All items from Omar and Tana Palafox

We are so blessed to have Maicah in our lives! He celebrated his birthday this week, and we are glad to see his love for God and us grow. Many people love him, and we do too. We thank God for him! 

But we would like to share some other news:

6 years old!

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Also, this week, the Lord has answered many prayers. The church in Leon Sur continues to make choices. WE still do not have a church building, and our leadership is very weak. So in order to make some better choices some of us decided to sell most of what we have at the church building. The Lord blessed Leon Sur with enough material blessings. And since they are not being used, we repacked and organized most of the churches resources. In the last years we have served as a place to share God's blessings. WE had crayolas, books, bibles, kid's classes, papers, craft materials, decorations, and more. All that was sorted and placed in boxes. As a missionary it is hard to see these layers of the original church be in dismantlement. So the only thing I can say is that our sinfulness has produced fruits that need to be pruned, changed, and adapted for the glory of God. Out of a church with many professionals, adults, and people who make a living daily - the church has lost the vision to do what it was planted to do. In the next Sundays we will regroup and continue with those who want to be a community in the middle of these trials. 

The Lord must have a plan.To place this in perspective. WE had four or five families full time working in Leon Sur, plus we had some 26 AIM students (apprentice Missionaries) who have helped. In addition to these people we have had many ministries that brought people to God, but not to each other. As the sustainability of the missionaries depleted the body begun to shrink. It is not to say that God did not produce fruits. Because he did. Now the church is not a full grown body. Academics struggles to identify whether a church can be institutionalized or simple organic. But at the end of the day either way of "doing church" contains sins. These sins are what produce a lack of commitment, decisions, and continual ministry. We have seen it. For example when the Church Leon Sur was at its peak in ministry every one was smiling, happy, encouraged, and most of all in a state of "doing church right." But it was a façade.  In the core we are certain that God worked, produced what needed to be in his body - including sin. Even us the missionaries are sinful.

The apostle John reminds us:  

At the moment it is an unknown situation. The church needs to find a place to meet soon. Our current place has a contract until June 15th. And all the stuff has to be taken somewhere. In this predicament, we have started a shrinking of what we do not need. Some of the families cleaned the building to have a garage sale on Saturday. People loved the cheap stuff, everyone was placing bids on what they wanted, people asked if we could do this more often, and we even heard that the church had way too much stuff and this was a good thing. But as for me....well.....it is extremely disappointing.

Do you know how much we labored for the church to have what it had? A herd of people have labored endless hours to bring chairs, fans, clothing, shelves, tables, etc. It is almost like having an estate sale after a loved one passes away. Do not get me wrong, We are not materialistic. God giveth and he taketh away.... :)  The key message in this post is that the church had to become what it needed to be. And we did not see this coming. 

The story is not finally written. The  seven years of fat cows is over - the time of wealth and awesome growth passed. And now  we are living the seven years of the thin cows. Those who keep their faith in the physical will whither, move away, to to another church, and sadly some will loose their faith. Every church is wasteful and fruit is wasted constantly. My post is to "confess" our sins. And he "will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

"how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"
Jesus (Matthew 17:17)


In the last months we have had a roller coaster stressful time. These moments are expected. We prepared and got times set aside to be ready to encounter moments of doubt, fear, or even disorientation.The truth is that we are overconfident that our strategies are the answers to all these conflicts. Leon Sur has been under the leadership of elders that have done a good job. But all that was planted by the missionaries is not being done. In other words the church is falling apart slowly layer by layer. The reality of what God does in his church has to be objectively presented. Many times we are overly hopeful and our desire for things to move forward is not the reality the body lives.  

What I am saying is that many people (more then you would expect) are not following their giftedness, their role in church, and their relationship with God is dead. For example the church now has no place to meet. WE are ending our contract with the building we have now at  Leon Sur on June 15th. And the three options the elders presented are all gone. It is discouraging to see that people do not seek to improve and move to a larger vision. Leon Sur is shrinking in its vision. Jesus is at work, and those who are called need to be sent. Divisive spirits, lazy desires to serve, a lack of desire to learn, little fellowship, and poor administration are a few of the struggles our church is dealing with. The church has a store room filled with dust, from ten cells a week now there is not one, from 100 people in attendance we had 35 in average in the last weeks, bible class attendance is half, we have had no baptism in over six months, there is nothing planned in our Sunday worship for spirituality, events are not placed on a calendar, our offering is lower every week, etc. The church is depleting so pray for us. WE know that the hope is placed in what we know is eternal and spiritual. But if some one is able to asses the church it is me. We had the blessing to see the first days, and we know with our departure coming soon, the church will be worse.   The small remnant is moving forward and praying for all this and they want the church to continue, but it is hard. How needed is a missionary?

Also, this week, we had the blessing to see Jonathan and Cris from Morelia. These two are from Venezuela but they work with the church in Morelia. He is a bible student in the school of Houston, and they are great servants of God. They came to spend the week end so we took the time to share our vision, love, and fellowship with them. WE visited the city of Guanajuato, and had a blessed time with them. Please pray for their choices as time goes by quickly for them. He is graduating from the school this December, and they are in prayer to know what God has in plans for them. We know that what ever they will do is going to be a good ministry.  

On Sunday the Leon Sur church and the Libertad Church decided to have a time at the park together to play soccer, games, and fellowship. In the midst of all the struggle for Leon Sur it was a blessing to see people come together and play for a while. WE had the time to see many people converse and we hope to have more moments like this. For us is hard to not have expectations fulfilled. Struggles are expected, but the work we do is dealing with people so failure is inevitable. Walking in the light has to be more than just a fun time. WE praise God for a great week. But we are aware that this is not over. The church in  Leon Sur needs a new place to meet fast, we will begin to sell a few of the things we have at the church, there are walls that need to be painted, things to be cleaned, and slowly get rid of many things that took much effort to get, but we are willing to do whatever is needed. And if we need to meet in a park every Sunday we will do it. 

La Libertad Church is growing and they continue to meet at Alfonso's house. In the last weeks Chris Reid came to visit them. And he will be here in Leon for a month or so. This church is a very new church and they are have done a great work for a year or so. Our prayer is that they will be in a better place to continue to meet with love. 

Please do not be overcritical about the report for this week. Also, do not share the negativity shared here to increase in sinfulness. On the contrary pray for the maturity of our elders and church. It is a disappointment to see adults who are children in their actions. And for us, we are staring to think we are not needed anymore in Leon.