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

June 2019 Prayer Letter

Vertical Church Conference II.

May 10-11 nearly 700 individuals from 140 churches gathered in Kecskemét, Hungary for our second Vertical Church Conference. Our five main sessions focused on the main theme of discipleship. We also provided workshops on prayer, worship, small groups, Biblical soul care and foreign missions. The goal of our conference was to both inspire and instruct church leaders in how to develop churches that glorify God by making disciples. It was our prayer that we would not only talk about the glory of God but experience it as well. We felt like God once again answered this prayer. Here is a brief quote from an attending pastor: “Last year I felt like it would be impossible to top this conference, but I was wrong…God’s presence could be felt so powerfully this year, that it seemed we could almost see Him with our physical eyes…”We are so grateful for the Baptist Church in Kecskemét, who hosted the conference. I continue to work with two Hungarian pastor friends (Samuel Mike and Barnabas Uzonyi) in leading this movement. Please pray as we seek the Lord’s direction for future plans. 

Budapest church plant:

We continue to cast vision with our church planting team in Budapest. We now have 19 committed team members with several others still seeking the Lord’s leadership. We are very thankful for a couple that recently committed who have four children. Hopefully they will be able to help us reach other families in the future. One of our goals for this time period is to see our team drawing closer to each other. On June 10^thwe held a church picnic at a park in Budapest. We had a great time of food, fellowship, sports and games. We also continue to seek a location to launch the church in September. We have a really good lead that we are looking at now. Please pray that the Lord would give definite direction in this area!

Esztergom:  

Our church in Esztergom continues to grow. We have two new families that have begun attending this year. We are hoping to see them commit to the church in the near future. We also have two big events happening in the next month. June 26-30 we will be having our Family Camp in Balatonföldvár with about 60 of our people. July 8-12 will be our annual English camp which is geared for evangelism and outreach. Please pray for God’s blessing on both of these events!

Family news:

Ben and Kelsi left for Zanzibar, Africa on June 18^thto begin their ministry there. Please pray for them as they adjust to a new culture, begin language studies, and step into their new ministry. Nancy and Keith plan to move to California in August. Please pray for them as well, as they are looking for housing and jobs. Esther is home for the summer and will return to Jacksonville in August to begin her junior year of college. Hannah has one more year of school here in Hungary. 

Thanks for standing with us in prayer. We wish you a blessed summer!

                                                                        The Marc Patton Family

Vertical Church Conference

Budapest team picnic

May Prayer Letter

Wedding News:

Our daughter Nancy was married on April 22nd in Jacksonville, Florida. We are very happy for Nancy and her husband, Keith Wood. They both love the Lord and look forward to serving Him together. The wedding was beautiful, and it was great to celebrate together with family and friends. Although our time in the US was short, we felt like we were able to spend a lot of time with all of our kids. Nancy and Keith plan to move to California this summer, where Keith will be in graduate school. Ben and Kelsi are nearing the end of deputation and are hoping to leave for Zanzibar by early summer. Esther just completed her second year at Trinity Baptist College.  We are excited to see each of our children pursuing God’s plan for their lives. 

Budapest church plant:

We are now holding core group meetings every Sunday afternoon in downtown Budapest. Almost every week we have someone new visit who is interested in joining our church plant. Daniel and I have been meeting with these individuals to answer questions and to see if they will be a good fit with our philosophy and vision. We now have 31 adults on our list of potential members, with 13 who have committed to the church plant thus far and many others are still praying and seeking the Lord’s guidance in this area. Please pray that the Lord would lead us to exactly those people whom He wants to be a part of a new church in downtown Budapest. 

Baptismal Service in Esztergom:

On March 24th I had the privilege of baptizing Gyorgy Pusztai. We have been praying intensively for the unsaved husbands of our church members. Gyorgy was one of those. He began attending church regularly, and at first seemed unmoved by the preaching. It was a joy to see a dramatic change in His life over the past year, as he moved from a passive observer to an active seeker of God. We are now praying for his adult children to come to the Lord.

Vertical Church Conference II.

Some of you may remember that we held a nationwide Vertical Church Conference last year in Kecskemet, Hungary. We had a remarkable turnout last year of about 400 participants from more than 90 churches. We will be holding our second conference this Friday and Saturday (May 10-11) once again in Kecskemet. We have been amazed to see even more interest this year. We have more that 650 registered from about 140 different churches! We sense a true hunger for the glory of God to be manifested in our churches in a fresh, new way. This year’s conference theme is discipleship. Please pray for the presence of God to be manifested in a special way, and that the Holy Spirit would fan the flames of greater passion for worship and missions!

 

Wedding picture of our kids

Gyorgy Pusztai at his baptism

March 2019 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

Here is our March prayer letter. 

Our ministry in Hungary is now divided into three major areas: Esztergom, Budapest and national ministry. We are excited to see God working in all three.

Esztergom:

The past few months have been time of transition in Esztergom. After 23 years of meeting on Sunday afternoons, we moved our Sunday services to the mornings at 10.00 AM. It was amazing to see a noticeable increase in attendance from the very first week. We have had visitors almost every week, and one new family has begun attending regularly. God seems to have confirmed that this was the right move for our church, and everyone has been adjusting their Sunday schedules accordingly. The other big transition was having our new worship pastor take over the leadership of the worship team. Daniel Révész was officially installed as worship pastor on March 10th. He and his wife have been settling in nicely into their new roles. Charin has been leading the worship team for the past 9 years and will still be a part but without all the pressure and responsibility of leading.

Budapest:  

I sent out a separate email in regards to our first vision meeting which we held on February 23rd with 21 participants. Since then we have been trying to meet with each team member individually to get to know them better, answer questions, and also see how they can best fit into the church planting team. On March 17th we began holding core group meetings at a Christian coffee shop in downtown Budapest. They have a small meeting room that we can use for our services. We were pleased to have two new people come on the 17th. We will now be meeting weekly on Sunday evenings at 5:00 PM. Please pray that the core group will grow in unity, commitment and number over the next few months. We are really amazed at the great group of people the Lord has given us already!

National ministry:  

On March 1-2 Daniel and I drove down to Stara Moravica, Serbia to hold a mini Vertical Church conference at the Hungarian Baptist ministry center there. There are only 4-5 Hungarian speaking Baptist churches in Serbia, and I don’t think any of them run more than 50 in attendance. We had a good group of 20-30 representatives from these churches spend two days learning about how to develop a more God-centered focus in their ministry. We got a lot of good feedback from the participants and hopefully this weekend will leave a lasting impact on the churches there.

Family News:

Our daughter Nancy will be married to Keith Wood on April 22nd in Jacksonville, Florida. We are looking forward to a quick trip to the States (April 15-26) to be there for the wedding. We will also be able to spend time with Ben, Kelsi and Esther. Please pray for safe travels and a beautiful, God-honoring wedding!

We appreciate your prayers and support!

Marc Patton

Daniel and Agi Revesz

Group in Serbia

First Budapest Vision Day

Dear Friends,

Thank you for praying for our first vision day in Budapest. It was an incredible day. Many of the people had never met each other, and it was amazing to see how the Lord gave us a spirit of unity through the course of the day. The worship was tremendous. I don't think I've ever heard 21 people sing with that much passion. The prayer walk also went extremely well. We broke into three groups and walked to three different points in the city to pray for each other, the lost people around us, the church plant and the city of Budapest. It was great to see the fervency of the prayers of the people in our group. The sharing of the vision also went well. The Lord helped me communicate the vision of a church with a passion for glorifying God by making disciples. Our small group discussions gave people the opportunity to dig deeper into the vision and also share their own thoughts and ideas. As you can see in the attached picture, the Lord has given us predominantly young people between the age of 20 and 30. I am thrilled to have them to help us reach out to their generation.

What are the next steps?

1) We will be doing follow up visits with all the participants. We have asked them to pray for the Lord's clear leadership in whether or not they should join our church planting team. We will be meeting with them to answer questions and get to know them better. It is my hope and prayer that the vast majority of this group will join our church plant and form the base of our core group.

2) We hope to begin holding weekly core group meetings in mid-March. It seems that Sunday afternoons will work best for most of our people. We are currently looking for the best venue for these meetings. We will be looking at a couple of possible locations this week, so please pray about that.

And one more request:

Our new worship pastor will be joining me in holding a two day Church Conference in Serbia this Friday and Saturday. This will be my first time to serve in Serbia. Please pray that God will give these churches a vision for God-centered churches with a passion for worship, evangelism and discipleship. By the way, the churches we are ministering to are Hungarian speaking churches located in northern Serbia near the Hungarian border.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Marc

Who said church planting can't be fun? 

January 2019 Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

Here is our latest prayer letter. You will find a copy suitable for printing in the attachment.

Family News:

Our biggest news is that our oldest daughter Nancy got engaged during the Christmas holidays. We are very excited! She has been dating her fiancé, Keith Wood, for about three years now. Interestingly, Keith’s parents are missionaries in Germany, and like Nancy, Keith grew up on the mission field. They have both graduated from Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida, and Keith is currently working at the college in the admissions department. Nancy works at a local credit union and continues to work on developing her writing career. The wedding will take place on April 22^ndin Jacksonville, so we will make a quick trip back to the States for the wedding. Please pray for the preparations to go well and for a great, Christ-honoring celebration!

Esztergom:

December was a tremendous month at our church in Esztergom. We had a new family of five begin attending. They are believers who have been looking for a church home. They seem excited and have already plugged into a small group. We also had a university student from Budapest begin attending. He is a classmate of one of our young people. He is not yet saved but is definitely seeking the Lord. I have begun meeting with him weekly, and Lord willing, we will see him saved soon and also be able to plug him into our Budapest church plant when we get started there. 

Preparation for Budapest:

Preparation for our church plant in Budapest has been picking up momentum. Several new people have expressed interest in joining the church plant. We currently have a group of eight from our church in Esztergom. We also have thirteen others who either live or study in Budapest. Eight members of the core group are university students in Budapest. One of our goals in planting the church is to reach out to the university students, as we know that they are the future leaders of Hungary. These eight young people should give us a good open door into university ministry. On February 23^rdwe will be gathering the whole team for the first time. This will be an all-day event where we will share vision, get to know each other, discuss plans and spend intensive time in the Word, worship and prayer. Please pray that God will form us into a cohesive unit who can work well together to build His kingdom in Budapest. In March we would like to begin holding regular mid-week meetings to build the core group and spend time in prayer together. Please pray that we will find the best location for these meetings. Rent in downtown Budapest in not cheap!

Let me close by expressing our gratitude for your prayers and support throughout this past year. We could not do what we are doing without your help. 2018 was a great year of ministry, and we are looking forward to even greater things in 2019!

Marc

Nancy and Keith

Some of our church planting team