A letter from Dennis Smith in the U.S., from Argentina (Regional liaison for Brazil and Southern Cone)
September 2014 - Drinking from a Fire Hydrant
Dear friends:
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Tres Rios Presbytery group visits historic Uruguayan congregation
Recently I was at Grace Presbyterian Church in Midland, Texas, renewing friendships with members of a Tres Rios Presbytery mission study delegation that visited Uruguay last March. Tres Rios has a friendship with the Evangelical Church of Río de la Plata (IERP), a PC(USA) mission partner with congregations in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
As we drove from the airport, I was struck by how similar west Texas is to the vast El Chaco region that covers parts of northern Argentina, southern Bolivia and Paraguay. Similar sparse terrain. Similar harsh climate.
When they were in Uruguay last March, the Tres Ríos folks spent several hours swapping stories with members of an IERP congregation in the little town of Nueva Helvecia (New Switzerland). This community was founded by Swiss immigrants in 1862; the church hall where we met had been dedicated in November 1863. Since the ancestors of this group were facing economic and political hardship in Europe, they decided to cast their lot in the New World. They heard stories from relatives and friends of a brutal war that had broken out in the United States—the Civil War—and so they decided to come to Uruguay instead.
In Uruguay this hearty band discovered the extravagance of God’s grace. Not only did they prosper, they forged unprecedented ecumenical ties with the Roman Catholics living in their new community. Roman Catholics and Swiss Reformed shared this new church building, organizing their calendars to accommodate both the Mass and Reformed worship.
When this little congregation in Nueva Helvecia celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2013 the local Catholic bishop burst in, excited to share a special greeting from Pope Francis. Francis, remember, is from just across the river in Buenos Aires, and he knew well the vital role that this Reformed church had played in establishing a pastoral presence to Roman Catholic immigrants in this region.
As I sat down at the dinner table with the mission committee of Grace Presbyterian, members recalled how encouraged they had felt in Uruguay to continue their own ecumenical commitments in Midland, and how important it is to share experiences of service in Christ’s name with sisters and brothers from another part of the world.
As Presbyterian World Mission regional liaison for Brazil and the Southern Cone, it’s my privilege to be able to nurture this kind of exchange. Whenever I have the opportunity to visit mission partners in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil, I’m always struck by people’s family stories. To visit a community like Nueva Helvecia, and to honor their tradition of hospitality and tolerance in the name of Jesus Christ, calls us to remember our own family stories. How did we get “here,” wherever “here” might be for your family? How dependent were your people on the generosity of strangers and the extravagant abundance of God’s grace?
Please let me know if you’d like to organize a study tour and explore a mission partnership in Brazil or the Southern Cone.
Learning to drink from the fire hydrant
Apologies for the long silence.
In June I received word that our dear friend and colleague María Arroyo was resigning after 14 years of service as Area Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean. Shortly thereafter, Presbyterian World Mission asked me to fill in as interim area coordinator while a permanent replacement was chosen.
This seemed like a good fit since Maribel and I were scheduled to begin a six-month Interpretation Assignment in the U.S. in July. This meant, however, that we’d need to base our time in the U.S. in Louisville and not at my parents’ house in Oregon. I flew up in mid-July. Maribel and our eldest son, Lucas, joined me on July 28. Benjamin, our youngest, is holding down the fort in Buenos Aires, studying at the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional de Argentina (UTN) and caring for our two Siamese cats!
Thankfully Rev. Valdir França began as the new Area Coordinator on Sept 15. Valdir is Brazilian by birth, a PC(USA) minister, and has most recently served as the Latin America desk person for the Reformed Church in America (RCA).
Now that Valdir is on board, I’ll have more time available to focus on my regional liaison tasks and on visiting churches and presbyteries. I’m fairly well booked through the end of the year, but I’d love to visit you and share how God is working through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Brazil and the Southern Cone. If you have a date available in February or March 2015, let me know as soon as possible either at dennis.smith@pcusa.org or by my U.S. cell 541-380-1042.
My few months of service at the Presbyterian national offices in Louisville have deepened my respect for colleagues working there. Presbyterian World Mission has four area coordinators, and Debbie Braaksma, area coordinator for Africa, describes the challenge of these positions as “learning to drink from a fire hydrant.” I later discovered that folks that have studied law or medicine use the same metaphor to describe their experience.
In my time as area coordinator, together with other World Mission staff, we wrestled with how to respond to critical situations in Gaza, South Sudan, and on the U.S.-Mexican border, how to prioritize—in light of limited available resources—the many requests for new mission workers sent by ecumenical partners, how to attend to the needs of mission workers on the field, how to respond to questions posed by mission partners about General Assembly decisions, how to coordinate activities and strategies with other programs of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, how to generate enthusiasm for mission engagement in the many PC(USA) mission networks—Valdir and I have just spent three wonderful days with the Brazil Mission Network at First Presbyterian Church, Atlanta—all the while being available to local churches and presbyteries that call with questions about mission partners and mission workers.
You can be proud that the common passion shared by all these good folks is to be faithful servants of God’s mission. I’m not sure how good I was at drinking out of the fire hydrant, but at least I didn’t drown!
As we begin to plan for a new term of service in South America in 2015, please consider supporting our ministry in prayer, by inviting us to speak at your church, and by providing financial support for our ministry. We are deeply grateful to have you as our partners in this adventure in service to God’s mission.
Under the Mercy,
Dennis
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 35
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