Merry Christmas from Randy, Julia, Caren, and Robbie Peck!

More than anything else, I want my family to be blessed by God and for us to bless Him by fulfilling His purposes for us. Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life. Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life, simplifies your life, focuses your life, motivates your life, and prepares you for eternity. Living on purpose is the path to peace. The Bible says “You LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3, TEV)

My theme verse for 2004 comes from Matthew 6:13: “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.” Rick Warren, the author of the book The Purpose Driven Life , preached on this last phrase of the Lord’s Prayer in his 8 week sermon series titled "The Lord's Prayer: Path to Inner Peace". Rick calls the last phrase of the Lord’s Prayer "the prayer of blessing." In his sermon CD, Rick states that there are 3 secrets to being blessed by God, namely seeking God’s kingdom first, depending on His power (i.e. that’s faith), and living for God’s glory.

In early 2002, I wrote down my commitment to increase my daily quiet time (QT) with God to an average of 4 hours by 2012 after Michael Stay coached each person in our Christian accountability group to write down our 5-10 year visions. For the last 3 months of 2003, I prayed frequently for God to give me the courage to step out in faith to commit to increase my daily QT from 2 to 4 hours by the start of 2004. I knew that I was very busy and realized that the only way to slow down and accomplish much more was to spend more time with God. I knew from first hand experience that God takes everything we give from our hearts and multiplies it miraculously. It’s a paradox that spending more time with God allows us to accomplish more in the time that remains. I asked God to make my life and my family’s life a testimony of His goodness and greatness when someone truly puts Him first in all aspects of his life, including time, talent, and treasure. In January 2004, I began spending an average of 4 hours of daily QT and started on-line prayer journaling, which I had heard about from Rick Warren. Those two habits resulted in the most blessed year ever by far for me and my family.

While there were many highlights in 2004, for me, three of the most special were the 70th birthday celebration of Jane Kim (Julia’s mother) in Feb, our first-ever family trip to Europe in August, and a four member family baptism on Nov 21, including Julia, Robbie, Issi (Julia’s identical twin sister), and Angelika (Issi’s daughter).

In August, we flew to Europe to spend 1 day in London and 8 days in Italy, including Milan, Verona, Venice, and Rome. For each of us, the highlight of our entire Europe trip was the time we spent with Rosa’s family in Verona. You see, from 1959-1963, when I was just a little child, Rosa lived and served my immediate family in the capacity of a nanny. She has always treated my brothers and me like we were her sons. She has been like a second mom to us. What a blessing it was to grow up with 3 loving parents. God teaches that to those who have been given much, much is required.

God blessed Julia with a great year and good health. Julia’s two greatest passions are fitness and graphical design. A few of her accomplishments this year included earning her second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Doe, winning numerous running events for her age group, and placing first overall in the Xterra triathlon series for her age group in this region of the country. This year Julia introduced two of her friends to triathlon competitions. Her team, called “Splash, Dash, and No Road Rash,” placed first in the coed division at the Lake Anna half Ironman triathlon (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13 miles) and Richmond Sprint Triathlon.

Julia had a variety of part-time jobs - this included teaching skiing, kickboxing, and Tai Chi, serving as a personal trainer, working at Cameron Street Coffee House, and doing graphical design, including business cards, post cards, etc.

Caren is 19 and in her 2nd year at the College of William and Mary. This Fall she qualified to be accepted into the highly competitive Business School at W&M. In late Dec 2003, Caren went to Illinois with Andrea Kebede to participate in Urbana (www.urbana.org). About 18,000 people, mostly Intervarsity college students, attended this five day world mission conference. In May 2004, Caren participated in a week-long Christian leadership training camp in Rock Bridge VA. In July, she worked at Shenandoah Springs Camp, a local Christian camp, taking hundreds of photos each day to prepare an evening slide show for the youth campers. In the Fall, Caren began serving as a small group leader for Intervaristy at W&M. During her college Spring break in 2005, Caren will be joining 15 other students from W&M to go on a mission trip to Honduras.

Robbie is 17 and will graduate from Culpeper High School in June 2005. He has matured a lot spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically. In June 2004, he went to Lynchburg VA to participate in Boys State, a national program sponsored by the American Legion. Following that, Robbie went to a week long Young Life camp at Lake Champion in New York. He has been very active in our local Young Life organization (www.younglife.org) and assumed a leadership role for that this year. We are thankful that Robbie works hard in school and does well academically. This school year, Robbie is serving as Treasurer of the National Honor Society and Treasurer of the Culpeper High School Ski Club. He ran indoor track during the winter of 2003-2004, played varsity soccer in the Spring of 2004, and club travel soccer in the Fall. He is learning to play guitar.

I was blessed in 2004 with the routine of working 2 ½ days each week at just one place - Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital. The regular schedule allows me the opportunity to be at home with my family four days each week. It also afforded me the opportunity to begin a local radio and TV ministry called A Life of Blessing. The purpose of this media ministry is to be a catalyst to bless families and transform communities throughout Virginia to help make Virginia the brightest light in the world by 2007. That’s the year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the birthplace of English speaking America and where Christianity first got rooted in America.

Special trips in 2004, included a visit to Kansas City in Feb 2004 to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and at the same time to visit with my Uncle Don, Aunt Terry, and cousin Lindy. Later in Feb, I met Judge Roy Moore in person at The Family Foundation dinner in Harrisonburg VA In Sept, I visited Bristol TN to meet with leaders and staff of the Christian Medical Dental Associations. On my way to meet with leaders of the American Family Association in Tupelo MS, I had the chance to visit Nashville TN. In October, Julia and I attended the first annual national media prayer breakfast in Beverly Hills CA. Later in October, I attended that National Day of Prayer Coordinator’s Conference at the Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs.

For recreation, I still like to bike and work out. However, my running this year has been limited due to a right knee problem.

We bless you with joy and laughter!
We bless you with a steadfast faith!
We bless you with the hopes and the dreams that your heart goes after!
We bless you with amazing grace!

In the love of Christ, – Randy Peck

P.S. If you have never experienced the miracle of Christmas in your personal life, we invite you to visit www.randypeck.com after Dec 31 to learn how. We expect to have lots of photos from 2004 on the web site by Jan 1.

Jesus loves you! He invites each person to surrender his life to Him.

How to get to heaven!