When I commented that she was getting thin, Kristina smiled and looked away in embarrassment. Getting thin in this survival society is not unusual, but as the widow of one of our preachers, she gets a small pension plus medical benefits.

There are solutions, despite overwhelming social problems.

We invited the following responses to our question.

A look at U.S. world missions in the 21st century.

One of those truly earthshaking innovations that was supposed to revolutionize education back in the 1930s when I was in grade school lasted about six weeks, as I recall.

When’s the last time a National Geographic film or video crew visited your ministry . . . to tell your story? A long time ago? Never? There’s good news. The wait is over. You can do a very credible job yourself.

The next time you are in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after you stroll the city’s immense boulevards and have a steak at one of its fabulous restaurants, drop in on the worship service at the Ministry of Waves of Love and Peace. It’s easy to find. Take a bus or taxi up Rivadavia Avenue until you see the former Rock Theater, whose neon sign now reads “Jesus Christ is the Rock.” Don’t worry about being late: The church holds six or seven meetings every day, from 7 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Just join the line forming in the front lobby for the next service.

Learning tools are needed to bring prejudices, hurts, and misunderstandings to the surface.

The chief lesson has to do with the values of the missionary’s vulnerability.

Crossing the “class gap” with blue-collar workers requires looking at what Jesus did.