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Taking the LEA online course – and helping a family in need

2. April 2015 / Kerstin Hack

My friend Matthias Beyer who is a brilliant coach, who suffered a huge aneurism in his brain in lte march. He loved to coach people and strengthen them in life. As I thought how I could honor him and help the family I came up with the following idea.
FREE OF CHARGE online coaching course to support Matthias and Kim Beyer .
I developped an online Coaching course called LEA – traininig people in LIFE, ENERGY AND ACTION. The course teaches the skills ot live well, develop more physical and emotional energy i.e. by reducing weight and getting rid of emotional burdens and take action in some areas of life – i.e. learning to set boundaries. And it asks a lot of questions – like the kind of questions Matthias would have asked when coaching you.
http://lea-training.com/

For all who want to honor Matthias by being learners offer the next course – starting April 10 – for FREE OF CHARGE.
Simply register here and we will put you on the course. It starts April 10 and runs for 3 months (2 coaching mails per week).

However I ask participants to donate to the Matthias Beyer Family fund to support his family, who not only struggle with the tragedy, but also with huge hospital costs.
http://lea-training.com/sign-up

If you can – please donate the regular course fee: 99 Dollar. If that is not possible – give whatever you can. And if you can´t give – enjoy the course nevertheless.
https://www.tilt.com/campaigns/matthias-beyer-family-fund

PLEASE share this with all of your friends…it would be great to stengthen people in the way Matthias would have done AND help the family.

2015 – still moving

26. February 2015 / Kerstin Hack

Yes, still there. And still building the ship.

Finances remain a challenge. I got two big and some smaller gifts – that helped to pay the huge bill for annual rent + electricity + service.

However I have another 10.000 Euro challenge ahead of me…the heating system of the ship: Ovens, hot water tanks and so on.

In the midst of the challenges I am amazed at God´s faithfullness. I guess that now about 80% of the ship is paid for.

I had to take loans for about 20% of this. So 60% of all costs were provided for through my own income and lots of gifts. God was and is faithful.

If you want to help you can use paypal: info@down-to-earth.de or ask me for my bank details. And you can come to Berlin and join the process!

Slowness of progress: For a visionary like me slow progress is almost killing… Things move on the ship. We built the bathroom, put in floor heating system, continue to renovate the decks and put in insulation, put in more walls…

But it takes a LOT of time. I certainly do not like this…. and I do trust but also cry out to God at the same time to send helpers and finances to speed up the process…

Picture: One of the great days when lots of helpers were on board.

2014 – What a year – looking back…

24. December 2014 / Kerstin Hack

Enjoying some quiet moments while my elderly parents whom I visit for Christmas watch TV or rest – I take some time to look back on this year – rich in challenges and blessings.

Some „statistics“
2014-08-23 14.21.48
2014 meant

4000 hrs of work from volunteers and professionals to remove rust, paint, put up insulation, drill holes…and lots of other stuff. Thankful for each one and all of them… the picture shows Isaac – painting the inside of a water tank!
6 new titles written by me – sorry all in German, but we are working on translations: Coco Chanel, Johannes Gutenberg, Non-violent Communication, Sensitivity, Questions of sucess, removing Blockages (co-authored with my Collegue Christoph Schalk). All of them in German so far…but we are working on English translations…
14 new publications in total for Down to Earth
20 Events as Speaker or holding a seminar.
1 big Fundraising – Project „Fighting Rust – the epic battle“
100 hours of business or personal Coaching
2 new part-time staff in Publishing – for orders and organization

Lowlights – the difficult times

Discovering that we had painted a huge part of the ship with a color that would not dry – we had forgotten to add the hardener. Yikes. Improvisation is king.
Being falsely accused and sued to have violated the rights of a fotographer – I won the court case, but lost Hundreds of Euro for Research and more that 40 hours of work – for nothing … that was / is frustrating. I learned a lot, but it cost me a lot, too.
Slipping on the ship and falling on a sharp metal edge – damaging muscles on my leg – I had to watch the world cup finals in bed with my leg on ice.. and the muscles have not recovered completely.

Highlights

Spending time with a lot of different people on board of my ship – working together, sharing, laughing, crying… and seeing the ship being transformed from an empty metal shell to a homely place: We removed rust and added insulation, paint, Floors, walls, a toilet, Watertanks… and we now even have a dishwasher… and it works…
Miracle after Miracle in terms of helpers and finance
Seeing Germany beat Brasil 7:1 – the most unbelievable Soccer game of my life. Ok and becoming World Champion was not too bad either – although I had to watch the game in bed – with my injured leg wrapped in ice.
Celebrating the birthday of a dear friend in Sweden.
Launching my online-course LEA: Life, Energy, Action in English for the first time – I hope it will provide inspiration for many people.
Coaching many different people – in business issues or personal questions – and seeing them find solutions. Being part of this is simply wonderful.
Being part oft he „wall of lights“ fort he 25th anniversary oft he fall oft he Berlin wall. A day to remember.
I especially enjoyed learning more about Wingwave. That is a short-term coaching approach that helps remove blockages very quickly and effectivly. One woman who had suffered from fear of dark hallways after having been a victim of a bank robbery lost her fear after only one hour of coaching. Seeing things like that happen right in front of my eyes just makes me cry for joy.
Down to Earth, my publishing house over the years has grown from a one – woman business to a team of 10 part-time staff. It is important to lay new structures. And I have found a great coach who is helping me to master this time of transition.

10488118_10152194811730163_4104701525860301131_n 2014 was quite a challenging year for me – it challenged me to grow in trust, leadership, coping… just sticking with the challenges, week after week. I am thankful that all in all it was a good year. And I am thankful for all the wonderful people who encouraged me, prayed for me, supported me and the ship project – a huge thank you to everyone who stood with me in this past year…

Hafiz: Poems and Prayers

11. November 2014 / Kerstin Hack

I love the poems by the Persian poet Hafiz… wonderful words….and deep prayers:

“This is the kind of friend you are…
Without making me realize my soul´s anguished history,you slip into my house at night.
And while I am sleeping, you silent carry off all my suffering and sordid past in your beautiful hands…”

LEA – a wonderful course – now for the first time in English!

12. September 2014 / Kerstin Hack

LEA - Lebensfreude-Mit Fotograf This course is amazing. In 2011 I met a woman who was seriously overweight and unhappy with some aspects of her life. Some days later I sat on a beach and thought how I could help her and others who wanted to be stronger in life and more happy.

As I am a professional life coach and passionate about passing on skills I decided to develop an online training course to strengthen people in 3 areas:

LIFE: How to live live more strongly. And to remove what hindres you.
ENERGY: How to gain more emotional and physical energy. And get rid of unneccessary physical and emotional burdens.
ACTION: How to find the strength to act on what you know. And how instead of hoping your life would change you would actually live the change you want to see.

Because change takes time the course runs for 3 months – with two mails per week and a Facebook page to share experiences. And it is a mixture of inspiration, teaching about life skills questions to think about and suggestions for immediate action.

Since I implemented the course in German it has helped houndreds of people to

achieve their goals
loose weight
set healthy boundaries
learn to say no
become more attractive
make decissions more easily
find the courage to change
become stronger and happier
and much much more (see Feedback)

In October the first LEA course starts in English

It almost makes me cry that now – after several years !!! of translation work, dozens of checks, setting up the hompeage etc. the course is now available in English for the first time. It is my hope and my dream that it will inspire and assist numerous people around the world to live their lives stronger and more happily. I guess the LEA course is one of the biggest gifts that I can give to the world.

For more info have a look at Lea-Training.com

What you can do I would like to see as many people as possible to benefit from LEA.

You can sign up now. The next course is called LEA 4 – 2014 (because we start in the 4th quarter of the year). The course fee is 99 $ for 3 months. A dollar a day. You´re worth it.
You can ask a friend to do the course with you. Doing it together is more fun and both of you only pay 90 $
Send an Email about LEA to friends who you think might benefit from it.
Share about LEA in your social media: facebook, twitter, XING, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram….
Inform the media: if you have contacts to the press – tell them about it.

I am looking forward to share this wonderful experience with you and your friends – longing to assist you to make your lives stronger and more joyful.

Learning new things

10. September 2014 / Kerstin Hack

At the moment I am sometimes renting out my bedroom to Berlin visitors. This helps to raise money for a ship. And it also gives you great experiences. At the moment a historian is living there. Last night I told him that I had just been to a talk by David Solomon, a jewish guy who does the whole of jewish history in one hour. He said: “That´s no big thing – I can tell the whole jewish history while I am standing on one foot” Said so – pulled up his leg and exclaimed: “They wanted to kill us. We survived. Let´s go and enjoy some food!”

The ship – update

19. August 2014 / Kerstin Hack

It´s been over 2 years now since my friends and I started working on the ship in May 2012 – you can see the progress in the pictures

I told about the vision and the beginning of it in a blog entry called The ressurection of a dream. It´s been quite a journey. Challenging and rough at times – joyful and amazing at others.

What we have done so far:

Restored the core of the ship (underwatership) – renewing the steel.
Removed all rust inside the ship, painted the inside, insulated it (it is 25 m long, 5 meters high – every square meter takes up to 5 hrs of work!).
Put in 21 new windowsPut in floors
Put in a woodstove

Installed running water
Installed a toilet
Began to renew electricity
Renovated the roof and part of the decks.

More than 100 People from half a dozen of different nations have come here to help and be inspired. For many of them it is encouraging to see: It is hard work to make a dream come true. But it is possible. And it is a joy to see the financial and practical miracles happen.

My vision for the ship is to provide a place for inspiration and restoration. So it has been a special joy to welcome one man whose life hat just fallen to pieces. He came here for 10 days of reflection, restoration and coaching and told me: “It was so good to talk to someone like you who does not offer recepies. No one in my life ever took so much time for me as you did!”

It makes me cry to think about that…great man, but no one ever really took the time to listen, to encourage … and it makes me feel that providing that space for people to be, to be encouraged and to receive coaching is the right thing to do.

What´s next – autum projects

Putting in 4 more portholes
Putting in new doors – the old ones are cardboard…not secure at all!
Putting up walls and doors in the rooms inside
Putting in a kitchen
Removing the rust on the decks.

For the “removing of the rust on the decks” I have started a fundraising campaign as this is quite an expensive part. It will take us about 100 hours to remove the rust and paint, but the paint is a pain in the neck….Good ship paint hat lasts for a decade costs about 10 Euro / Dollar / Pounds per Liter. And we need about 200 !!! liters + electricity + some stuff to fill holes with.

So a friend made a cool movie: Fighting the rust – the epic battle

Please

Consider coming here and helping for a few days – and yes, bring your friends. It is soo cool!
Encourage me and pray for me!
Have a look at the video, laugh and leave a comment.
Give something – no matter how much or little – to help us win the battle (use the paypal button on this blog at the right).
Share the video with your friends, tell them about the ship and ask them to come and help and / or give – even if it is only a little. The easiest way to give is paypal: info@down-to-earth.de

Togehter we will make it!

Satisfied

1. May 2014 / Kerstin Hack

During the last few weeks, I’ve been preoccupied with the question of how I can deepen my inner connection to Jesus. On the search for answers, I pulled a book out of my “To-Read” pile: Gestillt (Satisfied) by David Zindel from Neufeld Publishing. The subtitle “Night conversations with David” explains what it’s about.

At first, I was irritated. As a publisher, it is important to me to have a good framework for a storyline, and this was missing. A stressed-out and unhappily married man writes letters to King David, and the author barely even makes the effort to create a framework for it other than an introductory letter that communicates to the reader how the publication of the letters in Heaven is contentiously discussed. I think there should have been a little more creativity. I would have described, perhaps, how the good man reads Psalm 23 “I shall not want” in the evening and then writes a rather angry retort to the author, lays it in his Bible, and is astounded the next evening to find an answer on the back of his letter… actually from David.

After the framework, I was further irritated about the stupidity of Reinhard, the writer. At the beginning, he is presented as someone who blames all of his marital problems exclusively on his wife. I know contemporaries, men as well as women, who primarily see the cause of problems in the other person. Yet, I don’t think anyone could be so dumb as to have zero self-awareness like Reinhard at the beginning of the book – at least I hope not!!!

Once I was over the first hump, the book began to fascinate me. King David writes from the perspective of eternity looking back on his life, and he’s learned a few things. I liked how he encouraged Reinhard again and again not to seek fulfillment/satisfaction in things, rather in interacting with God. He wrote and explained this over and over in various ways and nuances… it was very good for me.

A few of the most beautiful thoughts from the book (quoted from memory):

The quality of satisfaction can be known by its aftertaste (A very wise thought, I think. It goes for food as well as events and interactions).
Pouring your heart out and allowing it to be refilled again belong together. One without the other makes no sense. (I thought this really good!)
Spiritually dry times are gifts from God. He is attempting to release us from our own not-really-rewarding attempts at satisfaction.
Obedience has to do with hearing. Obedience is the ability to hear.
God wants to wash our dirty laundry white, not to discuss the gray parts with us.
When we draw back from things, we can then receive and enjoy them anew as gifts from God – in a free way – as satisfied people, not as longing, insatiable, unsatisfied people who imbibe everything and, because they remain unsatisfied, must continually increase the doses.
David, when looking back from Heaven on his revenge acts: “Only now do I know that a happy life is made of settling the balance immediately, in emergencies from your own pocket.”

Thankful, I lay a good book aside… the valuable thoughts from it will accompany me for a while still.

– See more at: http://kerstinpur.de/glaube/gestillt/#sthash.7HXT8JFD.dpuf

The Resurrection of a Dream – In Progress!

25. April 2014 / Kerstin Hack

Two years – in April 2014 – ago I posted this:

“Each year in preparation for Easter, I ask the Lord if there is anything I should abstain from for Lent. This year the answer that I heard in my heart after prayer came to me as a surprise: Abstain from doubting.

Not doubting Him. Not doubting His goodness towards me – in spite of obvious challenges I was facing. And in spite of disappointments and broken dreams, the challenge was: Do not allow yourself the ‘luxury’ of doubt. Doubt is an easy way out. When you doubt you do not need to dare. Dare to trust. Dare to try new things.

And boy do I need courage. For 12 years I dreamt about having a space where I could host people: (young) people who would want to learn with me and from me, who would like to stay for a few days or weeks to learn, be mentored, and share life. Twice it looked as though the dream would come true, and twice it crashed again, painfully, violently. I cried. I couldn’t understand God. Wasn’t it His dream after all?!

In the last month the dream surfaced again, but not in the form of a flat that was big enough for living, hosting, and holding seminars, but in the form of a SHIP. It is simply cheaper to buy and renovate a ship than to buy a flat and so much more fun. I found a great ship on Ebay (!!!) – an old GDR army ship/torpedo boat that was later turned into a holiday ship. I bought it, I will renovate it and make it a place for sharing life, and most likely I will name it “Heart of Berlin.”

I am really excited about this project. It will have a seminar/coaching room, guest rooms for hosting up to four people, and a place for me to work and live. Looking forward to creating a space for disciples, learners, nomads, and people who want to grow.

Update April 2014

The last two years were years of tears, toil, and miracles. The outer skin of the ship is renovated. All the rust inside and outside is removed. The ship is insulated and has floors in some rooms and many new windows.

I experienced times of frustration when things were not moving as fast as I had hoped. I have seen miracles of provision, miracles of help through people and finances coming at the right time. I cried a lot, both with frustration and joy! One of the greatest moments was when one of the professional helpers decided to start following Jesus as a result of spending a few days on the ship with us.

Now it looks as if we are moving towards the finishing line and that there are only a few months of work ahead:

Putting in floors and walls
Putting in electricity
Putting in bathrooms
Putting in new doors and windows
Finishing painting outside

Do you want to share the dream?

The vision is to create a space where those who need orientation can find a place to rest, reflect, be restored, and receive professional help in Berlin, the capital of Germany where lots of young people are searching for answers. You can be part of the dream. You can make it possible in three ways: prayer, giving, and practical help.

– Prayer
I know how much can go wrong in any project, but I also know that the opposite can happen: things going incredibly smoothly, God’s favor on all sides, deadlines met. So I really do appreciate prayer for wisdom and God’s favor and blessing… and yes, I don’t mind a word of encouragement now and then. I write updates about once per month; let me know if you would like to receive them.

– Gifts and loans
My friends and I work as much as we can on the ship, but to pay for the rest of the materials and the professional work, I still need about 50,000 Euros ($60,000). This is far more than I can earn as an author or publisher in a few months, and I also have to pay back loans that people have given me. I am incredibly thankful for every small or big gift or loan. The easiest way to donate is by using my paypal: Info @ down-to-earth.de (leave out those blanks – I just put them there to avoid spam).

– Practical help

To finish the work on the ship, I do need a lot of practical help – both from people who know what they are doing like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, ship builders, and from anybody with two hands – everybody can scratch off rust and paint a ship. So if you’re up for a working holiday on the outskirts of Berlin or know of people who are, let me know. This is also great for teams of volunteers: I have had several teams come and work on the ship for a few days, and they moved the project forward a lot!

Just contact me if you want to know more!

What a Year!

22. April 2014 / Kerstin Hack

My birthday is a good opportunity to look back on this year. What a rollercoaster this last year was!

April: Information that the dry dock costs would be 3 times higher !!! than expected. Lots of friends helped with loans and donations – and miraculously the dramatic bill was able to be paid!

June/July: Mediation to solve conflicts with the ship builder I worked with and then – as differences and different expectations could not be resolved – the sad ending of our working relationship. Still sad – without him I would probably never have dared to start the project.

August: Moving the ship from Hamburg to Berlin – what a journey! The new birth of Bernd number 2 who entrusted his life to Jesus. Continuing renovation on the ship with a steady stream of friends helping me to move things forward and assisting the professionals. Challenging interpersonal relationship with the Berlin dry dock owner. Phew.

August/December: Professional training in a well-founded technique to reach goals and an extremely good trauma-relief therapy method. I’m very happy that I could increase my skills and am more equipped to handle tough stuff.

November: Bernd number 1 – a friend who helped me a lot with the ship and gave me lots of good advice – suffered a severe stroke and is still recovering. Last minute new windows for the ship – what a miracle that I could find the right professionals!

December: Discovering rust in places that should have been renovated. What a frustration!

January: Winter renovations – tough work with tough guys – my cousin and a great team from Portugal. Starting to coach a businessman in the Stuttgart area.

Dec – March: Writing 5 new titles in 5 months – quite a lot.

March: Starting to coach a man who wants to lose 40 kilograms of weight.

April: A stupid law suit – someone suing me for something I did not even do – forgetting to mention a photographer on a picture we published. We had mentioned her, she had just not looked properly. A little break at the baltic sea for gaining new strength.

Hopes for the next year of my life:

– Finishing the ship – praying for more helpers and finances to complete the project. Thankful for everyone who is helping – may it be small or big!

– Staying in peace – letting my soul be stilled by God.

Heart of Berlin

Page 3 of 17

Taking the LEA online course – and helping a family in need

2015 – still moving

2014 – What a year – looking back…

Hafiz: Poems and Prayers

LEA – a wonderful course – now for the first time in English!

Learning new things

The ship – update

Satisfied

The Resurrection of a Dream – In Progress!

What a Year!

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