September 1999

Dear Friends,

It's been a long time since I've sent news of my activities to many of you. It is not because I have forgotten—quite the contrary, life has been so full that I haven't had time to sit down and write a real letter in ages.

I think the last time I wrote, it was in February or March. The big news at the time was that I had gotten engaged to marry a pastor of the church association I am serving here in Argentina. Now the big news is that we have gotten married! We spent our July winter vacation getting married and going on our honeymoon, skiing in the Andes in Bariloche. It was wonderful. The wedding was wonderful. My parents and both of my sisters were able to come down to celebrate with us. My husband's church outdid itself in preparing the party, decorating the church, and in making the whole event a love feast. They and my in-laws welcomed my family as part of their own.

Working with my husband in the church he is pastoring is wonderful. It is also challenging. We have very different church backgrounds, and therefore different ways of understanding the role and work of pastor. The times when I start to think that it could be frustrating, I have to stop, humble myself, and be silent. He, after all, is the pastor of the church, the one recognized as the shepherd of the congregation. I am an ordained pastor and feel strongly called to pastoral ministry, but I am not a Pentecostal pastor, I am a PC(USA) missionary sent to work with a Pentecostal Association as a seminary professor. With lots of patience and pardon, Dany and I are both learning the strengths and weaknesses of our respective church traditions.

I am also realizing that many of the strengths of the PC(USA) depend significantly on the money our church has available to organize and communicate. Association of the Church of God in Argentina (ALIDD) is a much looser association of churches than is the PC(USA). Local congregations depend more on prayer and less on organization. Pastors cannot work full-time as pastors, since the churches don't have enough money to support the pastors. The central offices of the Association do not have the money to organize, centralize and communicate events. The staff of the central office include the president and the treasurer—who is also the dean of the seminary—and the treasurer's wife. The only paid person is the treasurer. My husband's church does not have a pastor's office, nor does it have a telephone, nor does it have potable water. Many of the church members do not have telephones. But one thing all can do, and do do, is pray. It has been amazing to see how, when the church members pray together, collectively and also individually, each in his or her own home, how the vision of mission for the local congregation becomes unified and put into practice. I want to teach, communicate, organize. My husband wants the church to pray. We are finding that we work well together because we have such different ideas about how to do mission in the local congregation. I am learning the Presbyterian way is not always the best way. My Presbyterian roots, ethics, training can at times be very helpful, but also can be a stumbling block. Sometimes this is hard for me to swallow.

I have just received the August 25 edition of my presbytery's newsletter (The Grapevine, of the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse). Sometimes the PC(USA) seems so far away from me, so unreal, so out of this world. The newsletter includes insights on the July Peacemaking Conference in Montreat, insights from the Commissioners to General Assembly, highlights of the last presbytery meeting, a calendar of events. The contrast between the PC(USA) and ALIDD boggles my mind. I wonder how many Presbyterians take the opportunities we have to grow, learn and serve for granted. How many Presbyterians can imagine the challenges and joys of being a poor, unorganized church, striving to incarnate God's Kingdom in poor neighborhoods? Some of the students at the seminary are studying now at a great personal and emotional cost. It is hard to study as an adult when as a child one was not given the opportunity to finish elementary school. It is hard to study as an adult when one is the only person in an extended family with a steady income—of perhaps $300 a month. Yet this is church in ALIDD. This is the church of a serious, ecumenical, Pentecostal church of the poor in Argentina.

The Grapevine also has a message from the Rev. Hunter Farrell, a PC(USA) mission worker in Peru. Farrell writes about partnership in mission, about working with churches that don't have the money or personnel or organizational resources that the PC(USA) has. This partnership is something that is becoming even more real to me as my husband and I adjust to the business of married life in an international and ecumenical marriage partnership. I wish I could put into words what some of the challenges, frustrations, and deep, deep joys are in this new partnership. As I mentioned above, patience and pardon for both of us are absolutely necessary. Gentleness, affection, and conversation—lots and lots of conversation—are also necessary, especially since the possibilities for misunderstanding are tremendous. I imagine these qualities are necessary in most marriages, but when the difference in languages and cultures get mixed in, they are even more necessary. Of course, at this point, after only a month and a half of marriage, these things are easy! Of course there are frustrations, but the joy, the wonder, the grace, the love are beyond words!

I teach three courses at the main seminary offices: Introduction to Theology, Latin American Theology, and Old Testament Wisdom Literature. At one of the extension sites, I have just finished the Intro to the Old Testament course and will soon be starting the Intro to the New Testament. I am also traveling every other month to one of the extension sites in Mar del Plata, about 500 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

At church, I am leading the Bible study for the women's group on Thursdays, I accompany my husband at a house church meeting on Wednesdays, and I participate in the Sunday worship services. I preach about twice a month.

I have been invited to participate in an ecumenical conference on the ministry and role of women in the various Christian traditions. The organizers have asked me to speak on theological education from the perspective of gender in a machista society.

For those of you who feel called to pray for me and the mission of the PC(USA) in general, please pray for the new partnership that my husband and I have formed, pray for my students at the seminary, and pray for those churches, presbyteries and synods of the PC(USA) who are considering entering into a partnership relation with a church body in another country.

May God bless you richly and may God make you a blessing for others!

Your co-pilgrim in Christ,

Rev. Kathleen M. Griffin