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