Two good reads for the morning ...

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has an intro article on Joel before his visit to the town.

More in-depth, Lillian Kwon of the Christian Post has a great interview on Joel from Valentine's Day. A bit of good news to share:

CP: How many years do you project for that new facility to be paid off?

Osteen: We’ve paid about $75 million of that 125. I think we could probably pay it off sooner, but I don’t put all the money towards that debt. We still spend $30 million on TV every year. We can pay it off in a year if we rearranged the money. But I don’t feel good about that. I feel like continuing to press forward.

I remember Joel saying last year that there was a big note coming due on the church this past January. To get from $125M to $50M in the span of less than two years is impressive. To think what the money goes for once the debt is paid off is even more impressive.

Oh, and as a bonus, Israel Houghton will be interviewed on Voice of America radio at 4pm Texas time today. You can listen online if you're near a computer around that time.