Setting Up Plan Manage Credit Card Debt

Setting Up Plan Manage Credit Card Debt Tip 1: Good Debt and Bad Debt

Credit card debt is one of several categories of debt that most of us have. Before diving into the topic of credit card debt, a brief discussion of debt, good debt vs. bad debt, is warranted. Generally, personal credit card debt is considered bad debt because it represents consumer spending, contrasted with the concept of business debt or investment debt, where the debt was incurred in leveraging to purchase an asset, or personal debt in financing your home through a mortgage. It's all about managing cash flow.
Also, be very cautious about debt-aggregation programs that may cost you more in the long run.
Tip 2: What Not To Do
So let's get started with some of the approaches people take that are not the best solution. 1. Transferring debt from a high-interest credit card to a low-interest rate card. This usually does not work out well due to the temptation of the available credit on the high-interest rate card. Also, this is not the most effective approach. 2. Home equity loans. Again, doing this to free up card balances usually results in more debt on your cards, plus more debt on your home. 3. Consolidation programs. As I mentioned, these usually cost you more in the long run because of the lure of lower payments, but you end paying more interest over a longer time period. 4. Bankruptcy. Whether it is Chapter 7 (liquidation) or Chapter 13 (reorganization), this should be avoided at all costs. The pain of the process, the effect on your credit for years, and the invasion of privacy are a very high price to pay. 5. Credit repair. While you should consider doing something to repair your credit, be careful in getting help. Do your research carefully.
Tip 3: The 5-Step Approach
The average credit card debt for households that have one is about $16,000. With an average interest rate on those cards of about 13%, that's a lot of money (about $2000 per year) going toward credit card debt. Paying off those cards as quickly as possible will save you a lot of money and increase your cash flow.
Here is the 5-step strategy.
Step 1: Organize your credit card debt by listing them as follows:
(a)Credit Card... (b)Balance....(c)Minimum Payment....(d)Interest Rate
Bank Q................$8,500.............$125.00..........................14.5%
Bank M................$2,850..............$ 75.00.........................12.9%
Step 2: Calculate your ratios: The last column (ratio) is (b) / (c), Balance divided by the monthly Minimum Payment (table for example only).
(a)Credit Card... (b)Balance....(c)Minimum Payment....(d)Interest Rate....(e)Ratio
Bank Q................$8,500.............$125.00.....................14.5%................68
Bank M................$2,850.............$ 75.00......................12.9%...............38
Step 3: Create your priority payoff list, filling in the following table:
(a)Order of Payoff....(b)Credit Card....(c)Ratio....(d)Minimum Payment
1.................................Bank M.............38................$ 75.00
2.................................Bank Q.............68................$125.00
Order the cards by listing the card with the lowest ratio first, and the rest according to the next lowest ratio, and so on.
Step 4: Your acceleration plan: Your task is to find at least $7 a day that you are spending, and don't need to. Let's face it, most of us spend money on a lot we can easily not! It might by a Starbucks coffee drink, eating out, junk food, or going to a movie. If you look at how you spend, you will have many to choose from. Let's say you can fairly easily save about $200 a month.
Step 5: Your new minimum payment: You are now going to add the monthly amount you saved in step 4 ($200 in this example) and add that to the minimum payment for the first card in your list. In our example, we will add $200 to the previous $75 minimum payment, and put in $275 as our new minimum payment. This will greatly accelerate paying off the first credit card. You will, of course, continue paying the original minimum payments on the other cards.
(a)Order of Payoff....(b)Credit Card....(c)Ratio....(d)Minimum Payment (new)
1.................................Bank M.............38................$275.00
2.................................Bank Q.............68................$125.00
Here is where it gets really interesting. When you pay off the first card, you add what you were paying on that card to the minimum payment for the second card. In our example, you will add $275 to the $125 payment for the second card. Our example would look like this:
(a)Order of Payoff....(b)Credit Card....(c)Ratio....(d)Minimum Payment (new)
1.................................Bank M.............38................PAID OFF
2.................................Bank Q.............68................$400.00
While this example has only 2 cards, notice how you will accelerate the payoffs every time you move down the list. This takes some discipline and commitment, but to succeed in anything you need these qualities. I hope that you will use this strategy to eliminate your credit card debt in record time.

Bernarr Pardo: Investor in residential properties, commercial properties, raw land, foreign real estate, foreign bank account, the equity markets, and non-traditional investments such as oil and gas, wireless terminals, and ATM machines.
I believe you should invest in yourself first.
The global economy has presented huge challenges as well as opportunities. Avoid investing mistakes; discover how to reduce your investing risk. Learn some of the myths about finance and investing that can improve your cash flow and net worth. Explore great investing ideas and opportunities now at my blog site: http://HowToStudyFinance.com

Unlock The Lending Vault

 Unlock The Lending Vault Obtaining financing to start or expand your business is one of the toughest and most daunting tasks any business owner will face. You see the promos for various loan programs or even private sources with venture capital or hedge fund money available and it all sounds great, but when you get nose-to-nose with a banker it's another story. Many lending officers feel that they're lending you their own money instead of the bank's money.

The Problems We Face
After almost three years of recession and a virtual freeze on the credit market, the current economic situation remains quite challenging. Many banks are still not financially healthy, and are not able to do as much lending as they might like. Regulators require them to have higher levels of capital and a higher loan-loss reserve. Even if the bank is healthy, their lending standards are definitely higher and tighter than in the past. Banks are really dubious of newer businesses with a short history because almost 80% of businesses that fail do so within their first three years.
Another problem to overcome is that the decision-making process may have been moved off-site from your local banker due to all the mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry recently. Add all of this up, and you had better be prepared to electrify and amaze the banker.
Inside Tips to Open The Vault
Although the loan process can be frustrating, you can easily maximize your chances of obtaining a loan by knowing what lenders are looking for. Here are some inside tips for preparing your application and securing that loan.
1. Find The Right Source - Business owners mistakenly think all banks are the same when it comes to getting a loan. Some specialize in loans for smaller businesses or startups, while others prefer to lend to more established firms. Some banks may not even be on solid ground themselves. One easy way to assess a bank's capacity to loan is to check its "Texas Ratio," which is one measure of a bank's financial strength and sometimes is an indicator of banks that may fail. A Texas Ratio score above 150 is an indication of potential trouble.
2. Prepare an Executive Summary - This is a brief one or two page overview of your loan request. It determines if the bank has any interest in lending you funds before you spin your wheels for hours in front of the loan officer. You may want to end the document with your phone number so that the banker can call you back for an appointment or discussion.
3. Have a Complete Loan Package - If you have dazzled the bank officer sufficiently to obtain an appointment with him, then it's time to prepare your "big guns" - the formal loan request. While each loan program and each bank may have their own specific forms to complete, much of the information they ask for will be the same. The following list is typical of the items that will be required for any business loan application: Resumes & Personal Background on Principals and Managers, Business Plan, Personal Credit Reports, Business Credit Reports, Income Tax Returns, Financial Statements, Bank Statements, List of Collateral Offered, Legal Documents such as leases, licenses, corporate formation documents, articles of incorporation, franchise agreements, etc
4. Demonstrate Industry Trends - Provide information about positive growth trends in your industry, especially in terms of macroeconomic trends. These details will help the lender understand the potential for success and growth. The bank may not know about your industry, so the more you can tell them, the better.
5. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare - Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse - When a banker asks a question about your business, it should not be the first time you've thought of the answer. Having a strong, well-rehearsed response to anticipated questions will demonstrate that you have done your homework and have a thorough understanding of the situation. The questions are really pretty basic and to be expected: How much money do you need? What are you going to do with it? When will you repay? What will you do if you don't get the loan?
6. Prove Your Credit Worthiness - When discussing a potential loan, don't be afraid to discuss the risk with your bank. Every business has risk, and if you do not talk about it, the bank will assume that you have not taken it into account. A bank wants to be assured that you know your business well enough to anticipate its upsides and downsides. If you can't predict a good surprise, why should they trust you to account for the bad surprises? Lenders will be impressed that you have anticipated negative events. We can all make the numbers look good, but that is not the objective of the lender - he wants to see that the borrower will repay, even when things don't go as planned.
7. Be Prepared to Apply To Multiple Sources - No matter how much preparation you may do, sometimes things might not go your way. Even if you're turned down, thank the lender for the time spent reviewing your application. Never act resentful. The lender is likely to have considered the application in a highly professional, objective manner. Don't take it personally. Remember that, if your business is a success, there'll be future applications to consider. Don't burn your bridges. Talk with the lender about the reason for the rejection and how you can address each to improve future applications. Remember that you have other options. There are plenty of banks and other funding sources.
Visit the Performance Advisors website for articles such as Business Plan Writing Tips, Commercial Loan Options When The Bank Says No, Small Business Loan Money, Start Up Loans for Entrepreneurs With Bad Credit and others that can help you when seeking a business loan. Of course Performance Advisors is here to help you if you need assistance.

Terry Peltz, Director
Performance Advisors LLC
P O Box 26278
Phoenix, Arizona 85068
602-579-5725
888-629-0605
http://www.theperformanceadvisor.net

Questions to Ask Your Builder

 Questions to Ask Your Builder In our everyday lives, it is interesting to note that we spend approximately 90 percent of our time indoors. Of that time, around 65 percent of it is spent inside our homes. Our home is therefore a vital place in our lives, being our supporting home-base and where we enjoy special moments with loved ones.

In addition, your home is your biggest financial asset and you don't want to take risks with that. So, given its importance, would you knowingly hire an unreliable contractor to build, renovate or refurbish your home?
Obviously not, I hear you say, but how would you know?
Finding a suitable contractor is not always easy. There are a vast number of contractors our there - from the great to the bad and everything in between. It is like attempting to search for a good book in a huge library. To help you find the book, the librarian may ask you many questions to clarify what you're looking for. The same help is often needed in searching for the right contractor for your requirements. Bellow, we suggest a set of key questions you should ask before selecting a contractor:
1. How long has the contractor been in business building / renovating homes?
2. What type of in-house staff does the contractor use? e.g. in-house carpenters, painters, labourers, etc, or
3. Who are the sub-contractors they use - such as plumbers, electricians, etc.?
4. Does a project manager oversee the project? How many hours per day are they there supervising it?
5. How busy is the contractor and how many jobs do they have on the go at once?
6. How many homes does the contractor build a year?
7. How often is an architect involved?
8. How does the contractor organise the scheduling and product verification on a project?
9. Is the contractor receptive to a cost of materials / labour plus a fixed contractor fee contract? Would back-up invoices be available?
10. How does the contractor handle changes to orders? Approval process, fees, etc.
11. How often does the contractor invoice? (Monthly, bi-monthly, etc.)
12. When getting subcontractor quotes for a project, how many quotes will there be per trade?
13. Does the contractor provide an owner's manual at the completion of the project? (Manufacturer's warranties, product information, sub-contractor contact information, etc.)
14. Why is the contractor interested in building your home? How is the contractor qualified to build this home?
15. Has the contractor built any homes similar to this one?
16. How long does the contractor expect a home like this might take to build?
17. How does the contractor like working with an architect?
18. Can the contractor provide a reference list?
19. What insurances does the contractor carry?
20. Has the contractor filed for bankruptcy in the last ten years?
21. Has the contractor been involved in any lawsuits in the last five years?
Although this is not a definitive list of things to consider, it serves as a general guide to help you judge a potential contractor. If you get clear, immediate and thoughtful responses to all your above questions, then you have most probably found the right contractor for your project.

Facebook Split Personality

Facebook Split Personality Maybe you are Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night. Or just maybe, you're clients and colleagues know you as Professor or Your Honor, but your high school classmates know you as "HotRod". Nothing is more comforting to hear than, "Hi, I'm Dr. Hotrod Smith and I'll be operating on you today."

Facebook is the great connector. We reconnect with classmates we haven't talked to in years. With them, we relive memories, embarrassing moments and teenage milestones. Plus, it's fun. But sharing that picture of ourselves may not exactly further our professional image. I'm sure lots of us have those past skeletons (like streaking the quadrangle in college), but we don't exactly put them on our resume.
Enter the new Facebook Friends lists. Facebook launched their expanded Smart Friend List feature this week. With this change, your friends can now be categorized into four pre-defined categories, Friends, Family, Acquaintances and geographic location. You have always had the ability to create lists but the process of posting to a specific list was cumbersome and obscure. Today it's prominently displayed next to the share button on your status update.
When the Friends Smart List feature launched, it automatically assigned friends to your local area list. It also assigns some family members to the Family group (although I had to add a couple of my immediate family members. They were in the "List suggestion" section, which made it easy to add.) You will have to initially add people to the other lists. In the beginning, it may be a little time consuming, but if you add new friends to lists as you confirm them, it will be much easer.
Maintaining Your Two Personalities
I frequently hear clients and social media students ask, "How can I keep my business and personal life separated?" Smart lists make that very easy. But more than that, it can be a good practice to enhance your marketing message. Chances are, your friends may not be the least bit interested in your business marketing content. And when your professional connections are "eavesdropping" on your conversations with friends, they probably won't be able to follow along or even be interested. Either group may tend to filter out your updates since they aren't pertinent to them.
A better practice would be to target your updates to the group of friends it is directed to. Create a list of professional or business friends and post only business related content to that group. Meanwhile, create another list of friends that you post your personal updates to. Each list then sees content they should be interested in and will be more attuned to each post you make.
There will be some friends that will fit both categories, so assign them to both. They won't receive duplicate posts, but they will receive posts anytime you update either list. Some of your content will be appropriate for everyone. In those cases you can post to Friends and everyone will receive it
One thing you should know about Smart Lists. When you post to a list, there is an icon on the "Like Comment" line below the post. The icon will either be a globe (Public), friends or a cog (lists). By mousing over the icon, you will see a message that shows what the update was shared to friends, friends of friends or the name of the Smart List. For that reason, you may want to be cautious with your list names.
List can be useful in many ways, such as announcing local events. What other ways have you used the list feature?

Gary Wagnon is the Sensei of the Ninja Marketing Dojo  ninjamarketingdojo.com, a comprehensive online marketing course designed to relieve the frustration business owners and manager face when trying to understand online marketing. Using a martial arts model, students will build on foundational principals, mastering each level before advancing.

Entrepreneurship As Student

Entrepreneurship As Student Some people dream about the opportunity of being their own boss. The flexibility to carry out what you wish whenever you want to do it, and not have to answer to any person but ones self sounds like an optimal employment situation, but one that is out of reach to many. Not as a student. Being a student is the greatest time to start a business.

Not so in today's climate. Self-employment and freelancing has continuously risen during the last years and goes on to do so. Freelancing as a student is relatively easy. Working from a home office is no longer just a clever bluff for out-of-work creatives or an option for company owners after thirty years of hard graft, but it's accessible to anyone with a talent that is willing to work extra hard for the merits of managing themselves.
There are two main easy ways to be independently employed. You are able setup a business of your own, which requires registering your organization, looking for premises and recruits (and the finance to do so!) etc, or you might be a freelancer or contractor, which requires advertising your services to businesses and other individuals and hoping that someone chooses you. Use student freelancing websites to get your student business started.
Freelancing will still call for you to pay attention to deadlines and do the work that is set, but does allow you to prefer whether you take the work, and allow you to choose your own pace and work schedule. It also pays more frequently and securely. You need to be an organised student in order to succeed.
Starting your own business is riskier, but gives you true independence, there can be no work except if you set it, and the work mind set you are expected to fall into is completely made up by you! However, if you don't do the work, the money doesn't come in and your business will find it difficult to stay money making, so it is a double-edged sword. At university, students have the opportunity to start a business. The UK government is getting behind students who want to achieve their business dreams.
With the use of real love for what you do together with a peaceful mentality which is able to keep you content throughout the drawbacks of self-employment, there exists plenty of advantages to make it all worth chasing!
Independence: The important one. Student self employment means never having to call in sick, never needing to brave the commute on a wet winters day or take the criticism for something that wasn't your wrong doing. If you wish to take lunchtime at 10am or perhaps even take a nap til midday then that's fully one's own prerogative you will easily finish up plummeting into a routine entirely of your designing, that matches with the life that you want to lead.
Variety: We are all good at some thing. Whether it be writing, bookkeeping or embroidery, everyone is able to do something, do it well, and accomplish this with a big smile upon their faces! With student self employment you choose that one thing you're keen on working on above everything else and make it give you the results you want. The vast majority of skills can easily be converted into cash but you have to look for the right angle, and many times passion is just as, if not much more significant, than anything above competence at a job.
Achieving extra money: Security can be a large challenge with being your own boss. Never experiencing a regular pay cheque may mean which you don't always know where the upcoming income is coming from and this will make rent and bills a pain to work around. This is the reason it is best to begin your student self-employment career part time and around your main occupation.
Not only does this usher in two salaries, but you feel secure and also have recurring cash flow arriving in to take your venture off the ground before you can make the leap to functioning self-employed full-time. Once you determine you really are creating enough to make yourself your own boss, you will find that self-employed individuals also catch a great deal of breaks in relation to monthly spending, with tax breaks are available to them, and a abrupt decline in travel money! Of course, you'll have even more tax breaks as a student, being a student is the best place to start a business. Network with other students.
By way of a little guts and a large amount of exertion, becoming self employed will not be such a challenging transition. The benefits and advantages outweigh the setbacks without question, and once you've started out you'll be stunned at how rapidly you forget what it previously was like to work for an employer at all! Just manage your precious time effectually and take risks when you need to, to truly enjoy a work/life balance unlike any other. As mentioned, students are in the ideal place to start a business. Students ordinarily have the most time on their hands and there is sufficient support options for students to start a business.

It is possible to start a business as a student and on our site we have advice from top entrepreneurs and experts who want to help you do just that. Come and visit the forums a wealthystudent.co.uk/ entrepreneur section on our site and see how we are helping students start businesses.

Top five Myths About Hardwood Flooring

Top five Myths About Hardwood Flooring Are you confused about the type of flooring you need for your house? Are you concerned about using hardwood-flooring because of what you've heard about it? Below are explanations on some major myths about hardwood-flooring; they will help you to understand the truth from myths, and make better decisions regarding your purchase.

• Myth 1: "Hardwood floors are very expensive to purchase and maintain."'
Fact: The initial cost to purchase and install a hardwood floor strip could be higher compared to other types of flooring but it's durable. The costs of maintenance, re-sanding and cleaning are rather low.A hardwood floor lasts over decades and loses its color very gradually. This total cost compared to the cost of purchasing and cleaning other flooring is very less. A general dusting or mopping on a daily basis and immediate mopping of spillages is enough to take care of the floor.
• Myth 2: "Hardwood flooring cannot be used in the kitchen."
Fact: Interestingly, kitchens are best suited for hardwood floors. These rooms experience very high usage and traffic, and woodenfloors are built to meet such situations. Water spills, dropping food, etc. should be cleaned promptly to avoid staining or slipping, but then this would be true of any other flooring as well.
• Myth 3: "Hardwood floors are cold and difficult to maintain."
Fact: An excellent insulator, wood keeps the warmth in and the cold out. Maintaining a hardwood floor just requires you to dust mop it regularly and use appropriate floor cleaner regularly. The floor's beauty, luster and shine will be sustained for years on end without much effort. So when you take a good look, you find that flooring is a much more inviting and appealing product compared to linoleum, tile or laminate flooring.
• Myth 4: "Hardwood floors are not eco-friendly."
Fact: In today's world, being 'green' is very important. When looking at the various materials used for flooring in green buildings, you can notice the following. Engineered flooring can be refinished and re-sanded only once or twice, reducing its lifespan and replacement time. Laminate flooring cannot be refinished if scratched or worn out and will need to be replaced. Comparatively, flooring can be re-sanded and refinished many times and if properly maintained, it need not be replaced for decades making wooden flooring more eco-friendly compared to other floorings.
• Myth 5: "Hardwood floors develop gaps in the cold and lead to defects in the wood."
Fact: During the cold season, homes are heated and air gets dry causing wood, a natural material, to lose some moisture and shrink. It separates and develops gaps between boards as a natural process. In summers, when the heat is off and air is moist again, the gaps close normally. In fact, when laying the hardwood floor in the winter season, an experienced layer will leave slight spaces between the boards to allow wood expansion.
Knowing the many advantages of wooden flooring will help you make your decision on the type of flooring to use in your home or office. It is more durable and stronger than most synthetics. Most of the times, people have heard about the various myths surrounding hardwood flooring and therefore they are indecisive. Most of these are general misconceptions and there is no truth in them.

Understanding Website Promotion For Business Performance

Understanding Website Promotion For Business Performance Do you manage your own website online? Then, for sure you are looking for effective ways on how to reach out to more clients and craft big sales and profits for you to enjoy. Well, the real deal in launching a business online is for you to sell the products or services that you offer the general public and get something in return.
For you to achieve this goal, you have to work on what is known as website promotion. But before that, there are a couple of concepts for you to learn.

To promote the website means to employ the most effective and highly used marketing strategies known in the world of Internet marketing. These methods are of course very vital to the growth of your business.
Thus, website promotion refers to popularizing it so you may reach a wide range of potential customers. It also involves increasing web traffic and visitors. When these aspects are met, you can expect a positive effect on your online business. Therefore, the promotion of the website should be done with an utmost dose of zeal and dedication.
Proven Techniques in Website Promotion
These days, there are several techniques that webmasters use to promote the websites. A basic understanding of what they are and how to do them will truly be of help to you.
Look at the following checklist:
Be sure that your website is clearly visible. Make announcements, submit to directories, come up with promos, link with other websites, and so on just to let the public know that your website and your business exist.
Provide tweaks in your website. By doing so, your page will be more user-friendly and more visitors are likely to take a look at it.
Make sure that you employ the pertinent search engine optimization techniques on your website. An SEO company or expert can help you work with the algorithms and a bunch of statistics so that your page will be easily tracked by the popular search engines.
Include a couple of features in your website that will make it easy to locate. Take note of the effective distribution and use of the headers, hyperlinks, web site title, Meta tags, and keywords. The latter should be distributed all throughout the content but without the need to stuff the entire content.
Apply the good linking methods that many experts use. It also helps to get your website a part of the leading online directories. Reciprocal linking must be considered as well.
Be active in popular social networking sites, send newsletters and e-mails, and do blogs because these are ideal ways on how to promote the website and get in touch with real customers.
Become a part of the audio or print media, sponsor events, and spread awareness among the people.

Finally, website promotion takes a lot of varied forms. It is up to you to widen your horizon so as to reach more target clients. Be guided by this checklist so that you may ensure the success of your online entrepreneurship. However, as mentioned, you can actively make use of social media to brand yourself. To help you, down load the free "Social Branding Report" from http://www.socialbrandingreport.com

Changing Winds Deeply Spiritual and Interesting Read

Changing Winds Deeply Spiritual and Interesting Read Take an intensely spiritual journey though the experiences of a handful of lives in a small Midwestern community with The Changing Winds: Of Blindness, Visions, And Spiritual Redemption, by The Apprentice.

This was a work like none I've ever read. I do a lot of reading and can't say that about most books. At first you're not sure what The Apprentice is doing, or why he's setting the stage using metaphorical pseudo names for people and places. But it later becomes clear.
In the first part of the story, we meet a highly educated Clinical Psychologist who expounds on a number of profound spiritual experiences he and his wife ("Angel") have been through. At such high levels of encounters does he boast (humbly) of, I could not help but wonder just how many Christians have come even close to the same sort of experiences-even those of a more charismatic or Pentecostal persuasion. The Apprentice appears to be a magnet of supernatural activity.
As we go along, we find that the gist of this story is about the quite ugly behavior of a handful of church ("Village") leaders and what they did to the author and his wife. So deplorable were their actions, there were moments I wanted to put the book down and not read anymore. This type of thing appeals to some as a way of entertainment-it does not to me. In fact, my carnal nature would rear its head and I found myself envisioning rather ungodly ways that I might response, were it myself in this situation.
But I pressed on for a couple reasons. First, I could see straight away that The Apprentice is an individual with more patience than I--I wanted to learn from him. Although understandably angry and frustrated at times, he keeps his cool and leaves any revenge that may occur to God. He continually seeks to forgive and reconcile, even after two full years of rejection, slander, and abuse.
Secondly, both The Apprentice and his wife offer the reader great wisdom and understanding about why people behave the way they do. I myself have a Bachelor's in Psychology, and I left the degree with more questions than answers. But The Apprentice not only became certified in Clinical Psychology (and a few other things), but he himself underwent years of both giving and receiving counseling. He combines his education, knowledge, and experience, with a deep love for God, his Son Jesus Christ, and Biblical lore. This makes for some fascinating psychological breakdown of the individuals involved and the reasons-nature, nurture, and spiritual-behind their appalling behavior.
Thirdly, there's a bigger picture here I wanted to see. God has always used suffering, and both The Apprentice and his wife have suffered much-physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A certain amount of pain appears to be needed to bring us, in our fleshly state, to those high levels of faith where we're closer to God. The Lord told The Apprentice to endure to the end, and I wanted to see how this turned out, and whether or not the pain they suffered at the hands of others would come to any positive fruition.
As we continue, we read also some very interesting facts about the kind of people who judge others in regards to spiritual experiences, whether or not they're real or the result of mental dysfunction. Not to spoil it for the potential reader of this work, but you'll be surprised at the statistics regarding who judges who and how.
This book is also a sad commentary on the American church today in general. It goes in depth about how a lot of Americans pray and believe in Jesus, but those same individuals don't go to church because of the hurtful, controlling, and judgmental people in them. It also discusses truths about American wealth and how we use it wrongly.
You may also be delighted though, as I was, to find not only amazing testimonies of God's grace and healing, but gold nuggets of wisdom speckled throughout this writing. This comes in the form of not just quotes from well-known individuals, but thoughts that came from the author as he went long. Here are just a few of many examples:

• "To face a Bully, a person must stand outside of the belief in attack."
• "The Bullying of the meek is as destructive as the physical abusing of children."
• On fear: "The Devil you know is easier to cope with than the Devil you don't know."
• "In my soul I believe the only good we humans are capable of, when confronted with evil, is love."
• "Powerlessness and surrender are the true path of the way taught by Jehoshua (Jesus)."
• "We sadly have a tremendous faith in evil."
• "Position and power mean nothing, and God is not a respecter of these things but appreciates service."

One little bit of criticism that I will add here is that there are many quotes from Scripture in this work, usually from expounded translations. But rarely was there the actual verse reference. For those familiar with the Bible, this isn't such an issue. But for those seeking and searching, I would think that would be a boon.
Does this story end positively? Yes and no. No, because when people are given chance after chance to repent and obey God (in this case repentance, forgiveness, and love) and still refuse to comply, there are terrible consequences-we see some of that begin to happen. But Yes, because others did start to acknowledge what went on and did at least start down a road of what could be reconciliation. Also Yes, because it offers an amazing conclusion on what exactly Love is. How The Apprentice and his wife could respond with such love and compassion after everything they went through cannot be explained in human terms.
The Changing Winds is a work that will make you think on a number of subjects. Some of it is controversial, none of it is boring. And ultimately, all of it points to the "greatest commandment" taught by Christ.
Kelly Libatique, author of Divine Knowledge Transfer

Kelly Libatique is a professional speaker, technical trainer, and author. He has a Master's in Education and a Bachelor's in Psychology. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and Anne and two sons.
Visit http://www.Libatique.com or Contact Kelly at: Kelly.Libatique@gmail.com