We do cherish your prayers as we head toward the completion of our last week here.

Moving day: We spent much of the last week packing up between church and calling. Kim and Ethan came with 6 of their kids Tues. – Caleb came to help with moving; the five youngest came to go to the dentist and see us – except that Joanna just came with Kim as she is still nursing. Our moving truck did not arrive until mid-afternoon. We had two young men from the church assist us moving, and they started actually moving items outside just after 2 pm. It was 8 pm before they finished but another hour before Ethan and Caleb finished. Everyone was pretty much exhausted. Fortunately Ethan supervised packing as well as provided much man-power. He packs well; otherwise, we would not have been able to get everything into the truck. After Ethan and Kim and family left about 9pm, we continued to move more items to the house where we are staying. I fell into bed at 1 A.M. and Liz, about 40 minutes later.

Yesterday, we finally got everything else out of the house. Some went with Kalow Palata, and some with Sivita Fables, who works for us. Our dogs went with Sivita and her husband Peter, who broke down the doghouse and will build it back on their property. We are now resorting through the things which we brought over to the house where we are staying, aiming to keep our things to 4 suitcases.

To back up, Sunday was our last regular day at church. I preached my last sermon, emphasizing trusting the Lord and the necessity of outreach with the gospel. It seemed to go well. After the service, we went to visit a lady who had survived 2 cancers, and is caring for her mentally incapacitated elderly husband, who has been basically abandoned by his family. Later, we spent over 3 hours with two different individuals who brought their future spouses to meet us. We had a good time, and spent time advising each couple.

Our schedule: We will have our last service, basically a good-bye service, this Sunday, which is also a national holiday (Independence Day). We anticipate that it will be a somewhat emotional service, with all four churches meeting together. They are planning on putting up a temporary shelter (we are in rainy season) which will essentially cover the entire property, and add seating for about 400 persons in addition to the 400 who can sit in the church itself.

Tuesday morning we will leave for Miami. Because they cancelled our afternoon flight from Miami, we will overnight there, and arrive in South Bend July 4th. We plan to see Marc and Charin with their four children next week Friday and Saturday; they will be returning to Hungary early the following week. I will preach in a supporting church that first Sunday all day, and then report briefly to our home church the following Sunday night. A week later, we hope to be heading south to Powell, Tennessee. We plan to pack a “cube” or “pod” to be delivered to Powell shortly after our arrival.

Our email: PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING: bpatton@baptistworldmission.org. They will forward the messages to us. After we settle in at Crown College, we will know what our email addresses will be, but this address should reach us at all times. They forward email to the current address.

Our cell telephone: Beginning July 3rd, I anticipate having the following number: 574­­-303-9669.

Prayer requests:

1. Safety this last week here
2. Strength for getting the necessary things done
3. Our spiritual growth
4. Finishing packing and sorting
5. The last service to be honoring to the Lord, that He might be glorified
6. Some counseling which we hope to be able to do before leaving
7. Our trip – safety, the luggage to arrive OK, connections, and our overnight stay in Miami.