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