Seasons of Surrender | Mark & Paula Batory

The Book

We never planned to write a book.

For years, friends encouraged us to tell the story of our life and ministry, but we thought of it simply as the life God had given us. Then one evening on our back deck, Mark wondered aloud how many of the Lord’s mercies we had already forgotten. Not long afterward, Paula began discovering boxes of letters in the attic: letters and ministry reports she had written and saved throughout our years of service.

Those pages brought back the mountain roads of Mexico, the people we had grown to love, prayers answered in ways we could not explain, and seasons we would never have chosen for ourselves. What began as an effort to remember became an opportunity to bear witness to the Lord’s faithfulness.

Seasons of Surrender is a personal account of marriage, family, missionary service, illness, redirection, leadership, and letting go. Some moments are joyful. Others are difficult to revisit. In all of them, we have been learning the same lesson: the Lord can be trusted, even when we cannot see what He is doing. Even in difficult seasons, He has given us reasons to rejoice in Him.

“What follows is not merely our story. It is the story of the Lord’s faithfulness through every season of surrender.”

From Mark’s preface

The Four Seasons

Four seasons. One faithful God.

We have come to understand that surrender changes its shape as life unfolds. Each season asked something different of us. In every season, the Lord was teaching us to trust Him more deeply.

Trust

Surrendering the Strength of Our Youth

We left Michigan as newly married missionaries, traveled to Texas for language school, and eventually made our home among the mountains and villages of Mexico. We began with willing hearts, but willingness had to grow into daily dependence. The Lord taught us through unfamiliar roads, empty cupboards, precious friendships, and prayers as simple as asking for breakfast.

Trial

Surrendering Our Way in the Wilderness

We had made plans for the work we loved. Then illness and circumstances beyond our control interrupted those plans. We struggled with questions we could not answer and waited for doors we hoped would open again. Slowly, we learned that trusting the Lord meant loving Him more than the place, the work, or the future we had imagined.

Refinement

Surrendering to an Unchosen Path

When we could not return to the ministry we had expected, the Lord led us along a path we never could have imagined. New doors opened for the Gospel among people and places we had not planned to reach. Yet through those unexpected redirections, we began to understand that God was doing more than changing our circumstances. He was refining our hearts, deepening our trust, and teaching us to surrender not only our plans but our expectations of how He would use us. What first appeared to be a closed door became another chapter in His faithful leading.

Release

Surrendering What We Cannot Keep

In later years, surrender began to look less like leaving and more like releasing. We faced loss, changing strength, concerns for those we love, and the responsibility of entrusting work to others. We are still learning that the God who led us when we were young is just as faithful in the seasons when He asks us to let go.

Inside the Pages

The stories are ours. The lessons belong to every believer.

We wrote about what the Lord has taught us through the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of life. These themes run through the pages:

Trust in the ordinary

Sometimes the lesson came through a single meal, a difficult conversation, or a need no one else could see.

Grace in the unexpected

Sometimes His answer was not the answer we wanted, and the greatest work was what He was doing in our hearts.

Love that walks together

Marriage, family, churches, and faithful friends were not side stories. They were among God’s gifts along the road.

Peace in releasing

Sometimes obedience meant going. At other times it meant staying, waiting, or placing something precious back into His hands.

An Invitation

Your season may look nothing like ours.

You may never live in another country or serve in full-time ministry. You may be a young person wondering what the Lord wants of your life, a parent carrying a burden for your family, a believer whose plans have unexpectedly changed, or someone entering a season you never anticipated.

Our prayer is not that you will finish these pages impressed with what we have done. It is that you will be encouraged to trust what the Lord can do in a life yielded to Him and discover the joy of walking with Him, right where He has placed you.

The deeper question has never been, “Will God ask me to live a life like theirs?” It is, “Will I trust Him with the life He has given me?”

A Story from Season One

Three eggs.

During language school in Texas, our food was nearly gone and the next support check was still two weeks away. Paula prayed for three eggs for the following morning. We learned something about God’s care, and about how much we still needed to learn to trust Him.

“The next morning, Paula eagerly looked outside the door of our little travel trailer. There, sitting on our patio chair, was an egg carton. For a moment, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. She picked it up, opened it, and called for me to come. Inside were three eggs. Exactly three. Not more, not less. The Lord had answered her prayer with such tenderness and precision that there was no way to explain it away. With tears of rejoicing, we scrambled them and squeezed a little ketchup over them from a single leftover fast-food packet.”

Excerpt from Chapter 2, “The Calling Forward”

The story did not end with those three eggs. Before the day was over, the Lord provided far more food than our little trailer could hold. But the deeper gift was the lesson He was teaching us about dependence on Him.

Get the Rest at Launch

Meet the Authors

Mark & Paula Batory

We met as teenagers who shared a desire to serve the Lord. We married in 1977 and began missionary service the following year. Over the decades, God led us through service in Mexico, church planting, ministry among Spanish-speaking people, missions leadership, and care for fellow servants of Christ.

Our lives have never been free from difficulty, but they have been rich in the kindness of God. We have shared the road as husband and wife, parents, coworkers, and, most importantly, two people still learning what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

Much of this book is told through Paula’s eyes, drawing on the letters and records she faithfully preserved. Mark’s reflections are woven through the account. Though our perspectives differ, the story is one we have lived together.

Paula

Wife, mother, missionary, and storyteller. For many years Paula wrote the letters and ministry reports that would one day help us remember the Lord’s faithfulness through every season.

Mark

Missionary, church planter, and missions leader. Mark’s reflections trace the calling, decisions, relationships, and releases through which the Lord has continued to teach him to trust.

We never set out to write a book.

One evening, Mark wondered how many of the Lord’s mercies we had forgotten. Not long afterward, Paula found boxes of letters and ministry reports she had saved throughout our years of service.

Those pages brought back the people, places, joys, and sorrows of a life spent following Christ. They became the beginning of Seasons of Surrender.

Trust. Trial. Refinement. Release.

01 · Trust

Surrendering the Strength of Our Youth

We left the familiar behind to serve the Lord, and began learning to trust Him for the ordinary needs of each day.

02 · Trial

Surrendering Our Way in the Wilderness

When illness interrupted the work we loved, we faced the difficulty of trusting the Lord without knowing what came next.

03 · Refinement

Surrendering to an Unchosen Path

When the Lord closed the door to the ministry we had expected, He opened doors we had never anticipated, refining our hearts as He redirected our steps.

04 · Release

Surrendering What We Cannot Keep

As the years passed, we learned to entrust the people, responsibilities, and seasons we could not hold forever to the Lord.

From Season One

Three eggs.

While we were attending language school in Texas, our food had run out. Paula asked the Lord to provide three eggs for breakfast the next morning.

“There, sitting on our patio chair, was an egg carton. For a moment, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. She picked it up, opened it, and called for me to come. Inside were three eggs. Exactly three. Not more, not less.”

Read the full story

“The next morning, Paula eagerly looked outside the door of our little travel trailer. There, sitting on our patio chair, was an egg carton. For a moment, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. She picked it up, opened it, and called for me to come. Inside were three eggs. Exactly three. Not more, not less. The Lord had answered her prayer with such tenderness and precision that there was no way to explain it away. With tears of rejoicing, we scrambled them and squeezed a little ketchup over them from a single leftover fast-food packet.”

From Chapter 2 · The Calling Forward

Get the Rest at Launch

Mark & Paula Batory

We met as teenagers who shared a desire to serve the Lord. We married in 1977 and began missionary service soon afterward. Through ministry in Mexico, family life, illness, unexpected changes, and later years of service, we have been learning to trust Him together.

Much of the book is told through Paula’s memories and preserved letters, with Mark’s reflections woven throughout.

“We do not get to choose every chapter, but we do get to decide whether we will trust the Author.”

From the epilogue of Seasons of Surrender

About the Book

Title: Seasons of Surrender
Authors: Mark & Paula Batory
Publisher: Quellsicht
Format: Paperback

Questions

What is Seasons of Surrender?

Seasons of Surrender is a memoir by Mark & Paula Batory: a personal account of marriage, family, missionary service, illness, redirection, leadership, and letting go, told across four seasons: Trust, Trial, Refinement, and Release.

Who are Mark and Paula Batory?

Mark and Paula Batory met as teenagers who shared a desire to serve the Lord. They married in 1977 and began missionary service the following year. Their service included Mexico, church planting, ministry among Spanish-speaking people, missions leadership, and care for fellow servants of Christ. Paula is a wife, mother, missionary, and storyteller; Mark is a missionary, church planter, and missions leader.

Who publishes the book?

Seasons of Surrender is published by Quellsicht (quellsicht.com).

Stay in Touch

We would love to share the book with you.

Stay in touch.

Seasons of Surrender is planned for release in mid-November 2026. Leave your name and email to receive an announcement when it is available and occasional updates as we prepare for publication.

Seasons of Surrender is planned for release in mid-November 2026. Leave your name and email to receive an announcement when it is available.

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A Final Thought

The story was never ours to write alone.

The Lord has been faithful through every season behind us. We trust Him with whatever pages remain. Our hope is that as you read our story, you will be encouraged to leave the pen in His hand as well.

“May we never take the pen from His hand but simply yield the page and let Him keep writing.”

From the epilogue Notify Me When the Book Is Available