By Jose G. Palafox
According to the previous plans presented for this 2008 God has blessed the church and us with good growth and challenges. Our work has taken different shapes and forms, but we are confident in prayer that we will glorify the Lord in Mexico. In a few words the harvest continues and this is a quick update.
THE PALAFOX FAMILY
My wife, Maria, and I have continued working together in ministry this year with many new challenges, but good achievements too. Also, we enjoy being with our children who live in the city of Leon planting churches. Not to mention time with grandkids, foods, and prayer time together. Part of our roles in the church involves weekly bible studies at homes, visits, and preparation for Sunday worship. Also, we participate as administrators with the Religious Association of Mexico of the Churches of Christ. In this association our job is to connect church’s legal business with the Mexican government.
In addition the church is training leadership from young men and women to fulfill various ministries. Like ladies days, youth rallies, and such. Occasionally we travel to take care of different affairs with other churches. Lastly we attended the preacher’s seminar in the city of Torreon provided by Glen Owen from Abilene Texas for personal nurturing.
‘’EL COLLI IGLESIA DE CRISTO’’ – ZAPOPAN, MEXICO
Our local church continues to be aware of our purpose and excited to participate with our plans. First, concerning our construction site, we conversed with the initial architect who is laying all the foundational work in permits, paperwork and a simple model for us to use as a guide. This far we are glad to see no red flags to make our work harder, but we pray for continual improvement. We started paying for the architect’s charges, as well as other fees, and price permits.
Secondly, since churches in Mexico are not tax-exempt we paid our yearly property taxes as well as our water bill for the whole year. It is good to have these paid in advance for the rest of the year.
In our spiritual end we are focusing on working at people’s homes and keeping with bible studies during the week. Our members are happy to open their homes, but we use the building normally every Sunday, or any other activity like Wednesday night. Concerning the church’s commitment to their part in our offering we are glad to report that they are keeping their financial end as well in their going to Tepic and Tequila for spiritual support.
TEPIC IGLESIA DE CRISTO - NAYARIT
As the year started the new planted church has been aware of their commitment to
Christ. These new members are focused and willing to work with the El Colli Church and others for maturity. We started going to Tepic every other Sunday in order to allow their independence and growth spiritually. Our members travel and visit them occasionally to foster them. At the end of last year we had to look for a new prospect preacher to move to Tepic and work with this church. We had a preacher which had agreed to move and work with us from Aguascalientes. But for personal health issues he was unable to move to Tepic. 
It was bad news for us since we had a short notice to replace him. And we prayed for this. While I visited the city of Torreon for the preacher’s seminar we met our new preacher. He is a graduate bible student from the preaching school in Torreon. He recently married a young student at the same school and she will be graduating this summer. They have committed to move then to Tepic and work with the church. We have asked them to move first to Zapopan for a couple of weeks and they can be involved with the local church and vise versa. The church in Tepic is having more visitors and we see potential for growth. So this next semester will be crucial for the harvesting in Nayarit.
TEQUILA CHURCH PLANT IN PROGRESS
In our back burner we have the plans in the city of Tequila. Based on the delay we had to prepare in finding a new preacher in Tepic, we postponed our initial stages for the plant in Tequila until this summer. The local church at Zapopan is willing to take their part, and is already preparing who will go for the survey trip. Since we started sharing this vision with others we have met some possible contacts in the city, and we pray these can be the first to accept Christ.
We finalize this report asking you to pray for us as well as to continue in our partnership with us. Financial participation is necessary but we trust our Lord to keep us in the plans and goals we have using ministries like you. There are many people involved and this promotes spiritual nurturing for all and, we thank you. May God bless you and we are willing to answer any questions at any time, or if you would like to visit us we would love to see you here.
Jose & Maria Palafox
