Greg Peters Live

I know that it is such a cliche’ but I really don’t know where to start. Every time I go on a missions trip I return with a different outlook on life.

Our group did an outstanding job, they all had a tremendous servant’s heart!  We had the opportunity to serve two different churches during our time in El Salvador, one was in Metapan (a city of about 60,000 people) and one was in Santa Ana (a city of about 500,000). The church in Metapan is about 1 1/2 years old and the church in Santa Ana is 1 year old. Both of these works are bringing life change to the people in their cities. Meeting Rodolpho and Roberto was a real blessing to my heart! Both men were alchoholics very far from God, both have beautiful families and both men have come to Christ this year and have never been the same. I could share a number of stories but will save them for our missions emphasis weekend that is coming in Feb.

Kyle and Jodi Charters serve in Metapan. I have been friends with Kyle and Jodi for about 20 years. They got married 3 weeks after Denise and me and we went to their wedding. Kyle and I went to college together. Kyle and Jodi have 4 beautiful children who are really great kids. Seth cried when we left yesterday, he really bonded with the Charters’ children. The Charters served in St. Petersburg, Russia, for almost 10 years and have been in El Salvador for just over 2 years. Kyle and Jodi have a tremendous heart to reach people and have a tremendous work that God has given them in a very short amount of time.

Steve and Christine Cerna serve in Santa Ana. Christine’s mother, Athena and her sister, Katie, both attend Parkview. Steve is from El Salvador and is thrilled to be back in his home country.  Steve and Christine have two precious and adorable children, Rosa and Caleb. Steve and Christine are very hard workers and have a passion for both evangelism and discipleship.

The two churches are about 1 1/2 hours apart and both came together to have their first ever teen camp. The camp was awesome! Our team absolutely loved having the opportunity to serve these ministries and their students. Our team served as interpreters (it was so incredible to have 3 of our team members fluently speak Spanish and all 3 were born in El Salvador), room counselors, game participants, food prep, cooks, clean up, score keepers,children’s workers, etc.

After 3 days at camp we went to the church in Santa Ana on Saturday night, that is when they do there “Sunday morning service”.  The little house was packed and people were sitting in two different rooms listening to me preach.  Through a little courtyard were two children’s rooms. The church has quickly outgrown that facility. The people were so friendly and so appreciative of our visit.

Sunday morning we were with the Charters in Metapan.  I spoke in both the Sunday School hour and the morning service. Our people served in a variety of roles – children’s church, nursery and Rafeal translated both my lesson and my sermon (up to that point Steve Cerna had served as my interpreter). We had a wonderful morning. The city shuts off all of the elctricity a few times a year for maintenance – Sunday was one of those days. It was so hot and it just added to our long list of experiences!

Seeing and being a very small part of the Life Change taking place in El Salvador was an absolute privilege!!!

This post does no justice for our trip or our experiences. All I can tell you is, if you have never been on a missions trip YOU HAVE GOT TO GO!!!

• Our team is doing a great job job serving the Lord and others
• Services last night and this morning went well
• We have played alot of games today and we just finished up swim time
• They actually grilled out steak for lunch – never had a piece that tuff!!!
• The students are having a blast
• For students who do not have much, the littlest things go a long way
• Steve Cerna, the missionary that Parkview supports here in El Salvador, did a great job translating for me last night.
• What a privilege to serve the Lord this way!

Some assorted thoughts:

• No homes in El Salvador have heaters – you never need one.
• You can swim here 12 months a year
• There are a bunch of volcanos in the country
• There are armed gunmen everywhere
• It seems like every store, restaurant, government building and bank has a man with a shot gun
• The missionary’s home has a 15 foot wall around it with razor wire and electric wire at the top and they have 2 Boxers as “pets” – all that makes one actually feel very safe!
• We meet the kids at 9 am at the church to leave for camp.
• It is 7:15 and our team is beginning to stir.
• Our team has had a sweet spirit and a servants heart. They have been a real blessing to the missionary family we have been staying with.
• Last night we stayed up real late getting together last minute items.
• I don’t think the camp has a/c or hot water. I haven’t told the ladies and am not planning on it !
• This morning I have been working on trimming my sermons down. 40 minute sermons become 80 minute sermons with a translator
• I am trying to get them to 20 minute sermons that become 40 minute sermons – that is actually very hard!
• The camp is about 1 1/2 hours from where we are staying currently.
• Missions trips are life changing experiences!

• I worked on a home project for over 5 hours today and still didn’t get it fixed, but I didn’t cuss and kept a pretty good attitude – guess that counts for something!
• Evaluating my spiritual life these days and just read a post from Tommy Sparger, a pastor in Springfield, MO, that I thought was good – here it is:  There have been a lot of people asking me for the the list of 10 things that I use to take a spiritual inventory.  In yesterday’s talk, I gave this list of 10 questions that I ask myself to assess my spiritual condition: 1. Am I content with where I am going? 2. Am I becoming less religious and more spiritual? 3. Do those closest to me recognize the authenticity of my spirituality?      4. Do I have a “flow through” philosophy? 5. Do I have an inner peace in my life? 6. Have I defined my unique ministry? 7. Am I taking responsibility for my own spiritual growth?             8. Have I maintained genuine awe of God? 9. Is my humility genuine? 10. Is obedience in small matters built into my reflexes?
• I usually get to read a little more than normal between Thanksgiving and New Years – love it! Just finishing Courageous Leadership for the second time, have read several chapters of Focus, and getting ready to start Sacred Pathways.
• I love Pastoring Parkview and am more excited than I have ever been.
• SO GLAD that our parking lot is under construction – can’t wait for the relief it will bring on Sunday mornings!
• Looking forward to our new series, Foretold!!
• Very thankful for the amazing staff God has placed around me – a tremendous group of men and women!
• Seth had a wonderful day today.
• I am getting ready to pound down some of Denise’s Cocconut Cake – it is my favorite desert that she makes.
• Really need to run in the morning!!!
• I will be joining our missions team on our trip to El Salvador. We leave on Monday morning. We will be serving Steve and Christine Cerna, missionaries we support monthly from our Parkview Missions budget, and we will be serving Kyle and Jodi Charters, dear friends of ours from college. Both churches are doing a combined youth camp and that will be one of our main areas of service. Please pray for our team next week.
• I had a blast at the first Parkview Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving morning.
• Time for that cake!

On this veterans day:

• I am thankful for the courage of our active military
• I am grateful for all the men and woman who have served our great country
• I would rather live in the US than anywhere else
• I am thankful for my religious freedom
• I am reminded of all those who have given their lives
• I reflect back on my visits to Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• I am inspired by the determination of all our disabled vets – so many of them younger than me
• I am privileged to pray for our country and those serving our country
• I love our pledge and National Anthem

TO ALL OUR VETS, HAPPY VETERANS DAY!!

What does Veteran’s Day mean to you?

I am still reflecting and rejoicing over this past weekend.
I am so excited about what God has done and even more excited about what He is going to do!!
We had a fantastic pastoral staff meeting this morning! The Lord has blessed us with a great team that enjoys expanding the kingdom and serving the Lord.
One area that we spent some focused time on this morning is our team’s area of weakness (when I say team I am including myself). My tendency as an eternal optimist is to see the proverbial glass half-full and not pay attention to some areas that might need attention. So after several weeks of thinking through what I believe to be an area of weakness, we talked about that area today. We all agreed and had a good discussion about how we can better serve the people of our church. In fact, tomorrow afternoon we are bringing in 3 of our support staff and putting a plan in place.
My purpose for sharing the above story is to challenge each of us to face the weaknesses of our lives.  Maybe overall you think things are excellent at home, at work, with friends or whatever; but just think about how what is excellent could become even better with a little fine tuning.  Perhaps, there is an area of your life that is not going well and you know it, but you just haven’t done anything about it. Let this post be an encouragement to you to face your area of weakness.
For me personally, I have been struggling with my diet and exercise. Hopefully it is not overly noticeable – but it is a current weakness and I am working on it, ran yesterday and plan on running tomorrow, although I did just have 3 glasses of soda for lunch – told you it was a weakness!
What is your weakness and what are you doing about it?

As a part of our new series, UNITED, we have leveraged technology to a whole new level for our congregation.  We are using twitter to connect our church family. Many have begun to “follow” me on twitter – everyday more are jumping on board! One of the guys in our church, Jay Caruso, has given me a few links to pass along to help you as you begin your twitter journey, The links are very basic and very helpful – enjoy:

http://churchtweets.com/2009/05/twitter-101-what-is-twitter/

http://churchtweets.com/2009/06/twitter-101-following-followers/

http://churchtweets.com/2009/06/twitter-101-dm/

http://churchtweets.com/2009/06/twitter-101-rt-twitter-apps/

Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer are two things you don’t want to mess with. Both are also successfully treated when found early.  Below is some information that the men of our church should take advantage of – it was passed to me by a member of our church.

They will then have their blood drawn and the results to the test will be mailed to them. From there they can see if their results are within normal range or if they need to see their doctor. The free screening is until October 17th and I would like all the men that come to church to know about this opportunity to get themselves screened. Any of the men from 40 years old on, should get this test. Is there any way that you can get this information out?

There are two labs to choose from:

Flagler Hospital Out-patient Laborary, (260 S.R. 312 in the Riverside Center – Next to Hobby Lobby) OR Flagler Hospital (3rd Floor Laboratory Department)

Hours are: Monday – Friday, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.

In tennis, ping-pong and raquetball I like to serve – that is, I would rather be serving than be receiving the serve. I feel like I have a better chance of scoring when I am serving.

In the morning, afternoon and evening; at work, at home and with friends I like to be served. When I am being served it feels like a score, it feels like a win.

I recognize that I am more self-centered than most and I admit that.  I know that the Lord desires to continue to humble me and I need to be more of a servant. I am trying to keep one thought in mind, especially when it comes to my family (a good place to start) – How can I serve you?

How is your serve?

This week Florida Hospital Flagler is endeavoring to raise awareness and funds for a new heart catheterization lab. By supporting the following restaurants, a portion of their proceeds will be donated to the foundation at Florida Hospital. So if you are going to go to lunch anyways, you can choose one of the participating restaurants and simultaneously be giving to a good cause. The event is Mon – Fri Sept. 21-25 from 11am – 2:30pm – this week for lunch only.

Atlantic Grille, Barbara Jeans, Dominic’s Deli, Friends Cafe, Golden Lion Cafe, Houligans, JT’s Seafood Shack, Mezzaluna Pizzeria, Pasta Pasta, Thai by Thai and Woody’s BBQ.