Setting the Table for an Embodied Faith: Cynthia Ramírez de Rodiles ’08

Not far from Leon Trotsky’s house and the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, Cynthia Ramírez de Rodiles ’08 begins her Friday
evening practice. She lights a candle. She breaks challah bread. Then she shares her family’s table with 10–20 young travelers from around the world in their weekly Shabbat dinner.

For Ramírez de Rodiles, a fifth-
generation Wheaton graduate, hospitality is a way of life. It’s the heart of everything they do at Centro Cultural Milamex, the Christian nonprofit her grandparents, Rev. Juan M. ’66 and
Elisabeth Fletcher Isáis ’46, founded in the heart of Mexico’s capital in 1964. “We’re setting the table for seekers on different parts of their journey,” Ramírez de Rodiles said, “with fresh tools and creative spaces for people to encounter Jesus.”

One outworking of this is the Warm Heart hostel ministry that originally welcomed Jewish and now travelers of any and all faiths to live and work together with Milamex ministry staff. The organization, now led by Ramírez de Rodiles’s mother, Sally Isáis ’82, also hosts holistic retreats, publishes books in Spanish, produces podcasts, and provides a range of spiritual formation resources for Latino Christians. Everything is guided by their founding principle, “the fusion of life and faith.”

Ramírez de Rodiles’s liberal arts education at Wheaton, made possible through a scholarship for international students, serves her well in this work. An interpersonal communication major, she dove into all the college offered, from gospel choir to youth hostel ministry trips to HoneyRock programs to the Unidad student group. “Wheaton helped me a lot in not having the sacred-secular divide,” Ramirez de Rodiles said.

At Wheaton, Ramírez de Rodiles also felt God gave her a dream for a week of worship where students came together to celebrate how God was at work in their different areas of study. This turned into Jubilee Week, an across-campus event that included worship services, a science fair, reading the entire Bible out loud, and a 24/7 prayer room.

Today, Ramírez de Rodiles and her husband, Carlos, continue to play a networking role within the global church. She is part of the spiritual formation leadership team for their mission organization, Mesa Global. The couple has also coached young Latino leaders going into missions through the Lausanne Movement. “The church is alive,” she said. “I really believe in intercultural teams, and the future is partnership.”

Ramírez de Rodiles recently published the Spanish-language book 40 Días Hacia una Fe Incarnada (40 Days Toward an Embodied Faith), which focuses on integral health and meeting God within our bodies.

“So many Christian ministries become bubbles,” Ramírez de Rodiles said. Living with non-Christians as part of their hostel ministry keeps her grounded, reminding her that God is already at work in the beautiful cultures represented by the hostel guests. “It helps me keep in touch with how compelling Jesus is,” she added.

Ramírez de Rodiles also recognizes that the church still struggles with information overload. The truth of the gospel, she said, stays in people’s minds “but doesn’t pass into our hearts and bodies.” For Ramírez de Rodiles, addressing this comes back to setting the table. “I don’t know any other way but to show up and eat with people and spend time together, to pause and remember that we are creatures, to be thankful and buy flowers.”