Dear Friends and Family,

Let me start off by saying thank you to all of you for your support, prayers and emails during Vanesa's convalescence. It has been a long 2 months, but God has done some great things. Many of you know the details from chats, but let me hit the highlights.

First of all, as I said in our last report, the test results for the rest of the tissue analysis ended up taking quite a bit longer than we were initially told to expect. In fact, we got the results on Wed the 7th of August, almost 2 months to the day from her discharge from the hospital, and we saw the surgeon the following day. Praise the Lord, everything came back fine, no trace of cancer or precancerous cells! The doc wants to continue to monitor her progress and make sure no new cyst appears, but is happy enough with the results thus far to ask that she come in a couple of times a year, rather than every 3 months, so that is good news as well!

Secondly, the complications in the surgery with her intestinal tract as well as the sequel to the endometriosis itself mean that she has, and will have, bouts of pain that she has to deal with going forward, but, if the doc is right, they will be less each time and will eventually disappear. We are, of course, praying for that to happen sooner rather than later, and she has already noticed a difference in the level of pain compared to her day to day experience pre-surgery. We are all very thankful to see her recovering and healthier than she was before!

Thirdly, yesterday's visit to the doc means that her dietary restrictions and most of her movement restrictions have been lifted, though it is best if she adds foods and activities gradually. She has also made the decision to restructure her responsibilities so as to leave more time for self-care and exercise, and I am super pleased to hear her not just say that, but already begin to have the conversations with people about what the new role will look like both at work and at school. I am also pleased to report that one of the first activities she decided to resume was cooking. In fact, the whole family and our regular visitors are grateful that she is cooking again. They hasten to reassure me that I did not do a bad job, but, well, my food is not Vanesa's! I agree!! All kidding aside, it is a relief to see her managing these activities free from the pain that she dealt with so often and so regularly pre-surgery. It has been a tough time, but well worth it!

Zoe started back to work recently, and continues her preparations for the competence exams for her Public Translator degree program. If she passes both the English and Spanish components in September, she will be free to take any and all classes related to the degree program, so she is investing "extra" study time, complete with tutors, in order to be as prepared as possible for these exams. Work is going well for her, although the fact that the school continues to add students to her class well past the "cutoff" date and then expects her to bring them up to speed frustrates her a bit. She has been up to the challenge, however, and all her students are advancing well. In fact, from what she tells me, she could probably not teach the current group anything for the rest of the year and they would still know more than is required for their final exams!

Discipleship Group/Radio Program

I started communicating with the group again after Vanesa got her stitches out in June, and I am pleased with what everyone is doing. Vicente and I have continued to communicate regularly about his discipleship program, and he is excited about the work he plans to do with his existing group, but he has yet to set a date for said program's implementation. Please pray that he can nail that down and present it to the congregation soon. Daniel and Mayra got back from their honeymoon and jumped back into work with Vinculo de Paz, their band/discipleship group on the west side of Buenos Aires. Mayra is having trouble finding work, so Daniel's income is their only support both for the family and the ministry. Please be in prayer for their continued work with the group and their financial situation.

I have also continued to receive invitations to speak at different places, and have sent copies of the radio program to people as part of my planned expansion of the discipleship ministry. I continue to work on the book, and have a pair of older, experienced pastors lined up to read the draft when I get it completed! The chapters I have presented via the radio program have been well received, and I am encouraged by the way the Lord continues to work in people's lives via the combination of the radio program and the discipleship group. Please continue to be in prayer for the radio station staff, as they are experiencing more turnover, and for our ministry with them.

Eyes On Jesus Congregation

Rent has increased over 500% since the start of the year, and the congregation simply cannot support the cost of the rent, even if there was a space to be had. Arturo has decided, for now, to meet with people individually rather than try and find a new space. His father in law passed away last month after a looong battle with cancer, and he and Marcela have been hard pressed to find time for much of anything beyond work and caring for him, especially in his final days. We have both tried to keep in touch with the members of the congregation, pray and talk and deliver food or medicine as needed. Many people lost interest in anything having to do with church during the quarantine, however, and their responses are fairly brusque.

I have been focusing the majority of my time on Arturo and Marcela, both because I have been concerned by the condition of her dad (who, praise God, accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior before he passed away), and because Arturo has been so discouraged by the loss of yet another building. Please pray that they will find the healing they need to strengthen their faith and continue to work in the barrio as the Lord has called them to do.

Benevolence Evangelism

This is a "tentative" title for the increased demand for food and counseling that we have been called to meet in Varela in the past few months. The bakery continues to be the source for most of the donations we are able to make, as we cannot, by law, sell day old bread, but many people can use it, including groups that provide soup kitchens and similar services in the area. The primary beneficiary is a ministry that works with sexually abused children and, as part of the ministry, offers a meal or at least a tea once a week.

The counseling has expanded from its initial focus on couples to deal with families having issues of all kinds, and Vanesa is at the forefront of many, if not most, of those conversations! My prayer is that at least one of these regular conversations results in the formation of another discipleship group, which I have mentioned before, but we are still quite a ways away from formalizing anything. The key element here is the sheer NUMBER of requests that we receive from people for someone to talk to, or someone to pray with or for them. I am also struck by the number of people who are hurting so badly that they want more than just a way to unload emotionally, they actually want to listen when we talk about God providing a better way.

All in all, we are very pleased with the way these past 2 months have gone, however hard it was to face the NEED for the operation in the first place. So, once again, thanks to all of you who cared for us, prayed for us, and shared with us during this time.

in peace,
Tim Figgins

PS. Those of you praying with us about Vanesa's visa, please say some extra prayers this month, as August has some hard deadlines for the visa and her citizenship process.