(Real) Change is here.

Well I certainly didn't intend to take an entire week to post about our day with Dave last weekend... but you know, life. It's been a busy, busy week here with the approaching 10/15 deadline at work and of course, my birthday! I was out every night this past week, so I had very few waking hours to visit bloggy world. But I can't let any more time pass or I'll forget everything!

So the hub and I volunteered last Saturday at Dave Ramsey's LIVE Event here in Atlanta. We've seen his live show a couple of times but this is the first year we've volunteered. It was a very looooong day. We had to be at the arena at 9am and didn't leave till around 8pm. We were on our feet for many of those hours. But we did get to see most of Dave's show (it's a 5 hour show - kind of like a seminar, but awesome). And I did get to meet Dave and shake his hand! (I was too frantic to get a picture though.) We manned an FPU table before the show and during the breaks. Our table wasn't in the best of spots for traffic, but we did sell a lot of kits (the materials for the 13-week class). Working with Dave's team was so fun too... you can really tell what a great organization it is just from how his people interacted with us and how the flow of the day went along. They even had us take 5 minutes to pray over Dave and his message and for all the people who'd be walking through those doors that SO needed to hear truth (whether they knew it or not). Like I've said many times, it's 5 hours that'll change your life, if you let it.

It was really cool being on the "other" side this time, seeing the crowds come in. Around 7,000 people. There were lots of those (like us) who had been through FPU and were big Dave fans. But there were SO many people there that were obviously drug there or didn't really know what the heck it was all about - and that's what I was so grateful for. I seriously get teary thinking of these Dave virgins getting a big helping of truth and hope. Many of them never saw it coming. And many of them never saw this nerdy volunteer coming either... Hello!


My dad asked me if his show was any different this time around. Nope. That's the amazing thing about Dave. It doesn't matter what's going on in the world, what the stock market looks like, or what the unemployment rate is... his message is the same. Because it's simple and it works. And the fact that he can deliver that same message, those same jokes, and same quotes over and over again with such enthusiasm is nothing short of a gift. I get annoyed if I have to repeat one sentence to my husband! Seriously.

But speaking of my awesome husband, I must say the *coolest* happening that day involved him.

A couple of years ago, we enrolled in an FPU class immediately after seeing Dave live for the first time. Like literally butt in chair the very next day at a local church for FPU Class #1. We were sold. And when you get fired up about something, you like to tell the world. Well, most of y'all don't know my husband, but he is the type of person who'll have a conversation with a doorknob. He LOVES to talk and engage people. (I am the opposite, mind you.) Seriously I can name several friends of ours that we know only because the hub randomly struck up a conversation with these people in the strangest of places. Along with his gift for gabbing, he has a true heart for helping. It's one of the many things I love about this man.

So one afternoon the hub was visiting a local real estate agency to introduce himself to a few of the agents and drop off some business cards (this was back when he was doing mortgage lending). While he was there, he ran into an agent he had never met and while saying hello, he could tell she was upset and on the verge of tears. As he's telling me this, I'm picturing a woman who's doing everything she can to hold herself together at work but she's just seconds away from breaking down. We've all had those days! So obviously there's some kind of personal issue going on with her. The hub says to the agent, "Hey, let's go sit down... tell me what's going on." So she led him to a conference room and UNLOADED. This of course was back when the real estate market was plummeting, so she told the hub of her terrifying financial situation. She was in danger of losing her home and her car. She was absolutely hopeless and scared. The hub listened to her, told her about our journey (which was just starting!) and told her about FPU. "I'm open to anything," she told him. So he gave her $100 - as a gift. Not that $100 would solve her problems, but just as a gesture. (He likes giving, you know.)

A few months later, the hub ran into her at a baseball game. He hadn't talked to her since that day and she told him that she had just gotten started with a local FPU class. She seemed to be making some progress, but he could tell she was still strained. Some people who go through the class never quite "buy into" it... the truth is it involves a lot of hard work, tough decisions, and sacrifice to really work it. But hopefully she would be one of the ones that got it. He didn't hear from her after that day. That was nearly two years ago.

Last Saturday we were on the final "break" of Dave's show, selling FPU kits at our table. Sometimes they'll send volunteers up and down the stairs inside the arena wearing a goofy looking apron selling books like a hot dog vendor at a baseball game. We saw one of those particular volunteers coming down the corridor towards us... apron on, arms full top-to-bottom with children's gift bags. She was a feisty looking volunteer - you know how some people just have that "go-getter" look? Yeah, she had it. Well she's about to pass our table and the hub stops her. It's the real estate agent.

They both were just completely shocked to see each other. "I can't believe you're here!" Over and over. Now I was not there the day the hub first met this woman, but he said this volunteer was a completely different woman than the agent he met two long years ago. She was absolutely on fire! She explained that she's now leading an FPU course and that a bunch of her class members were there at the event. She had tried to contact the hub several times but only had his old number and email from his former job (which he left over a year ago). And then the thing that makes me cry every time I think about it... With tears in her eyes and her hands on my husband's arms she said, "Scott, there are so many people here today because of you."

Yeah, I about lost it. Total God moment. And so humbling to see how God used my sweet husband two years ago - in a major way - without him even realizing it. I'm so proud that he recognized someone hurting and took the time to say, "I'm here." I mean, who does that with a stranger?! Amazing. And just further confirmation that we're on the right path ourselves. One of those frozen moments in time when all you can say is, WOW.

So yes, last Saturday was a GREAT day. We were completely worn out and in bed by 9pm that night! But it was so rewarding and I definitely want to do it again next year. It's a good day when you can climb into bed and think to yourself, "I helped change lives today." It just doesn't get any better than that.