Presbyterian Mission Agency

A letter from Dennis and Maribel Smith in Argentina

May 2011

Buenos Aires is not Guatemala City. This town has about it something of the brusk arrogance of New York City. Also, local folks speak very quickly, with a strong accent and lots of idioms; it can take a bit of getting used to! Here, Maribel tells a story of what it’s been like adjusting to life here:

One day I went to an office that receives payments for everything from your utilities to property taxes. I needed to pay our phone bill. Dennis was away, and we certainly didn’t want to risk being without our phones.

When I got to the payment window, I said, “Good morning!” No response. The teller made a sharp gesture indicating where I should place the bills I wanted to pay. She rattled off the amount due without looking at me. I told her to wait just a second and I’d give her exact change. “Don't bother,” she barked and shoved my change across the counter.

A letter from Dennis A. Smith in Argentina

January 15, 2011

In February we begin a new phase in our ministry as Maribel, Lucas, Benji and I move to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

My appointment to Cedepca came to an end in 2010. The PC(USA) then appointed me as Regional Liaison for the Southern Cone and Brazil. (Geography Alert! In Latin America, “Southern Cone” means Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. See the map and you’ll understand why. . .)

A letter from Dennis A. Smith in Argentina (transitioning from Guatemala to Argentina)

October 2010

A sliver of moon hangs over the vast Argentine plains and melds with the lingering colors of a spring sunset. If this were Iowa, the endless fields would be corn instead of soybeans. If this were Minnesota, the farm families would be Norwegian Lutherans. Here they are German and Dutch Reformed or Italian and Spanish Catholics.

The Rev. JoBeth McLeod, Tres Rios Presbytery, and Dennis Smith, soon-to-be PC(USA) Regional Liaison, bring greetings to IERP Assembly.

If you take a second look, the place names will remind you of first nations — indigenous peoples whose memory lingers as the bus rides through Gualeguaychú and Paraná. The survivors of these first nations have been pushed to the margins of Argentine society, again not unlike the United States.

I am here to represent the PC(USA) at the merger of the Evangelical Church of the River Plate (IERP) and the Reformed Churches in Argentina (IRA). I will join the Rev. Dr. JoBeth Tice McLeod, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Alpine, Texas. Tres Ríos Presbytery is hoping to develop a mission partnership with the new denomination.

Uruguay

Mission worker:
Dennis Smith, regional liaison for Brazil and the Southern Cone

Background

The partner church in Uruguay for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the same as one of our partner churches in Argentina, the Waldensian Evangelical Church of the River Plate, and 1856 marks the beginning of that church ’ s ministry in the region. The PC(USA) supports our brothers and sisters of Christ ’ s church in Uruguay as they commit themselves to evangelism, social advocacy and social action towards justice.

Uruguay was the first country in Latin America to constitutionally separate church and state. Unlike the …