July 2020

Relaunch of in-person ministry:

On May 31^st we were able to reopen both of our churches for worship services. It has been great to have the churches up and running again. We started out with about 50% of our regular attendance, but by now most of our people have returned. 

Focus Church Budapest

It has been exciting to see first-time visitors every Sunday since we reopened the church. Several said that they began watching the livestream during the lockdown. A number of these visitors have returned for a second or third visit. Several are unsaved, so we are praying for their salvation. It is great to see how the Lord used the lockdown to get us to livestream, and then used the livestream to increase our outreach.  

On June 21^st we had a special service to welcome 10 new members into the church. Two are young couples. The rest are single young adults. We now have 40 members. It is exciting to see how the Lord is building His church.  

Transition in Esztergom:

On July 5^th I announced to our church in Esztergom that I would be stepping down as pastor sometime in the next year. This came as a shock to many, and many tears were shed. As we helped found the church in 1995, and I have been the lead pastor since 1998, for many of our people, I am the only pastor they have ever had. I will help lead the church through this transition period, as we seek a new pastor to take over the church. The goal would be to turn the church over by June 2021 at the latest. At that point we will be able to turn our attention fully to our new church in Budapest. We will also be planning to move to Budapest at that time, so we will need to sell our house and look for an apartment in Budapest. Please pray for the church and for us during this transition time!

Summer furlough:

Lord willing, we will be in the US from July 14-August 26^th. One purpose will be to get Hannah settled at Cedarville University in Ohio. Another purpose will be to raise some much-needed additional support, so we are already working on setting up meetings with both churches and individuals. Of course, we will be getting around to visit our family as well. Obviously, there is still a lot of uncertainty in regard to international travel, but God is good, and He knows when and where we need to be! 

We are currently finalizing the design for our new prayer card and also preparing a new ministry video. We will pass these along to you as soon as they are ready. Hopefully we will see some of you in the next few weeks. If we can’t meet with you in person, we would be happy to set up a time to talk over Skype, Messenger or Zoom. Thank you for your prayers!

May 2020 Prayer Letter

Ministry under lockdown:

What a unique time of life and ministry this has been for all of us! Thankfully our “lockdown,” which began March 16, is slowly winding down. We hope to reopen both of our churches on May 31^st. We are grateful for the Lord’s goodness to us throughout this time. 

Focus Church Budapest

It has been amazing to see the resilience of our church in Budapest. Considering that we were only six months post-launch, it has been amazing to see how the church has continued to hold together during this challenging time.  Here are a few blessings:

1) Our media team jumped into action and had a livestream up and running in time for our first Sunday under lockdown. Since then we have added equipment, purchased programming, added team members and seen the quality continuing to improve. It is our plan to continue the livestream even after we are back to regular services.

2) The livestream itself has given us outreach to people we may have never reached otherwise. We are receiving steady reports from our members about their friends and relatives who have been watching the livestream. Please pray with us that we will see many of these come to church as soon as they are able.

3) Our small groups moved online and continued through this time. Essentially all of our university students moved back home because their studies were moved online, dorms were closed, etc., but because we were using Zoom or Messenger video calls, they could still stay in touch with their small groups. In fact, one of our gals was an exchange student in Italy, and she has been faithfully attending her small group from there. J

4) One other blessing is that the offerings have stayed strong and even increased a bit during this time. Our people moved seamlessly to online giving. 

One thing we did notice was the difference between our very young church in Budapest, and our slightly older church in Esztergom. Our Budapest church handled the move to online ministry much more smoothly. Things were more challenging in Esztergom, where especially the older generation struggled with connecting to livestreams, Zoom calls, etc.

Esztergom Baptist Church

Our church in Esztergom is still a bit behind the curve. We have been doing a simple livestream using my cell phone, but we are just now getting a team together and buying equipment to get a better livestream up and running. Because we were unable to continue our small groups online, I began streaming a Bible Study on Thursday evenings to replace the small groups. Overall the church has done well. Offerings in Esztergom have also been hitting budget. Some of our older people couldn’t figure out online giving, so they would ask me to drive by and pick up their tithes. This did give me an opportunity for a brief visit with them at the door. J Another positive is that in Esztergom we also saw many non-believers watching our livestreams, so we were thankful for that!

Family News:

One of the blessings during this crisis has been more time with the family. With all of our extra meetings and conferences cancelled, I was actually home every weekend for 2 months. That has not happened in a long time! There have been four of us at home during this time. Charin teaches in the public schools, and with the schools all moved online, she has been working from home primarily preparing and uploading videos for her students. Hannah ended up finishing her senior year of high school online. The students only went into school to do their final exams, and she just finished her last one yesterday. There was no graduation ceremony for her, but we tried to make it a special day and celebrate as a family. We also have 21-year-old Betty Pasztor living with us, whose parents passed away a few years ago. Our other kids are doing well with Nancy and Keith in California, Ben and Kelsi in Zanzibar, Africa and Esther in Florida. 

Summer furlough:

Current plans would have us in the US from July 14-August 26^th. One purpose will be to get Hannah settled into college at Cedarville University in Ohio. Another purpose will be to raise some much-needed additional support, so we are already working on setting up meetings with both churches and individuals. Of course, we will be getting around to visit our family as well. Obviously, there is still a lot of uncertainty in regard to international travel, but God is good, and He knows when and where we need to be! Thanks so much for your prayers and faithful support!

Media team and livestream

Hannah and Betty

Corona virus - March Prayer Letter

Corona virus…

Ministry has taken a drastic change with the worldwide outbreak of the new corona virus. Who would have thought that we would be holding our small group meetings online? We are also scrambling to put together a decent livestream of our Sunday services, so that we can not only minister to our churches, but also share the Gospel with people who don’t yet know the Lord. I am thankful for today’s technology which makes all of this possible. I truly believe this can be a time of growth for our churches, as we are forced to focus on purpose and not on methods, and we can be creative to do things differently than ever before. I also think we have a tremendous opportunity to reach new people online, as people are stuck in their homes and looking for a message of hope. Pray for us to use these opportunities to the best of our ability.

Focus Church Budapest

The past two months have been great for solidifying our core group. I held two membership classes for people interested in joining our church. We also had personal meetings with each of them. In the end we added two new young couples and seven new single young adults to our church membership. We now have 42 committed members. Several have already jumped into ministry and small groups. Once again God has brought us some really quality people. I am  especially glad to have two young adults from Catholic backgrounds come to the membership meetings. Both are university students. The young lady made a profession of faith and is preparing for baptism. The young man is very open, and we are praying for his salvation. Hopefully we will be able to add them to the membership later this year! 

Esztergom Baptist Church

We spent the early part of the year doing painting and renovations on our church building in Esztergom. I was especially pleased to see one of our new young couples take the initiative in completely remodeling our nursery. They organized the men in our church to do almost all of the work, and they also purchased new furniture. We now have a beautiful new nursery. In Esztergom, I also met with people interested in baptism and membership a few weeks ago. We have one teen who wants to be baptized, and three adults who want to join the church. All this is kind of on hold now until the virus situation settles down. 

National ministry:

In February I took a team to the Ukraine to minister with a Hungarian missionary we support. I preached and our team did the music for their winter camp. It was great to see the Lord work and use us there.

We do thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Do join us in prayer for our support level to increase this year. God bless!

Serving in Ukraine with missionaries Daniel and Lona Nagy-Kasza

January 2020 Prayer Letter

The Year in Review

2019 was one of our best years ever! The Lord gave us much fruit in many different areas. Allow me to share the highlights. 

Focus Church Budapest

One year ago in January, Charin and I met with two other couples to begin planning the planting of a new church in Budapest. We had no name for the church, no location and no people. But we did have a call from the Lord and the faith to believe that this was all a part of His plan. One year later on January 19^th Focus Church Budapest met in a beautiful rented building with about 55 people in attendance. After the service most of our 31 committed members were present for our first church business meeting. What a blessing to see how the Lord led and provided each step of the way! We are beginning 2020 with three weeks of prayer and fasting. We are praying for the Lord to double our attendance, our membership and our giving in 2020. Please join us in prayer for these things!

Esztergom Baptist Church

Despite our attention being focused on the new church plant in Budapest, we had one of our best years ever at our church in Esztergom. We had 5 baptized and added a total of 9 new members. We also saw our weekly attendance increase by about 20 per week. Offerings were up about 30%. There is a spirit of unity and anticipation in the church, as we see what the Lord is doing. Our goal for Esztergom this year is to get our new people integrated into small groups and areas of service. We also want to have a better presence in the community outside the walls of our church. 

National ministry:

I continue to partner with two Hungarian pastors in leading the Vertical Church movement in Hungary. Our national conference drew 700 participants from 140 different chuches. We also held regional conferences in Serbia, Romania and Eastern Hungary touching hundreds more. In 2020 in addition to the conferences, we are also holding special days of training in the areas of small groups, Biblical soul care, assimilation and worship. God continues to use this movement to stir the fires of revival and God-centered ministry.

Family time:

This past year brought many changes within our family. Our oldest daughter Nancy got married and she and her husband moved to California. Our son Ben and his wife moved to Zanzibar, Africa to begin their ministry there. Esther began her junior year of college in Jacksonville, Florida. Hannah is now in her senior year of high school here in Hungary and preparing to head off to college in the States this summer. We were very glad to have three of our kids here for Christmas. We value each opportunity we have to be together!

December Prayer Letter

Focus Church Budapest

Our new church in Budapest is off to a fantastic start. We have been averaging around 60 in attendance at our Sunday worship services. We have had five new members join the team: a young couple and three single young ladies. Toward the end of October we launched our small group program with three small groups. Each of the three groups has pretty much reached capacity (about 12-14 people), so we are starting a waiting list for a fourth group. We are very excited about this, as it is our goal to have every church member be a part of a small group. We are also beginning one on one discipleship programs with several of the nonbelievers who have begun attending. The Lord has given us an amazing team of gifted and dedicated workers. It is exciting to see how the Lord is using us together to build His church! 

Worship at Focus Church Budapest

Esztergom:

God has been so good to us at our church in Esztergom. With the new church plant putting major demands on my time, I have had much less time to give to the work in Esztergom, nevertheless God continues to bring us new families. Two new families have begun attending since September. Two families who began attending during the spring recently requested membership. There has also been a good spirit in the services. 

National ministry:

We held two regional vertical church conferences in the past two months. On October 26th we had about 150 people attend a conference in the eastern Hungarian town of Bekes. It was fun to serve together with Daniel and some of our team from Budapest who led the worship. On November 23rd we held a conference in Salonta, Romania with about 180 in attendance. There was a great spirit of revival at this conference, and we feel like God is doing a great work of renewal in these churches.

Vertical Conference Salonta, Romania

 Family time:

Our daughter Esther will be home from college for the holidays. Our son Ben and his wife Kelsi will also fly in from Zanzibar, Africa to spend Christmas with us. We will only be missing our daughter Nancy and her husband Keith who have moved to California. We are looking forward to a great holiday season with our family and churches here in Hungary! Thank you for your faithful prayers and support!

October Prayer Letter

We have officially launched our new church in Budapest!

On September 29^th we held our first official worship service in Budapest. The Lord truly overwhelmed us with His goodness. Our team members were fantastic. From the greeters, to the coffee shop workers, to the prayer team, worship team, audio-visual team, children's workers, set up team, etc., everyone came early, stayed late, and everything went smoothly. We had about 150 people in attendance! The auditorium only seats 110, so we had every seat filled, and about 40 people in the hallway or overflow area. The service went extremely well, with fantastic worship and  great freedom in the message. We had invited many unsaved people, and I believe that the Lord spoke to many hearts. 

We were blessed to have about 60 people return for the second service and are looking forward to how God is going to build His church for His glory.

Baptismal services:

We also held two baptismal services over the past two months. The first was the baptism of one of our team members at the Budapest church plant. Dori Marton is a university student in Budapest studying to be a dentist. She visited our church plant several months ago and got excited about serving with us. Dori had been saved several years ago, but never baptized. I baptized her on August 24^th at a small lake just outside of Budapest.

The second baptism was held at our church in Esztergom. The Regoczi family began attending our church last December. The parents had been saved many years ago but never baptized. Their 16 year old daughter got saved this summer at camp. God used our English camp to bring a young man, who is a senior in high school, to church. He had made a profession of faith in the past, but he settled that issue this summer and asked for baptism. We are thankful to see the church in Esztergom growing at the same time we are focusing our attention on the new church in Budapest. 

National ministry:

The next several months will see us participating in several events related to the Vertical Church movement in Hungary. On October 26^th we will be holding a regional conference in eastern Hungary. November 23^rd we will cross the border into Romania and hold a Vertical Church conference for Hungarian speaking churches there. Please pray that the Lord will use these conferences to inspire God-centered ministry in both Hungary and Romania. We value your prayers and faithful support!

2019 August Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

Here is our August prayer letter. 

Family Camp - Balatonfoldvar

On June 26-30 our church in Esztergom held its annual family camp in Balatonfoldvar, Hungary. It was wonderful to have about 60 individuals, and I was especially pleased that several of our new families came, and they were able to get better connected to the church. Our theme was “Joy,” as we studied the book of Philippians. It was a great week of drawing closer to the Lord and to each other.

Family Camp 2019

 English Camp in Esztergom:

On July 8-12 we held our annual English Camp. Our team of teachers and helpers did a fantastic job. We had about 70 children attend during the mornings. Our theme was “Athens” with the Bible stories revolving around the life of Paul, and we strove to share the Gospel with the children throughout the week. We also had classes in the evenings for teens and adults with about 35 participants. We invited the children and their parents to attend our Sunday service on July 14th. We had a great attendance with many visitors. We are praying that we will see some of these visitors return in the future for our regular services.

English Camp - teachers and workers

English Camp - craft room

Budapest church plant:  

We have a location for our new church! We have been prayerfully seeking a location to launch the church in September, and the Lord has provided an incredible opportunity to use the building of an English-language international church. They had actually been hoping to have a Hungarian language church planted in their building, so it seems like a perfect fit for us. Their services are on Sunday mornings, and we will be meeting Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM. If you want to check out our location on Google maps it is: Budapest district XI, Karolina ut 17a. District 11 is Budapest’s most populous district with a population of 150,000. Riverside International Church’s building is located near two busy tram lines and two bus lines making it accessible to the entire city. Much work remains to be done preparing for our September 29th launch. Please continue to pray!

Support news:

We recently received word from one of our key supporters that due to a decline in their attendance we would be losing $300 per month in support. This is a significant amount, so please pray that the Lord would raise up new partners who can replace this support. Thanks for standing with us!

Marc Patton and Family