September 2026 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

 

Fall is here, and we have a very busy schedule ahead of us, but first, let me begin with an update on the past two months.

 

Church camp:

We held our church camp from August 11-14. This is always one of the highlights of our year. We had more than 80 of our people join us for four days of worship, fellowship, prayer, and fun. There were also several campers who are not yet believers. One couple has begun attending services faithfully on Sundays, and the husband is attending our small group for seekers. Please pray especially for Arpad and Edina to be saved! It was also a good time of growth for our believers. Thank you for praying.

Church camp 2026

 

Church attendance:

We averaged over 100 in attendance during the month of August with numerous visitors in attendance every week. September has started well, and we hope to maintain momentum during the fall. We have five young adults who will be joining the church officially later this month. Focus Church will celebrate its 7^th anniversary on September 27^th. Please pray for continued growth as we move into year eight. 

 

Obuda church plant:

On September 6^th we had our first core group meeting in Obuda. We found a good location for our services and will be meeting there every two weeks on Sunday mornings throughout the fall months. We have a great team of about 16-18 people right now. Most are members of Focus Church, so we are hoping to reach more people who live in the Obuda area over the next few months. Our services will be on September 20, October 4 and 18, November 1, 15 and 29, and December 13. Please pray that we will begin reaching new people. 

The team

 

National Conference on Church planting:

On October 3^rd, we will be hosting our annual conference on church planting. This is an all-day conference designed to encourage church planters and their teams and also recruit future church planters. Please pray for a good attendance, and that the Lord would continue to call out church planters into the harvest fields of Hungary. We currently work with about 25 Hungarian church planters and would love to see that number increase!

 

We value your prayers and your support. Thank you for standing with us to reach and disciple the lost people of Hungary.

 

Marc and Charin Patton

 

July 2026 Prayer Letter

 Dear Praying Friends,

 

We are well into summer and just completed our English Camp. It’s time to bring you up to date on all that has been happening. 

 

English Camp 2026!

We held our 5^th annual English Camp at Focus Church this past week (July 6-10). This was our biggest camp ever with 82 children in attendance. Some children were back for the fifth time. Many others were back for a third or fourth time, so we are building on the foundation from previous years. The vast majority of the participants are from unchurched families, so it is a tremendous opportunity to share the Gospel with children who would otherwise not hear it. 

We had a total of 17 Americans come to help this year. Their ministry was a tremendous blessing as they helped us share the love of Christ with these children. We also had a great group of Hungarian helpers from our church. One special blessing was to have several former campers who are now teenagers coming to serve as helpers. Charin was so thrilled to hear one of these teens who was saved two years ago sharing the Gospel with one of the children in his group. Several families visited church this past Sunday. Please pray that we will see them return in the future. 

Click on the video below to get an overview of the camp. 

Óbuda update:

On June 13th we held a vision meeting for our church plant in Óbuda. I think we had 18 in attendance. We had 14 of our team members present and also 4 visitors. One of the visitors had attended our worship night in April, so this was his second time, and we got to know him a bit better. The other three were new, and we will see if we can get them connected. Please pray that we will find the right location to start the church. We held the vision meeting in a basement meeting room at a local museum. This is doable, but not ideal. This past week we looked at possibilities at a local high school. We hope to begin regular core group meetings in September, so pray that we can find a location quickly.

Regular church services:

Attendance has been up and down over the past couple of months. We would really love to see a higher level of faithfulness and commitment in our members. Please pray that the Lord would give a good spirit of love, unity, and sacrificial service to our people. 

 

A look ahead:

Our next big summer event is our church family camp which will be held August 11-14. These are great opportunities to draw closer to the Lord and to each other. We also have several new families coming who are not really plugged into the church. Please pray that this camp will be a good time of growth and renewal.

Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support of our ministry!

Marc and Charin

May 2026 Prayer Letter

 Dear Praying Friends,

The past few months have been busy. Here are a few highlights. 

Focus Church - Baptismal service:

This past Sunday we baptized five young men. Each is a unique story of God’s grace. Two are young men who grew up in Christian homes, who made decisions to follow Christ. Another is a young man, who found his way back to God. Two others are young men who were recently saved in our church – one from a Catholic background, and one who was an atheist. Each one shared his testimony of salvation before being baptized. We had a great crowd with many visitors. We are praying that many of the visitors will return.

This has been a good season of outreach for our church. In February and March, we held an 8-week Bible Study for seekers. Two young ladies gave their lives to Christ through this and are now in discipleship. God is also using our online ministry, and we have had several people begin attending church who first found us online. In most cases they began by watching a few services online before coming to visit in person. Please pray that the Lord would continue to draw people to Himself through our online presence. 

Prayer and worship night in Obuda

We continue to work on building a team for our church plant in Obuda. On April 25th we rented a venue and held a night of prayer and worship. We had 45-50 in attendance. Most were from our main church, but there were several visitors who expressed interest in our new church plant. We will be following up with them in the next few weeks. Our next event in Obuda will be a “vision day” on June 6th, at which we will share our vision for the new church plant in much more detail. Please continue to pray for God to build the team and prepare the way!

Retreat for church planters

February 20-22, we held our annual retreat for church planters and their wives. We had 19 couples in attendance. These are some of the best people in the world. These men and their wives are on the front lines of advancing the Gospel, and it is always a privilege to spend a weekend with them. Hopefully we were able to encourage them before sending them back into their ministries. 

Family news:

I’m sure many of you saw my Facebook post on the passing of my mother on March 22nd. It is a great comfort to know that she is with the Lord. My father is adjusting well and continuing his teaching at Crown College in Powell, Tennessee. Charin and I made a quick trip back to the States for the funeral. It was a blessing to see our three daughters and also many family members that we had not seen for a long time. Please continue to pray for my dad and his adjustment to this new situation. 

A Look ahead:

• May 15-16 – Freedom in Christ retreat for women.

• May 25 – Evangelistic outreach in the park near the church.

• May 29-31 – Retreat with elders and their wives

• June 6 – Vision meeting in Obuda

• July 6-10 – English day camp at Focus Church. 

Thank you for your prayers and faithful support of our ministry!

Marc and Charin

Vision '26 - New church plant coming!

New church plant in 2026!

After months of prayer and seeking the Lord’s direction, our church leadership team made the decision to target a new area of Budapest for a church plant in 2026. Let me share a little bit about our plans.

 

Óbuda, District 3 of Budapest:

Óbuda is the oldest part of Budapest. The name literally means “old Buda.” This area predates the Hungarian conquest of current day Hungary. Óbuda was originally a Roman settlement dating back nearly to the times of Christ. Even today, you can see the ruins of an old amphitheater, a Roman viaduct, or various other buildings dating back to Roman times. Over the centuries Óbuda was integrated into what is now the city of Budapest. It is found on the northwest side, as you follow the Danube north out of the downtown area. 

 

Óbuda was originally a quiet, more residential area of Budapest, but during communism, huge apartment buildings were built to house tens of thousands of people. So, it is now a mix of quiet upper-middle class residential streets, and solidly middle-class families living in these apartment complexes. This area is home to 125,000 residents, making in the second most-populated district in Budapest. For some reason, it also seems to be the most unchurched area of Budapest, as well. I am only aware of four small evangelical churches in the district.

 

On September 29^th, we held a prayer walk in Óbuda. Despite the rain, we had 23 of our people show up to walk the streets and pray over this part of the city. Charin and I returned on a Saturday in October to walk and pray, and once again felt the Lord directing us to plant here.

 

Focus Óbuda will start as an outreach of Focus Church. We will be staying at our main church as we work on laying the foundations for this new church. We will begin building our church planting team in the new year.

 

Financial needs:

This past week I sat down with our church treasurer to work on our budget for next year. We tried to make a realistic assessment of what it will take to not only keep up our current ministries, but to add the new church plant, as well. By our calculations, we need to find an additional $17,000 of funding to make this all work. As you consider the Lord’s leading for your end of the year giving, would you consider partnering with us to make this vision a reality? This is a great opportunity to invest in the advancement of the Lord’s work here in Hungary!

 

You can send donations through our mission board by clicking on this link. Please make sure to designate it for “Marc Patton – Vision ‘26”. 

https://gfma-aso.donorstudio.com/category/missionaries/marc-charin-patton

 

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to drop us a line. We are so grateful to partner with you, as we seek to plant churches here in Budapest, Hungary. 

Marc and Charin Patton