Participants give debt seminar thumbs up

Leigh Ann Melancon and Mary Eldridge have nothing but positive things to say about how the “Conquering Debt God’s Way” seminars have helped their financial situation.

Even though Melancon, an assistant finance director for the city of Clovis, has a degree in accounting, she said her academic and professional training didn’t prepare her to stay out of debt.

“Accounting classes don’t really prepare you for your personal life,” Melancon said. “They’re talking strictly business where in many businesses debt is a normal function of that business.”

“This class has taught the spiritual aspect,” Melancon said.

Melancon said keys to a biblical approach to money include the principle that God is entitled to the first money a person earns and that people need to tithe. A second key principle includes reliance on God to provide what people truly need.

“Because the Bible states we are here to do God’s work, therefore we have to give back to God and then he will bless us,” Melancon said. “By accepting that the tithe is important, you realize that God will provide and therefore you rely on God for your needs and not building up large debt.”

Melancon said she and her husband Bert built up large debts when her husband went back to school with student loans, as part of a career change, and a child went to college.

“By applying the principles we learned we are getting to the point where we are taking care of those debts and we hope that within the next year and a half the only major debt we will have left will be our home,” Melancon said.

Another church member, Mary Eldridge, concurred.

“The first time that we went to the conquering debt workshop was almost five years ago,” Eldridge said. “The biblical principles that Bruce covers in that workshop are so inspirational, God spoke to us so clearly.”

In less than five years, Eldridge said, her family paid off a $60,000 mortgage and is working on other bills.

“We don’t go out and spend more than we make, that is one thing that Bruce states in his workshop that really hit us home,” Eldridge said. “He said whatever the world tells you to do with your money, do completely the opposite.”