Friends,

There is no shame in what we are about to share: Our family is transitioning into a new season of ministry and self-care. Jose suffered a medical emergency shortly after I lost my job as a parish administrator. At the same time as Jose, I had been serving the churches we had loved and devoted our family life to. We are not ashamed of asking for and seeking help. Still, we have built such an extensive network of community care around us that our attempts to get help have led to very uncomfortable situations that don't reveal hope in others' lives.

This Thanksgiving, we were blessed to have three families at our table. But as Jose waited in line at a local food pantry, there was no anonymity, and the probing questions from others in line who recognized him were not helpful to the witness of the Church. Our presence seeking help is confusing to others.

We have stepped out into our community to seek help alongside many families struggling to make ends meet, and we didn't realize that our presence was simultaneously invoking love for us while angering our neighbors against the church. Today, Jose took the children to two charity events to get them Christmas gifts, and the emotional toll of people taking selfies with him and peppering him with questions left him exhausted and sleeping at home for hours.

Let me be clear: Our last church community cared for us for six months and provided for us in ways that were clearly beyond their means as a small church. They did not abandon us. Also, Jose’s bivocational ministry – that is, working for the church while sustaining our family through outside employment – had a positive impact on our lives and the lives of others, but set us up for the significant challenges we are facing today.

When his work outside of the church ended over the past three years because of his health challenges, there have been negative consequences no one anticipated regarding the absence of a safety net most priests have in our situation.

We did have a solid plan into 2025, but sadly, a non-profit Jose supported unexpectedly broke a promise to us and left us without health insurance. We were blessed that José Parish stepped in and helped us secure coverage that became our safety net during our family's medical crisis this year. Still, alongside so many families, we are facing a 2026 of higher premiums.

The past decade has been an incredible journey, working within our community and alongside so many families. Jose grew up in Azalea Park, and I grew up in Dover Shores, and for 10 years, we’ve helped so many families in the community we were raised in. We are proud to say our children get to spend time in the community that we grew up in.

For a season now, we have discerned that we are being called out of parish ministry and into a season of rest and exploring a new adventure—starting our own business while continuing to help our community through work with nonprofits. We will continue to serve Azalea Park and Dover Shores, but will be doing so through the many friends and partners we have in that community.

Last year, I was blessed to secure a job with a nonprofit shortly before Jose's medical emergency, and I was able to transition into a position I love. Last week, Jose started a temporary job for the next three months to help us pay many of our bills that are now past due. We have slowly burned through our resources after three years of Jose healing from his first set of small strokes, but we are on a clear path to a sustainable future for our family. Like Jose, I worked many years supporting churches, but didn't realize I too hadn't set up a safety net for my family.

The Reality We've Faced

Seven months ago, Jose suffered a medical emergency. Over the past seven months, we've come to realize that, in helping so many families build wealth for themselves, we've left little margin in our own lives for our family's care. Jose loves being a priest, I love ministering through music and worship, and our ministries will not end. However, our time with Jose, as a bivocational priest, meant that when he left secular employment, we were left without a safety net. When my employment with the church ended, I had no safety net. Now, as a disabled priest, and I working outside of the church, we do not have the institutional support we anticipated. While he served in "full-time" ministry, his pay was always less than half-time. He received no benefits—including healthcare—and we lack the basic protections that our colleagues in the church have in similar situations.

Where We Stand

Still, the Lord provides. Leading up to Christmas, we worked diligently to get our household in order. A generous gift from a friend allowed us to bring our home out of six months of arrears and to work out a payment plan through 2026. We entered 2025 with a lien on our house from our homeowners' association because we were unable to make the repairs they demanded while our insurance claim for hurricane losses was being negotiated. We were already limping into 2025 when our medical emergency just made things even tighter for us.

We are blessed! When our payments resume in 2026, we are very aware that the wise financial decisions we made more than a decade ago have enabled a very low mortgage payment. For some time now, both of our cars have been paid off. We want to be transparent: our mortgage payment is very low, and overall, we are in a good place with a roof over our heads and no car payments, which will allow us to live well on less.

Seven months into our new reality, it has become evident that we are on our own. The time has come for us to re-examine what it means to continue ministering to the People of God in ways that protect our family. Through tough lessons, we have learned that we must reinvent how ministry will function in this next phase of our lives.

Why We're Sharing This

We get a lot of questions even when we haven't asked for help. Now that we are trying to figure things out, well-meaning questions have been overwhelming.

While Jose has earned a pension, and while the church does have short-term disability, his past wages do not qualify for any meaningful short-term disability benefits, and his eventual pension payment will be minimal. Since we never benefited from the church's health insurance, we have no access to the healing and support available to other clergy families.

This has been very concerning as we grapple with real medical costs our family will bear in the future. We have been trying to find ways to access church insurance, but no way has been made available to us.

While Jose was blessed with a full scholarship for his doctorate, our family continues making payments for his seminary education and the MBA he obtained 1 month before entering seminary, when he was on a different vocational path. Fortunately, after more than fifteen years of working for the Federal Government, we have significant credit toward student loan forgiveness. Our goal is to enter this next phase of ministry with our student loans satisfied within two years.

We want to be transparent; all will be well for us, and we are moving towards reorganizing what ministry means for us as we move into the next phase of our life together.

Looking Forward

We are not destitute, but our finances are stretched. We want to work towards a form of independence that will enable ministry without repeating past mistakes. Jose is disabled but able to work. He started working a temporary job last Monday, and I've opened a business to help us create a way for our family and Jose to thrive.

Our company has already yielded significant fruit through contracts, but we are about ninety days of invoicing away from cash flow that will meet our basic needs and keep our lights on. One of our clients has already sent Jose on an international trip to represent them at a conference, and while traveling is hard for him, we are blessed that it is even an option, which is helping us build a future for our family.

The local food pantries have helped us considerably, but our finances are not so low that we qualify for assistance. We are in a very uncomfortable place. Yet there is significant light at the end of the tunnel, and we are moving toward it. Without shame, we are attempting to access community programs to help families, and we feel honored to be sharing this experience alongside many families, including those we've been walking with for over a decade.

We have spent nearly a decade raising significant capital and investment to benefit others, and we always took for granted that, before these medical emergencies, we had a source of income outside the church and brought provisions into our community. There is no blame here, but there is a new vision: practice what we preach, seek help when needed, and participate in the programs we have advocated for so many to have access to. We hope to move forward in a way that yields positive, constructive answers to questions and isn't exhausting for us to explain why a priest and his family are seeking help, without evoking negative emotions in others.

To that, let us give you our answer: This family is just like any other family facing challenges. We are just as special as all families facing difficulties. Also, like all families, our situation is unique. All of us are unique, and if our stories were all the same, then there would be a universal solution to the problems we face.

We are grateful for your prayers, your understanding, and your love during this season.

In grace,

Heather Rodriguez