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Pastor Joel Rodrigues, with wife Aurora Calix and their son Alessio.

 Contributed photo

WHITE SALMON — The congregation of White Salmon United Methodist Church welcomes a new pastor, Joel Rodrigues and his wife Aurora Calix. They have a five-year old son named Alessio.

Pastor Joel is from Costa Rica and is a graduate of the Latin American Biblical Seminary, the most renowned institution for socio-religious and theological-biblical studies in Latin America. He has been working with the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church since 2016. Before coming to White Salmon, he was pastoring at Sunnyside, Washington United Methodist Church. After, the family spent time in Honduras during a transition period, working with multi-ethnic ministries of the United Methodist Church. Now he is ready to serve the church and community in White Salmon as a pastor.