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