Dear Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord! We hope this letter will get to you soon and will encourage you in your ministries and stimulate you to pray for us and all PC(USA) staff, partners, and volunteers around the world.

We invite you to join us for a meeting on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with the supervisors of our PC(USA) young adult volunteers. It is Saturday May 29, 1999, and the winter is already very present. We wait in front of a gas station for all the participants to come together to go to the meeting place—the barrio where we will meet is too dangerous for us to go separately, and so we wait for people from the barrio to accompany us.

Nine of us are here, time for the ten-minute walk to La Lechería (The Milk Shop). The name of this community center comes from an afternoon program that for years has provided a cup of milk and some good food for the children of the neighborhood. Of course the community center program is much broader, and the cup of milk is only a tiny part of its activities. The placement site is on the edge of one of the many "villas" (shantytowns) surrounding Buenos Aires and serves an area of about 200 homes and 2000 people.

The room where we meet is heated with a small electric heater. We take the time to share with each other about the placement sites, and we listen to each other say what we have learned by receiving a young adult volunteer from the Presbyterian Church. These are some of the comments:

"She refreshes us with new ideas"
"We had to throw overboard the preconceived ideas we had of North Americans."
" I have been encouraged by his dedication."
" He is so organized, and he is suffering so much with our lack of formal structure that it is motivating us to organize better."
"They challenge us with their questions."
"We need time to talk together and learn from each other so that we do not assume things or hurt each other with miscommunication."

Throughout the meeting we share the special gaucho ritual of drinking mate, a special sour tea drunk through a metal straw. As the gourd is passed around, so are ideas, concerns, and issues related to the young adult volunteer program. Nothing interrupts us but the broad smile of one of the women of the barrio who, with two other women and their husbands, has been preparing the traditional asado (grilled meat) outside the building. It is with great care that these simple women have set and decorated our table, and the men have prepared the traditional meal. They are now waiting for us to be seated. Together we break the bread and give thanks to God for all His care.

After our meal, we continue to meet late into the afternoon. All of us come from different church "bodies": We are Methodists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Lutherans, and we feel that we have joined together as one greater "body" to strengthen each other and the ministries we are called to. It was a very special day—one of those moments when we feel especially encouraged to be in the mission field, and we want to thank you for being part of this mission, too.

Beginning in August 1999, we will be back in the United States for a one-year "interpretation assignment." Now we are going through ups and downs and living the stress of moving. What to leave in Argentina, what to take with us? Who can stay in our place while we are in the United States? How to close this part of the journey? How to motivate our seven-year-old daughter, who doesn't understand why she needs to leave her friends, school, and home to be in the United States, where she'll need to learn better English, go to a new school, make new friends, learn about a different culture. How frightening it must be to her! But it's part of our challenge as missionaries (and hopefully "bridges" from one culture to another) to show love for Christ and our neighbors.

During our furlough (August 1999 to July 2000) we will be missionaries-in-residence in Lehigh Presbytery and we will be completing studies in seminary. Please pray for a good adjustment, for local support, that we be able to understand the churches of Lehigh Presbytery and their issues, and that we be able to share what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is doing in Argentina.

By the time you get this letter, we will have left Argentina.

Thanks for your support and encouragement towards us and to the Worldwide Ministries Division of the PC(USA) through which many people can serve overseas with partner churches as well as provide for our church partners to come to the United States.

Yours in Christ,

Juan ,Manuela, Laura, and Camila Kauer