This morning I met with pastor Chris at 8 am at Liz’s Where Y’At Diner for breakfast and conversation about leadership. We discussed LEAD, the synod’s new leadership organization and Pastors Chris and Diana’s pilots to develop leadership at Hosanna.

Liz’s is a hole in the wall on 190. Forgive me for talking about food so much, but its hard not to in New Orleans, and besides I need to repent of my food choices. The “Goolosh” was a huge bowl of grits, with an indescribable grilled biscuit on top of them, with shredded roast beef on top of the biscuit, topped with gravy and two eggs over easy. Sorry, forgot to take a picture.

Wait. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, my week at Hosanna. Lost track there for a second.

So after our meeting we headed to Hosanna where I met with the Media Shout (projection guy) about Sunday briefly then started work on my weekly podcast and lectionary blog post. We had a drop in visitor, Dave Neubauer of Peace Lutheran in Slidell dropped by with a bottle of scotch.

Lunch was at a place features in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: Louie and the Read Head Lady. Oysters New Orleans: flash fried oysters over angel hair pasta, topped with aioli & parmesan cheese.

When we got back the quilters were meeting. Second quilting group this week.

Tonight is Financial Peace University. FPU is nationally known since Dave Ramsey has had his radio program. It is an incredible program for helping people learn how to manage finances and get out of debt. I first led FPU 11 years ago. We were in too much debt. After the first session we had a plan to move forward, and truly did feel a sense of peace about it. One of the sessions on mortgages touted the 15 year mortgage. Ramsey says the banks created the 30-year mortgage so people could buy more house and pay more interest for a longer time. A 15-year is a bit higher payment, but not much. Then you save 15 years of mortgage payments. So we did it. 11 years ago. Thank you Dave.

Hosanna has 84 people signed up for FPU. Half of them are not members. I’m excited to see how it goes tonight.

This is my workspace this week.

I share it with the pastors.

They keep the entire year on the wall in front of their eyes.

The Alpha course I mentioned earlier this week is advertised around the church on big framed posters.

So Financial Peace kicked off with a lot of energy. This is Pastor Diana Booren’s baby and she is leading it with excellence. Good turnout. Last day.