March 2021 Prayer Letter

 Covid Update:

The past two months have been pretty crazy due to the Covid situation. Charin and I both came down with Covid at the end of January. We were both very sick for about two weeks and are still regaining our strength 5 weeks later. We also had a breakout at our church in Esztergom. At one point in February, we had 17 church members down with Covid. Two of them were elderly members who passed away. So, it was a challenging time of trying to minister to hurting families, while we were still recovering ourselves. Thankfully, Focus Church was not affected so severely, so we were able to stay open through the month of February. The Covid situation in Hungary continues to deteriorate and on March 8^th the government introduced even more severe restrictions, so we had to move both churches back to online only ministry. Please pray for the situation to improve in Hungary. We would love to reopen our churches on Easter Sunday!

 

Focus Church:

Focus Church was open for in-person services for 6 weeks from mid-January through the end of February. We missed three of these Sundays when we were down with Covid, but it was a blessing when we were able to get back into church for the last two Sundays in February. How we had missed the fellowship of being together with other believers and also the joy of corporate worship! We were also able to have two special events during this time. On February 21^st we had a baby dedication for one of our young couples. On February 28^th we were able to welcome four new members into the church family.  Despite all the challenges that Covid has created, it is amazing to watch God working as  the church continues to grow and move forward.

 

Esztergom Baptist Church

We were open for in-person services the last two weeks of January before our outbreak moved us back to online only ministry. This has continued through all of February and now into March. Despite being closed, the virus continues to spread among our members. We currently have six members down with Covid right now. Please pray for health for our people. We hope to be able to reopen in April. On a positive note, we have made good progress in our search for a new pastor. Our leadership team had a second meeting with a prospective pastor that went very well. We hope to have this couple return in April on a Sunday, when they can meet with the entire church family. Of course, Covid complicates this, but we are hoping the situation by then will allow us to hold services in person. We are praying that if this is the Lord’s will, that we will be able to have the church vote by the end of April. Please pray for the Lord’s leadership and direction. 

 

Move to Budapest:

We are moving forward on preparations for our move to Budapest. We have a verbal agreement on the sale of our house and hope to sign the contract next week. The contract will be set up with a moving date sometime in June, so we will have a few months to prepare. We have looked at several apartments in Budapest and are hoping to come to a decision soon. Please pray for us to make a wise decision. We want the apartment to be a good investment and also a place where we can minister to our people effectively. 

 

Thank you for your prayers and faithful support of our ministry!

Baby dedication

January 2021 Prayer Letter

 Happy New Year!

We hope you all had a blessed holiday season. We were thankful that two of our daughters (Esther and Hannah) were able to be home for the holidays. Our “adopted” daughter Betty was also home from Bible college, so it seemed like we almost had a full house. This Christmas season was definitely different with all the Covid restrictions, but we were grateful to have this time together. It is a blessing to see all of our children following the Lord and serving Him!

 

Focus Church:

On November 10^th the Hungarian government imposed new restrictions due to the rapid spread of Covid 19. That meant that we could no longer have in-person services. This was disappointing, as we felt like we were just gaining momentum in our new location. We have done our best to keep our people involved and serving, and it has been great to see their response. We have often had 15-16 of our people at church helping with the livestream. This included the media team, worship team, setup crew, decoration team, prayer team and chidren’s workers who are often recording the online children’s program for the next Sunday. 

 

We are also having church members record 5 minute Gospel testimonies that we can post online. One recent week I counted 5 different videos going up during the week: the Sunday livestream, our “Focus Kids” program, a testimony, a five minute Christmas message, and a one minute promo video for the next Sunday.  We are hoping that all this exposure will bear fruit and that we will see an increase in attendance when we are able to reopen. 

 

Esztergom Baptist Church

Our search for a new pastor in Esztergom continues. We had one prospective pastor preach on November 8^th, but the following week we had to move services online, so the second prospect was not able to come. Our leadership team  met with him on Zoom, but we are waiting to reopen for him and his family to come meet the church. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s guidance in this matter.

 

A look ahead:

This next year will be a year of transition for us. My last day as pastor in Esztergom will be May 31^st. Charin will also finish out the school year at the public school here in Dorog in mid-June. Lord willing, we will move to Budapest during the summer and be able to give our full attention to the new church there. Please pray that the Lord would work in all the details!  We appreciate your friendship, prayers and support!

November 2020 Prayer Letter

                                                                                     Focus Church:

We are so blessed to be meeting at our new location and have had visitors come every week. Despite the resurgence of the Covid outbreak in Hungary, we continue to have good attendances at our services - often 60-70 which equals or exceeds our pre-Covid numbers. 

 

We have also had several special weekends at Focus Church. The first was a baptismal service held on September 20th. We were excited to baptize Barbie Toth. This was our first baptismal service since our launch, so it will always have a special place in our hearts. We pray that we will see many more baptisms follow in the next few years!

 

The second was a weekend retreat that we held October 9-11 at a conference center near Lake Balaton. We had 38 attend the weekend and had three main services focusing on three different themes: vision, surrender and evangelism. There was a lot of free time for sports, games and fellowship. Several non-members also joined us for the weekend, and I think they are drawing closer to the church.

 

The third special weekend had a focus on spiritual gifts. We had 13 of our members join us for an all day training on this subject. It was great to see the openness and desire of our people to learn and grow in this area, and also their desire for the Lord to use them in ministry. 

 

Esztergom Baptist Church

These have been busy days at our church in Esztergom as well. In September we had two weddings. Then in October we had a baptismal service. I rejoiced to baptize Adam Kruska. He is a young man of 18. It is hard to believe that I also did his baby dedication 18 years ago!

 

We have begun the search for a new pastor, and Lord willing, we will have two prospective pastors meet with our leadership team during the month of November. I can see potential in either one of them. We are trusting that the Lord will bring us the right man in his timing. Would you pray with us to that end?

 

Family news:

The big family news is the birth of our first grandchild. Ben and Kelsi welcomed their daughter Wonder Ellie Patton on October 29th. We are so excited! We will have to wait a few months to meet her in person, but we are looking forward to enjoying this new stage of life!

Prayer Letter - September 2020

We are back!

We arrived back in Hungary on August 27th, and after a week quarantine and two negative Covid tests, it has been great to get back into the ministry here once again.

 

Furlough News:

Our six weeks in the States were a whirlwind of travelling and visiting family, friends, supporters and potential supporters. I had booked a busy schedule, and we were wondering how much the Covid situation would affect our travels. It is quite remarkable that we made it to every one of our 28 scheduled commitments! We also spent quality time with our stateside family members and were able to get Hannah settled at Cedarville University. She is already in her fourth week of classes and is adjusting well. 

 

We praise the Lord that six new supporters joined our team and two others increased our support. We are praying that in the next couple of months we will see a few more partner with us.

 

New location for Focus Church Budapest

Shortly before our furlough, we were informed that we would need to find a new location for our church in Budapest. God has been faithful to provide for us, and we will soon be meeting in a large coffee shop just a 6 minute drive from our current building. The coffee shop has a large room that can seat about 100 where we will hold our worship services. It also has the main coffee shop area which we will use for fellowship and the children, and there is one smaller room that we can use for prayer and counseling.

 

Although the total area is smaller than where we have been, the coffee shop is in a much better location. It has a subway stop and a stop for one of the major trolleys. There is also a sizable public parking lot nearby with free parking. Across the street is a huge public park with a playground, basketball courts, tennis courts and a lot of open space. A few days ago, Charin and I walked around the park praying for the people who live in the area. It was great to see young people, young families and even older people taking advantage of the beautiful weather. We're already imagining holding a summer day camp in the park next summer. We will have our first service in the new location on September 27th, and we can hardly wait!

 

Prayer Requests:

For the time being, we are still pastoring our two churches and have a very busy few weeks ahead. We will have baptismal services in both churches. We also have two weddings scheduled. Our Vertical Church Conference is coming up this weekend (Sept 11-12). Please pray for strength and the Lord’s blessing on all these events! We are also beginning the search for a new pastor for our church in Esztergom. Please pray for wisdom, unity and the Lord’s leadership to be clear. Your prayers as important. Thanks for standing with us.

Marc Patton

Visit with my parents

Montázs Art Café - New Location

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