S3E3 - Loving DJ

The Mestizo Podcast

On this episode, we sit down with Dra. Liz Rios and Rev. Hiram Rios to discuss the dynamics of raising their special needs child, DJ. We discuss parenting and ministry, the role of humor and joy in a culture of erasure, and a theology of disability.

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About the Rios Family

Liz Rios has been in ministry for over 32 years serving in various capacities in almost every area of the church including Executive Pastor and Co-Lead Pastor alongside her husband Rev. Hiram Rios. Hiram and Liz officially started in ministry in 1990. They pastored together in a local Florida church and eventually went on to plant their own until they stopped pastoring in 2016. Since then, Rev. Hiram has semi-retired to focus on his family, especially as primary caregiver to his special needs son and as a community minister via the Passion Center, where he hosts a monthly comedy show to bring laughter and joy to their South Florida community. Dr. Liz works as a Talent Acquisition Manager for Urban Strategies and as an adjunct professor and also serves as a Consulting Editor for Outreach Magazine, on the board of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. In addition, she is a senior consultant for Freedom Road, LLC which coaches, consults, trains and designs experiences to help groups in multiple sectors do justice in just ways. Dr. Rios also serves on the Send Institute's Missiologists Council. Her work and experiences led her to start her own network Passion2Plant to encourage and support Black/Brown church planters committed to planting justice-oriented churches in urban communities right from the start. Hiram and Liz have two children, Samuel Eliu who recently graduated from Southeastern University and works part-time at Passion2Plant as Operations Assistant and Daniel Jeremiah (DJ) their "silent prophet" and special angel who has a number of ailments including epilepsy, cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus due to medical negligence. They met in church as teens and have been together for 34 years, 32 of them happily married.