Dear Friends and Family,

I would like to start off this report with a little bit of good news: Vanesa's medical package has been approved and sent to the Embassy for the Returning Resident Visa! Praise God! That means we can present our papers at the Embassy window and request an interview date for the visa. Obviously, I do not know at this point how long that part of the process will take, but this is a real step forward. The process has taken long enough that we ALSO have to renew Vanesa's passport before we request the interview, but that is generally a matter of a few days here in Argentina, no longer. Thank you all for your prayers, and please keep them coming!

In other news, those of you who have been following Argentina's economic situation will be aware that the numbers for the first part of this year have been frightening, even for what passes for normal here. We are averaging between 25 and 30% inflation per month, with the biggest increases thus far on the most essential goods (rice, flour, milk, meat, etc). Inflation on beef alone thus far this year is over 100%. It is a tremendously difficult situation for the country, made worse by the number of layoffs and business closures generated by all of the additional expenses. The President has called for a special meeting with the entire legislative branch of the government on May 25 this year, in the hopes that he can get support for the basic elements in his program. Whether he does or not, the situation will get worse for folks here, with additional increases in rent, transportation, health insurance and basic utilities scheduled for March and April. The situation is so bad that the International Monetary Fund, normally a huge supporter of these kinds of measures, has issued the president an advisory that adjustments should not fall disproportionately on the lower income levels of society. Yes, that is a weak warning, and utter nonsense in terms of the inevitable results of these adjustments on the kind of structural poverty we have here, but the fact that they are willing to issue it at all may cause the president to revise the pace of his changes, if not the priorities themselves. Please pray for us.

Eyes on Jesus Congregation

The congregation continues to be without a place to meet, and rental costs increase regularly, with another increase of over 100% scheduled to take effect sometime in the next 90 days. I really do not see how, barring God's intervention, we are going to be able to afford another rental. Please continue to pray for our congregation and for my meetings with Arturo, since he is quite depressed by the situation. On the plus side, he has been able to do more visitation since we lost the building, and he is quite well known in the neighborhood, visiting people who have not even attended the church! Praise God that the Gospel continues to advance in the barrio, even if it is not as we had imagined.

Discipleship Groups

Vicente injured his foot in an accident at work about 2 weeks ago, and has been on crutches and doctor ordered rest since. We have taken advantage of that time to develop the direction of his current discipleship program. His current focus is largely on the ABC's of discipleship, most notably conversion and baptism. This is fairly standard for most existing discipleship programs at the congregational level, because it is easier for the leadership to track progress when what is being measured is the number of confessions of faith and/or baptisms. Vicente, however, is deeply committed to preaching and teaching the Kingdom of God, and wants the folks in the church to continue to grow, intentionally, beyond the point of conversion. We have had some productive conversations, and I have been sharing some of the material from the radio program with him as well (more on that below).

Daniel and his fiancee, Mayra, are planning to be married in May, and have been occupied with wedding plans and, in Mayra's case, trying to get a job. Obviously they are some of the many folks who have been adversely affected by our rampant inflation, and both of them contracted dengue at the start of February as well! Please pray that their health improves, that Mayra finds employment, and that their wedding glorifies the Lord and provides additional opportunities for ministry.

Finally, I would like to praise the Lord for the folks at Uniquely You, a tool I use in counseling situations here (already in Spanish). I contacted them about additional resources, given the amount of counseling we have done since the quarantine, and they were tremendously helpful. This may seem like a minor point to some of you, but it is difficult to put into words how big a blessing it is to find resources that already exist in Spanish, adjusted for cultural differences, who are willing to bend over backwards to make sure one has access to the material!

Radio Ministry

As I indicated in my earlier reports, we have started a series on Discipleship on the radio program. Our starting point was the Great Commission and the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2, building on all of the work we have done over the past two years with our focus on Christ as a model for Christians. Again, for those of you who may be new to our work, I know that preaching Christ as a model for Christians seems horribly basic, but I promise you it has been necessary. There are so many portrayals of Christ as victim, as baby, as superholymaninheaven, the idea that his life on Earth may actually be helpful for instructing us as Christ-followers in this time and place is very foreign to people here, even in the church. As a matter of fact, my introduction to our weekly program usually reiterates our conviction that Christ is our example and that God still speaks to us today through the Bible, because there are so many voices telling people to ignore the Word as too archaic to be useful.

Happily, the Lord continues to work on our behalf, and the material from the radio show has already been useful for other Christians who also want to model Christ in this time and place. I have already mentioned that I have sent material from the show to Vicente, but I have also been invited to do a podcast for the Baptist congregation to the North of us in Varela (once they get that program up and running). This is an answer to prayer, and a fast one at that, since I started the discipleship series on the radio program with the hope that it would expand the reach of our ministry without taking time away from our existing commitments, and the Lord answered within days!

Figgins Family News

Let me close with a few more pieces of information about the family. We have our first DMV inspection of the "new" car coming up in March (air quality, vehicle integrity etc), and those are always interesting challenges (inspectors asking for bribes, that kind of thing), so we would appreciate your prayers for that. Zoe and Vane both start university classes again in March. Zoe's semester will be completely online for the last time, while Vanesa's looks to be a mix of online classes and presence based, including her thesis. Both Vanesa and I had a small bout with pink-eye midway through February, but we are recovering nicely, praise the Lord. My left ankle is bothering me again, and I would appreciate special prayers for recovery, since the cost of rehab visits has also gone up significantly. For those of you asking, we are still in doctor/insurance limbo with Vanesa's operation, but hope to get her an appointment with the doctor in question by the end of March, and have the doctor set the date for the operation and speak with the insurance company.

Finally, I would like to share with you all that I have finally started to combine the elements of the different discipleship groups and the radio show into a simple manual that I hope to have done by the middle of the year. I do not know at this point if we will seek publication beyond its obvious application here, but once again this is a way to expand the reach of the ministry beyond what we can do personally, Lord willing, as well as providing material that reinforces what we have been teaching people for the past several years. I would appreciate your prayers for this project specifically, as well as for the ministry in general.

Thank you to all of you for your faithful support, and a special thank you to all of you who sent us Christmas, New Year and birthday wishes (for Vanesa). We appreciate knowing that we are in your hearts and prayers. God bless you all!

in peace,

Tim Figgins