February 10, 2016
Dear Friends,
It has been two months since our last update. Sorry for the delay. These have been busy days.
Trip to the US:
What a privilege it was to spend the Christmas holidays with family in the States. Nancy and Ben joined us from Florida. It is a joy to see them doing so well. We spent the first two weeks with Charin’s family in Indiana. We then were able to spend a few days with my parents in Tennessee before returning to Hungary. We love our family and appreciate their investment in our lives.
January news:
January is always a month of planning, budgets and meetings as we prepare for the new year. Pastoring two churches essentially doubles the work. The growth at our church in Tata, the building project, and the multiplication of ministries there has really forced me to adjust my schedule. Tata used to get about 20% of my time, but it now gets about 40%. I am working hard to develop leadership and also put structures in place to help us be more efficient. I think we are making good progress.
We also expanded our leadership team in Esztergom. On January 31st the church voted to bring Gergo Szimon on as assistant pastor. Gergo has been working as an intern for the past few years. He not only heads up our mission work in Nagysap, but I have been increasing his responsibilities at our main church in Esztergom. I plan to continue that process which should make my time investment in Tata a little easier. We also added three new deacons, so we will have a leadership team of seven. We are planning to ordain our new deacons in March.
New Converts and discipleship:
I have begun discipling a young couple at our church in Tata. Janos and Brigi began attending our church in Tata more than a year ago. Brigi was very open and receptive and soon made a profession of faith. Her husband came along more slowly, but he too has now professed faith in Christ. They both have requested baptism, and I am meeting with them monthly to disciple them. We have one other young lady in Tata in our discipleship program and four others in Esztergom. All these are being discipled by other church members and are preparing for baptism later this year. We are thrilled to see people coming to Christ and pray for even more fruit this year.
I did want to say thank you to those of you who sent money toward Nancy’s missions trip to Zambia. She has received $855 so far. We continue to pray for the remaining funds. She needs about $2,000 more.
There are many of exciting things ahead. We are grateful for your prayers and support.
Serving for His Glory,
Marc Patton Family
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| Patton Family Christmas 2015 |
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| Gergő and Rose Szimon |
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| Janos and Brigi Nagy |
