$485,475.78

That’s the total non-mortgage debt for our 4th round (6th class) of Financial Peace University. It comes out to around $40,500 per participating giving unit in this class, a pretty intense number. I look at it and remember our situation when we first started our financial journey, with a similar debt number staring us in the face. It feels like an insurmountable mountain to climb.

Thankfully, our God is a pretty intense God. Over the course of an FPU class, the average family will pay off around $5,300 in debt while saving $2,700. With God’s help, we should pay off around $63,000 of that debt, plus an additional $32,000 saved, over the 91 days of this class.

One of the biggest joys about FPU is watching lives transformed (and I’m not just talking finances, but marriages, emotions, friendships and more) during these 91 days. Each week, people have an opportunity to share victory stories from the week. After three class sessions, here’s what this group has done:

• Cut up 15-20 credit cards. I don’t remember so many cards being cut so early in the past.
• Paid off a payday loan that was nagging someone for over a year.
• Traded out of a higher end vehicle for an average one.
• No credit card usage for the past week.

In addition, we’ve had some long-term members who describe themselves as “on-again, off-again, but mostly off” church-goers return to worship and join the class. We’ve got three young couples that are getting married soon or seriously considering it and want to do the course together. We’ve got some people coming out of a divorce and some who are happily married, but struggling financially. We have a single mom, raising a beautiful daughter on her own after her husband’s death.

Lives are being changed. God is moving. And He’s intense.