to thank God for this opportunity to sit and to profess our love of Him and His love of us. So with that, everybody listening, please continue your journey with Christ and have a wonderful week, amen. 

Voiceover
Announcement
28:42
Thanks for tuning in to the Everyday Apostle. Don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, on your favorite podcast outlet, and at our website at everydayapostlecom. Until next time, stay blessed.