November prayer letter

Dear Friends,

Baptist churches in Hungary traditionally pick one Sunday during the fall and designate it as their Thanksgiving Sunday. During the past month we celebrated our Thanksgiving Sundays in both Esztergom and Tata. I was also the guest speaker at the Baptist church in Fot on their Thanksgiving Sunday in September, and I was again for the New Hope Baptist Church in Debrecen this past weekend. I was joking with Charin that after four Thanksgiving Sundays I am feeling VERY thankful for all God has done. J Of course, we will be celebrating our American Thankgiving with missionary friends later this month. I trust you too, will take the time to think about the great blessing of having a God who is sovereign and cares for His children.

Esztergom:

One thing we are very thankful for is new converts in Esztergom. On October 30^th we baptized four new converts. It was very interesting to see the age span of those baptized. The youngest was 15 and the oldest 90! Maria, who is 90 years old, lives just down the street from the church. A few years ago she was walking down the street and heard the music coming out of our church. She decided to investigate, and has been coming ever since. It took a long time for the Gospel to pierce through the religious confusion of her Catholic upbringing, but we were pleased to see her make a profession of faith just a short time ago. I was really amazed that she was willing to “take the plunge” and be baptized at her age. It was a great testimony to our church.

The other lady baptized is named Marika. She is the first convert reached through our thrift store which we opened two years ago. The transformation in her life is visible to all. She now works as a volunteer in the thrift store and is pointing others to Christ. 

Karcsi and Mate are both members of our youth group. Karcsi is the son of church members. He invited his friend Mate to church about a year ago. It was exciting to see both of them make professions of faith and express their desire to be baptized. Mate’s parents visited our church for the first time to see him baptized. The father especially seems interested and has promised to return in the future.

Tata:

In our previous letter I mentioned my desire to bring in a national pastor to take over the church in Tata. During the past six weeks I had several meetings with the leadership there. Our five-man pulpit committee decided that we should consider Gergo Szimon, who has been serving in Esztergom as my assistant. The pulpit committee is recommending him as the next pastor of the Tata Baptist Church. Of course, the church still needs to vote on this, so Gergo will be preaching and sharing his vision with the church on November 27^th. The church will vote on him on December 11^th. Obviously, we would be thrilled if the church made this choice. Gergo has been a part of our congregation in Esztergom since he was seven years old, thus he shares very closely our vision and philosophy of ministry. If the church confirms his selection, Gergo and his family would move to Tata sometime next year to take over the ministry there. Please pray with us about this decision.

Oroszlány:

There is one other transition that I need to mention. Marci and Rachel Csiha joined our ministry in Esztergom about three years ago. They came with the desire to gain some experience before launching out into a ministry of their own. As you may recall, for the past year we have been actively helping a small Baptist church in the nearby city of Oroszlány. Marci and Rachel became very active in this work and now feel like God is calling them to move there and help rebuild this dying church. We will have a farewell service for them on November 27^th, as they will be moving in early December. We are sorry to see them go, but we are excited that Oroszlány will gain a fulltime missionary couple with a desire to see that church revived and rekindled. Please pray for them also during this time of transition. 

Summer ministry opportunity:

I would like to close by mentioning a ministry opportunity for summer 2017. A Hungarian pastor friend of mine has a baseball outreach for children and teens. He would love to have a group from America come help him do a week long baseball camp next summer. If you would be interested in this opportunity, please drop me a line. I will be happy to put you in touch with him. 

As you can see this is an exciting time, but transitions can be challenging as well. Please pray for all involved to experience God’s leadership and grace.

Serving for His Glory,

Marc Patton

Baptismal service on October 30

Csiha family on the left, Szimon family on the right.

October prayer letter

Dear Friends,

With school back in session, everyone is very busy. Esther is in her senior year of high school, so has a lot of extra school programs going on as well as drivers ed. Hannah is in ninth grade and had to choose a second language to study, so she added Spanish to go along with German, which she has studied since first grade. Of course, she is already fluent in English and Hungarian. J Charin continues to teach three days a week at two public schools in Dorog. She enjoys teaching, but doesn’t have much free time with work, family and ministry. For me, a new year of Bible Institute has begun, and all of our regular church programs are up and running again. Nancy and Ben are busy in their studies, as they both began their junior years at Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida.

Focus on Tata:

During the past few months I began talking to the leadership team in Tata about beginning the task of looking for a full-time pastor. We agreed that the time is right, and on September 18^th, I made the announcement to the church. Although most of our people knew that this time would eventually come, there was still a certain sense of surprise and even tears shed. Now two weeks later, I think that most have come to terms with this news, and it is my prayer that the church will move forward with unity. Please do not misunderstand: I am still pastoring the church in Tata, and I will be leading them through this time of transition. We want to find the right man for the job, who will maintain the philosophy and direction of the church and build on the foundation we have laid. We do have a plan in this regards, but we are going to take our time and go through the formal process, because I believe it is vital for the church to choose their next pastor and not have him “thrust on them” without their full consent. So please pray for the church in Tata and our leadership team, as we begin this process.

Please pray also for our building project in Tata. Tata has the finances to support a full-time pastor, but currently all that monthly surplus is flowing into our building project. We really need to complete the building, so that that money will be freed up to pay the new pastor’s salary. The end is in sight, but there are still several projects to be completed. The key projects are the insulation and painting of the exterior of the building, the expansion and remodelling of the mens and ladies restrooms, and the tiling of our hallway. We also need to purchase 100 new chairs for the auditorium, as we are using a combination of old chairs, and plastic lawn chairs borrowed from Esztergom. If you would like to help us complete these final projects, please send the funds to Global Faith and designate them for the “Hungary Building Fund.” 

Closing of Nagysáp:

I have mentioned in previous prayer letters that our church plant in Nagysap was struggling. Our regular weekly attendance had dwindled to one faithful adult, and a handful of not so faithful children. Over the past few years we have tried several different types of outreach to jumpstart the ministry there, but nothing has brought a breakthrough. We do not like to “quit,” especially as we have invested a lot of time, money and energy into this ministry, but we finally came to the conclusion that these could be and should be invested elsewhere.  We do not consider the past eight years a waste. We had two very clear professions of faith, who are still active in church. We also had other professions of faith, where we did not see much fruit, but God knows the heart. Scores of other adults and children heard clear presentations of the gospel. Gergo and Marci (and others) also gained valuable experience in the ministry. 

Missionaries do not like to speak of their failures, but I believe it is important to be open and honest about our ministry. During our 23 years of ministry in Hungary we have been a part of two very successful church plants, but we have also been a part of two failed church plants. It is difficult to explain why Esztergom and Tata succeeded and Nyergesujfalu and Nagysap did not, but we are trying to learn the lessons that need to be learned, so they can be applied to future churchplanting efforts. But above all we realize that any success that we have is due to the grace of God, and we rejoice in the fruit that He has given us. And we are looking forward to stepping out into other churchplanting endeavors over the next few years. So the closing of Nagysap has not discouraged us, it has rather freed us up to pursue other areas of outreach.

Well, more could be said, but we will leave the rest for our next letter. Thank you for your prayers.

Serving for His Glory,

Marc Patton

Church building in Tata - view from the front

Church building in Tata - view from the back

August 2016 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

 

Summer is winding down, and we are looking forward to the fall. Here is an update on our summer activities.

 

Family Time:

It was a huge blessing to have Nancy and Ben with us for several weeks during the summer. We are excited to see what God is doing in their lives and their desire to know Him and serve Him. We also had the opportunity to take a family vacation together. One privilege of serving in Europe is the many exciting places to visit within easy reach. This summer we were able to spend a few days in Venice, Italy and also the Zell am See area of Austria. 

 

Day Camp in Tata:

June 27-July 1^st we held our annual summer day camp in Tata. About 35 children participated this year, and more than half of the children are from families who do not attend our church. Charin was very involved in teaching and leading one of the small groups, but  our people in Tata also did an amazing job, and everything went smoothly. I brought a brief message to the parents at our closeout session. We were pleased to see one of the children return on a Sunday, and also the grandmother of another child has been to church a couple times since then and seems interested.

 

English Camp in Esztergom:

July 18-22 we held our annual English Camp in Esztergom. We had a great team of eleven Americans help during the week. We had about 55 children attend the morning camp, and about 40 teens and adults attended the evening classes. The spirit was great throughout the week. The morning is basically Vacation Bible School with an emphasis on English.  The children learn English Bible verses, stories and songs. The evening classes lean more toward language learning, but the teachers use the Bible and talk about the Lord. It is a great opportunity to plant seeds. We also invited everyone to our Sunday service where we closed out the English Camp. We were thrilled to have about 70 visitors come on Sunday, and they all heard a very clear Gospel message. 

 

Since then we have not seen any of these visitors return to church, but we are planning to invite many of them back again this fall. We will be inviting the teens to our regular youth meetings. We will be inviting teens and adults to Charin’s Monday evening English classes. I will also try to launch a monthly English Bible study for those who are interested. So we will continue our follow up on these contacts. Please pray that the Lord would work through these efforts.

 

 

Nagysáp:

During the same week as our English Camp we also held our annual VBS in Nagysap, which also went very well. We are always able to attract a good group of children, who enjoy the program and the attention of our American helpers. Our prayer was that we would see some adults and children begin attending our weekly service, but this has not come to pass yet. We continue to evaluate what the Lord would have us do in this town. 

 

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support of our ministry. God bless!

 

                                                            Serving for His Glory,

 

 

                                                            

Marc, Charin, Nancy, Ben, Esther and Hannah Patton

Patton Family in Austria

English Camp - American helpers

Prayer letter - June 2016

Dear Friends,

School is out, and we are well into our summer schedule. As a family, we are very happy to have Nancy home for a couple of months with Ben coming in July. Let me share the highlights of the past few weeks.

Children’s Day in Esztergom:

On May 28^th we held our annual Children’s Day outreach for disadvantaged children. We had a short program where I shared the Gospel, and Charin taught them a song. We then had a time of crafts, face-painting, and a chalk drawing contest out on the street. It was a great opportunity to share the love of Christ and connect with these needy families. We are praying that the seeds that were planted will bear fruit in the future.

Baptismal Service in Tata:

June 12^th was an exciting day in Tata, as we baptized five more converts. Janos and Brigi, a young married couple, have been attending our church for more than a year. Brigi was first to profess faith, and her husband was saved a few months later. I had the privilege of discipling them and then baptizing them in a nearby lake. Szilvi is a relative of one of our church members, who made a profession of faith toward the end of last year. She is a young wife, but unfortunately her husband currently shows little interest in the things of God. Please pray for him. We were also thrilled to baptize Killian and Johanna, two teenagers whose parents are members of our church. They were both saved at youth camps, which is just another motivation for us to pray fervently for this summer’s outreaches. 

Esztergom Family Camp:

June 16-20 we held our annual family camp in Balatonfoldvar, Hungary. We had a great turnout with about 70 of our people participating. It was also great to have three couples join us, who had moved away over the past few years. We were glad to reconnect with them and see how the Lord is working in their lives. It was a great privilege to have Gyorgy Varga and his wife Aniko as our special speakers. Our theme was the Christian Family, and they did a great job of both teaching and motivating our people to strive to build their families on the foundation of the Word of God. It was a great time of fun, fellowship and relaxation as well. We all felt like God drew us closer to Himself and closer to each other. 

Upcoming Events:

We have two key weeks of outreach and evangelism ahead of us. June 27-July 1 we will be holding our annual summer day camp in Tata. We have about 35 children signed up. This is an intensive week, as we have the children from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Please pray especially for the closing ceremony we will hold on Friday, July 1^st, when the parents will hear the Gospel.

July 18-22 we will hold our annual English Camp in Esztergom with classes for children in the morning and classes for teens and adults in the evenings. We have a team of eleven Americans coming to help that week. That same group will also hold a week of VBS in Nagysap. You could also pray for our ministry in Nagysap. Attendance has dwindled to just one faithful adult, and a couple of children. We continue to seek the Lord’s will in regards to the ministry in this small, but difficult town.

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support of our ministry. God bless!

                                                            Serving for His Glory,

                                                            Marc Patton and Family

Children's Day

Baptismal service in Tata

Family Camp in Balatonfoldvar

May 2016 Prayer letter

Dear Friends,

The work of the evangelist:

One of my ministry goals is to influence the Baptist churches in Hungary to reach their own people and become strong, evangelistic churches. During the past two months the Lord gave me many opportunities to minister outside our own churches. On March 18-19 I had the privilege of preaching at a fairly new church in the nearby city of Pilisvorosvar. Laszlo Nagy and his wife Katalin planted this church about 10 years ago. It was especially exciting for me, because I taught both Laszlo and his wife Katalin in a Bible Institute before they got their start. It has been a slow work, but they now have 30-40 people in attendance. We are hoping to be able to help them even more in the future.

On April 24^th I preached all day at the Baptist Church in Pesterzsebet. It was a special Sunday geared for the lost. I was pleased to see a number of people lift their hands expressing a desire to give their lives to the Lord. I spent April 26-29 teaching at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Toalmas, Hungary. I taught a class on the Christian Family to 22 second year students. I also preached to the entire student body during their Wednesday chapel. I always enjoy my time at Word of Life, as the students have a great desire both to learn and to serve the Lord.

Trip to Israel:

Perhaps the highlight of these past two months was our trip to Israel from April 6-12. It truly was a dream come true for us. I have taught Bible Geography in our Bible Institute, but there is nothing like seeing and experiencing the geography of Israel first hand. From a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, to stepping in the water of the Jordan River, floating in the Dead Sea, or simply driving through the Judean wilderness we truly got a feel for the land where so much of the Bible took place. It was also an amazing experience to pray putting my hands on the stones of the Wailing Wall, and thinking about 4,000 years of history that took place on that site from the time of Abraham to the present. It was ironic, that despite it being my first trip to Israel, I was asked to be the group leader, so I had the privilege of leading our daily devotionals, and also reading Scripture and sharing thoughts at many of the sites we visited. It was also fun to share the time with five church members from Esztergom who joined us for this trip.

Easter Outreach:

As I mentioned in our previous letter, evangelist Allen Buchanek preached for us over the Easter weekend. We held special services in Esztergom, Tata and Oroszlany. We had great services in all three locations with many visitors, and many decisions. We are now praying that some of the visitors would return and begin attending on a regular basis. In Esztergom we have had one lady who has not missed a Sunday since then. Oroszlany has also seen several return visitors.

Faith Promise Commitments:

One other recent blessing was to see a sizable increase in our faith promise commitments in Esztergom. Our attendance in Esztergom has actually dropped over the past year, so I was expecting a decrease in our missions giving. Instead we saw a 20-30% increase in the commitments for the next year. I am grateful that our people have a heart for missions and a willingness to sacrifice in their giving.

Family News:

Nancy and Ben just finished their second year of college at Trinity Baptist in Jacksonville. They have both done really well in their studies, work and ministry. Nancy will be making a mission trip to Zambia May 15-31^st. She then will fly here to Hungary on June 5^th. Ben will be coming a bit later as he has work commitments. Esther and Hannah are still in school until mid June.

Upcoming Events:

June 12 – Baptismal service in Tata.

June 16-20 – Family Camp (Esztergom)

June 27-July 1 – Day Camp in Tata.

July 18-22 – English Camp in Esztergom and VBS in Nagysap.

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support of our ministry. God bless!

                                                            Serving for His Glory,

László Nagy and family

Marc and Charin on the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem in the background

Allen Buchanek preaching in Oroszlány with Balázs Emhő translating

March 2016 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Hungary. After a mild winter, it seems like spring is on its way. We are looking forward to a great season of planting and harvesting.

Expanded leadership team in Esztergom:

On March 6^th we ordained a new elder and three new deacons. Tibor Kruska has served faithfully as a deacon over the past ten years. We have seen his gifts develop in the area of preaching, teaching and leadership. He leads a small group in his home each week and last year took on our youth group as well. This is alongside his full time job as owner of his own IT business. 

Our three new deacons are Marci Csiha, Zsolt Kovacs and Laci Puskar. Marci has been serving as a missionary in our church for the past three years. His main areas of ministry are evangelism, discipleship and Biblical counseling. He and his wife Rachel have been a great blessing. Zsolt married one of our young ladies and joined our church back in 2007. He serves in our worship team, does some preaching, and leads our young adults ministry. Laci was baptised in our church 12 years ago. He owns his own business. He and his wife are very faithful members of our church, and they host a small group in their home. Laci is also the only member of our leadership team who is older than me, and we believe that his life experience will be a blessing. I mentioned Gergo Szimon being brought on as our assistant pastor in my previous letter. We will ordain him later in a separate service. I am really excited about the men the Lord has given us. I believe that our expanded leadership team will make our church even more efficient and effective!

News from Tata:

Our attendance in Tata continues to be excellent. We have been running 70-80 on a regular basis. On March 6^th we had another baby dedication with numerous visitors , and our attendance was well over 100. With the arrival of warmer weather we are gearing up to complete our building project. We received several large gifts from Hungarian churches and individuals over the past few months, so we have the funds to move forward. Please pray for wisdom and strength in the ministry there.

News from Oroszlany:

Our team from Tata held their third “Family Night” outreach service in Oroszlany on February 28^th. We are not seeing huge attendances, but there are visitors at every service. One young couple seems very interested and close to making a decision. Please pray for Sanyi and Kata to be saved soon. Evangelist Allen Buchanek will be with us for the Easter weekend. He is a great preacher and has been a great friend over the years. He will not only be speaking for us in Estergom and Tata, but he will also be speaking in Oroszlany for their special Easter outreach service. Please pray for many visitors and decisions in all three locations!

Nancy’s trip:

February was an amazing month for Nancy, as we received a bit more than $1,000 toward her trip. Thank you so much! She is still trying to raise about $1,000, but we are making good progress toward her goal. She is planning to go to Zambia after school ends in May.

Trip to Israel:

Charin and I have long had a dream to visit Israel. Last year one of our church members in Tata got wind of this and gave us a large sum of money to cover our expenses. We are scheduled to be in Israel from April 6-12 with a group from the Baptist Union of Hungary. We are looking forward to a great time of fellowship, discovery and learning.  

Thanks again for your faithful prayers and support of our ministry. God bless!

Marc Patton

Tibor Kruska

New Leadership Team

Balazs Emho teaches the Bible in Oroszlany