f you have any questions about this opportunity, please drop me a line.
If you need the video in higher quality, you can download the original from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/
If you would like to make a donation toward this need please click the link below and make sure to designate the money to Marc Patton Hungary, rental expenses.
https://globalfaithmission.denarionline.com/Missionaries/Detail/?missionary=Patton%2010137
Thanks so much!
During the past few months, we have seen unprecedented growth in our church. Here are a few highlights.
New Members:
On March 5th we received seven new adults into the church membership. We have prayed much for families with children. We are so glad we could add Zoltan and Zsani who have a five-year-old son. Both Peter and his wife Sara, and Joci and his wife Evelin were married in the past year and moved to Budapest. They are great young couples with a lot of potential. And we are thankful for Panna as well who is a university student. All seven have jumped into the church and become active in the church life.
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| New Members |
Baptismal Service:
Definitely the highlight of the past couple of months was our baptismal service which we held on March 19th. Eight adults bore testimony to their desire to follow Jesus by following the Lord in believers’ baptism. All are young adults between the age of 17 and 35. We were grateful to see Benji and Roberta Lakatos get baptized together. They are a young couple with a three-year-old daughter. The others are single young adults. We do a one-on-one discipleship program with all our converts, so each of these met multiple times with a mentor who took them through the 12 lessons we have prepared on salvation, assurance, spiritual growth, baptism, church membership and helping them find their personal gifts and calling. This gives them a good foundation for the Christian life, and a strong relationship they can lean on in the future.
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| The eight who were baptized |
This was our biggest service ever. We had more than 250 in attendance with numerous visitors.
You can find more pictures of the service by clicking on this link: click here for more pictures
Larger venue:
Our biggest prayer request now is for a larger venue. We have really maxed out the coffee shop where we meet. We are currently looking at other options. Please pray that the Lord would open the right door for us. It is not easy to find a location in our area of Budapest that meets all the criteria needed for a growing church, and fits our available budget.
These are exciting times! Thanks so much for standing with us in your prayers and support!
Marc and Charin Patton
Dear Friends,
We are already well into the new year. We are off to a great start and looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us!
Elder ordination:
On December 11th we ordained two new elders. Tamas Kertesz and Leandro Torres have both been with us from the very start of the church, faithfully and humbly serving in worship and media and as leaders of small groups. They each have unique gifts from the Lord and have personally been such a blessing to me. I praise the Lord for the great leadership team He has given us!
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| Elder ordination |
Christmas in Florida:
We were so excited to be able to spend two weeks in the US to celebrate Christmas with our four kids and their families. We were also able to see our new granddaughter Eden Sage for the first time. These were precious days that we had together. We also drove up to Tennessee to visit my parents and sister which was also a blessing. We returned to Hungary on January 6th to start a busy month of ministry.
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| Christmas 2022 |
More discipleship training:
On January 21st we had our annual training on spiritual gifts and calling. We had 24 people in attendance making it our biggest group yet. It was a great opportunity for our people to discover their gifts and calling and better understand the unique way God has prepared them to serve in His kingdom. We closed out the day with a great time of prayer, and we have received a lot of positive feedback. I am praying we will see much fruit as many of our new members become more active and involved in ministry.
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| Training on Spiritual Gifts and Calling |
A Look Ahead:
1. On February 11th we will hold our first Valentine’s dinner for married couples. Please pray that many visitors attend and all goes well.
2. On March 5th we will be receiving nine new adults into church membership.
3. On March 19th we will hold our next baptismal service. Please pray for all the preparations.
These are exciting times! Thanks so much for standing with us in your prayers and support!
Marc and Charin Patton
Dear Friends,
Here is our December prayer letter!
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner. We are looking forward to a great month of December and also stepping into the new year! Here is the news from October and November.
New leaders:
In March of this year, we began a leadership training program with nine key individuals. Our goal was to prepare some of them to take leadership of various ministries and others to step into roles in personal discipleship, counseling, or teaching/training. On November 6th we installed 6 of them into leadership positions. The other three are all involved in our personal discipleship program and also participating in teaching and training. We are now looking forward to beginning leadership training with a new group in 2023. One of our goals is multiplication of leaders, and we are excited that God has brought us many more potential leaders in whom to invest.
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| New Leaders |
Discipleship Training:
This fall we added 2 new all-day training events that we plan to do on at least an annual basis. One was on Bible Study and the other on Personal Evangelism. We had 17-18 participants at each of these two events. It is our goal for all our members to go through our “Freedom in Christ” weekend, and also our all-day training events on Spiritual Gifts, Bible Study and Personal evangelism.
Outside Speaking events:
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| Summer Camp |
New Members!
On September 18th we added seven new members to our church. We were especially excited that six of the new members were ages 40 or older! Up to this point 85% of our members were 35 or younger, so we have been praying for a few members from our generation. We are excited to see how the Lord will use them in our church.
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| New Members |
3 Year Anniversary
On September 18th we also celebrated the three-year anniversary of Focus Church. What a joy it was to look back at the blessings of the past few years. God has given us tremendous growth, and we are slowly outgrowing the coffee shop. We are looking forward to what God has in store for us in year number four!
New Pastor in Esztergom On September 25th Joseph Steiner was installed as the next pastor of our former church in Esztergom. Joseph is about my age and has been involved in church planting, pastoring and Christian education for a number of years. We are praying that God will use him and his wife Csilla to move the church to the next level. Thanks so much for standing with us in your prayers and support! Marc and Charin Patton |
Dear Friends,
These have been busy and exciting times. Here is an update:
Summer Day Camp!
Thank you so much for praying for our first English Day Camp here in Budapest. Everything went so well. We had a great team arrive from Fellowship Baptist Church in Thonotosassa, Florida to help with the teaching and also had 14 of our church members there nearly every day helping with games, crafts, meals, and translation. The 21 children who participated came from 16 different families – and none of these families attend our church…yet! (an on-going prayer request!) On the last day of camp, we had a “closing ceremony” and invited the parents to come. Every family was represented. They saw their children perform, and I brought a brief message. We invited them all back to attend our Sunday service. We were so pleased to have 5 families come back on Sunday. They were able to experience what a church service looks like for us, and I preached a Gospel message. We had several good conversations after church. We have been praying that we could reach at least one family through the camp, and God has given us a good connection with one the families. I have emailed back and forth with the father a few times, and he came to church this past Sunday. Would you please join us in prayer for Szabolcs and his family?
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| Closing ceremony for parents |
Trip to Zanzibar:
July 13-26 we travelled to Zanzibar, Africa to visit our son Ben, his wife Kelsi, and our granddaughter Wonder. We were glad that our daughter Hannah Grace was also able to travel with us. Ben had asked Charin and me to teach a weekend retreat to their national workers on the Christian Family. We taught one full day on marriage, and a second day on parenting. We really enjoyed interacting with their people, but it was also a huge challenge, as we came face to face with some major cultural differences. But we received a lot of positive feedback and pray that the Lord will use what we taught to build strong marriages and families.
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| Family seminar |
We also had a great time getting reacquainted with our granddaughter. She is now about 22 months old, so she is at a very fun stage. And, of course, we had some good time of sight-seeing and relaxation as well. Please pray for Ben and family. They are expecting baby number two in September and have travelled back to the States for the birth.
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A look ahead:
1. Our next big event will be our church’s family camp which will be held August 24-28. We have about 60 people signed up, so we are excited about that. Please pray for a great week of drawing closer to the Lord and each other!
2. We are looking forward to several special events in September including celebrating our church’s 3rd anniversary on September 18th.
Thanks so much for standing with us in your prayers and support!
Marc and Charin Patton
Summer Day Camp - Please Pray!
Our summer day camp is right around the corner. July 4-8 we will have 21 children attending our first ever English day camp at Focus Church Budapest. It is really exciting that none of these children are from our church. Most of them are from the public school where Charin teaches English. To the best of our knowledge they are all from unchurched families. We are so excited about the opportunity to connect with these families and share with them the love of Christ. Please pray that the Lord will open the hearts of the children through the camp, and also that we would be able to connect with the parents as they drop off and pick up their children. We will also invite all the parents to a closing program on Friday the 8th. And we are thankful for the team from Fellowship Baptist Church in Thonotosassa, Florida who are coming to help. Thank you for your prayers!
Pentecost Picnic and Volleyball outreach:
Pentecost Monday is a holiday in Hungary, and we held a picnic at the park next to our church. We encouraged our people to invite friends and family who do not attend our church to come join us. Many visitors did come. The volleyball was a big hit. Since then we have been setting up the volleyball net on Monday evenings in the park, and we have had a lot of people come out. We even had a few people join us who were just passing by and stopped to watch. A couple of the people we have connected with through the volleyball have even come out to church. Please pray for these opportunities to reach out in the community!
A look ahead:
1. On May 22nd and May 29th we will be holding membership classes for people interested in church membership. Several families have already registered, and we are looking forward to seeing who all will come. We continue to pray for 25 new members in 2022.
2. Pentecost Monday (June 6th) is a national holiday in Hungary. We are planning a cookout and picnic that day. We will be encouraging our people to bring visitors as well to give them a chance to connect with our church. Please pray for a great time of fellowship and relationship building.
3. We have had 20 children register thus far for our summer English day camp. Most of these are from the public school where Charin teaches. We are praying for 40 children - primarily from unchurched families. Please pray with us to this end!
Thanks so much for standing with us in your prayers and support!
