After telling a little about my story, and watching a twenty minute video on Monday, forty of my soldiers have signed up to take the Military Financial Peace University course while we are at mobilization station. I was really amazed by this response. We have fifty-nine soldiers in my company.

I think I see a future in teaching these classes. I am always amazed how God uses the combination of our experiences to bring us to a point where we are prepared to do the next thing in our lives. That is so true for where I am today.

By the way, I got my work done early today and got back to the hotel for a nap. I woke up in time to go downtown to the River Walk and enjoy dinner at Casa Rio. Thankfully the per diem rate for the Army is about twice what it is in Ada, Oklahoma here in San Antonio. That should more than cover my one splurge for enchiladas! Back on the plane in the morning, but Amy and the kids will be traveling to meet me, so it will be a good birthday weekend for me!

I just checked into a Hampton Inn in San Antonio with a surprise upgrade to a suite. I wish I actually had time to relax for a minute, but I have to be up at 0545. I have worked/traveled for about twenty hours every day since Sunday the 17th. I don’t recall ever being this tired. I have a lot to write about, but sleep must come first!

Okay, since I can’t really decide which one to pick I must throw out my favorite ones for a vote. There were some submissions that were Davisms and since I’m not sure I would have permission to steal one I am excluding those

“Living Like No One Else, One T-Shirt at a Time”

“Buying the Shirt off Joel’s Back, to Help Him Pay Back a Half Million”

“I Helped Joel and Amy, and all I Got was This Cool T-Shirt”

“Once We Catered to Debt, Now We’re Spinning it Away”

“Would You Like Some Debt With That?”

“Dream Big, but Start Small; Don’t Let Debt Eat up Your Life”

“Eat, Drink and Spend Like You Have a Tomorrow”

“A No More Debt Experience”

“Turnin’ My Life Around; Livin’ Debt Free”

“Not Serving it?up Anymore; Living Debt Free”

“An All-You-Can-Pay Debt Experience”

“A Money Makeover Experience”

“Susan May Be Lazy, but?the Maxwell’s are Working?Like Crazy”

“Freedom - Coming?Soon to a Home Near You! $556,848.35″

There you go, these are the finalists. Vote with your comments, and feel free to make minor tweaks to one of the ideas. Please don’t identify the author if you know them; just looking for the best slogan. Additionally, if you were the original author of one that is slightly tweaked; the tweaker and you will both receive a free shirt and mug. Have some fun!

Sunday morning I sat in church on celebration Sunday when Pastor Bradford came up and began talking about our new facilities at Central Assembly. While I am fairly new at Central, I was aware of the new buildings, and they are great. We have taken a couple of special offerings for the project, so I knew it wasn’t all paid for, but I thought it was close. The longer the presentation went on, the more I began to realize how deep this debt was.

As the presentation was drawing near to the close, Pastor Bradford mentioned how he had been up at nights unable to sleep as he walked about praying and thinking about this “situation.” As he said this, I immediately thought back to about a year ago. I remember sitting in my office and literally shaking in fear. I was looking at a payment for $7,200, an invoice for $16,500, an?invoice for $11,000, an invoice for $4,200, and another payment for $4,800. All were due in full, and I had no money I could apply to any of them. The fear I felt during these nights was far greater than any fear I have ever felt in 9 years of law enforcement. Unless you have been in this situation, this level of fear is hard to comprehend.

When the presentation finally came to the part that said we owed $4,000,000 I about choked. I was in absolute disbelief. The presentation then moved into the need for?$31,000 per month to pay this debt off in 20 years. We went into different examples of how we could save millions by paying it off early. I just still can’t?believe that we signed up to pay the bank $3,400,000 in interest because we couldn’t wait five years and do it all for cash.

I agree that these facilities are an awesome outreach to the community around us, and two and a half years ago when all this started I would have signed up for this as well. I am just truly grieved that we now have another master, the bank. I wish I was in a position to help us get out of this bondage, but I still have 24 masters left myself. What part of the borrower is slave to the lender do we not understand? All I can say is ouch!

Today as I was walking into my second job and about ready to clock in, my phone rang. It was Amy. She wants to read me a letter she has just opened from KADI, one of the 25 people we still owe money.

The letter reads like this:

Dear Joel Maxwell:

I would like to commend you on your effort to honor your advertising agreement with Vision Communications, Inc. However, as of the date of this letter, your entire balance of $2,137.81 has been forgiven. I wish you success in your future?endeavors and pray that God will richly bless you and your family. Thank you for faithfully?serving?our country.

Sincerely,

R. C. Amer, Jr.
President, Vision Communications, Inc.

On top of being the station in Springfield that carries the Dave Ramsey show; the people at KADI have been awesome to us from the beginning. Anyone who has ever opened a business knows the onslaught of salesmen that continually knock on your door. They all kiss up and tell you how great you are, they buy your lunch, give you tickets, and then try to guilt you into buying.

Bev Smith, our account representative, has never tried the hard sale and has always been nothing but encouraging to us. Our only truly successful advertising venture was with KADI with their program where they sold our gift cards. That program brought us more customers than any other advertising we did. They also were the ones that turned us onto Guerrilla Marketing, a must read for any business owner.

Bigger than what Bev and Mr. Amer and the others at KADI did for us while we were open was what they did for us when we closed. Bev was continually encouraging to us, telling us she was praying for us. Before we even were close to beginning to repay any of our debts, Mr. Amer was offering us 50% off the balance if we paid in full by the end of the year. Each month as I send out my budget I will usually include some big ticket items that we are selling that month. Although we never quite had anything that worked, Bev would almost always send me people looking to buy or barter for the items I was selling.

They are truly some great people and people I would want to do business with again. They are people you should do business with!