Inspirations from Kerstin Hack

Category: Prayer (Page 2 of 3)

Discovering Life – Now More than Ever

Image038Was I alive today?

Yes!

What new thing did I learn about life?

Nothing new, really: Life can sometimes be really strenuous and full of fighting. You win some, you lose some. Again, nothing new. And when you (seemingly) lose a fight, it”s painful. This month, I have really suffered and prayed with a friend whose grandson came into the world seriously ill. Today, he took his leave of life in this world. As I was walking earlier through the garden and praying for his parents and grandmother, I felt like God was saying to me, “The fight was not for nothing.” I don”t know what that means. And I”m not trying to comfort anyone with cheap words. However, this was what I felt.  I really believe that it”s never for nothing to do everything that is in our power to fight for life, even when it doesn”t bring the result that we”d hoped for… that they could share a long life with others here on the Earth.

What new thing did I learn about myself?

This phase right now is really stressful. There has been illness and failure in the team. Delays. Lower back pain that has increased again in the last few days. Worry about Bernd. 1000 decisions about the ship that are building up and that intertwine. Having all of the details in mind at once is definitely not my strength – so far. During the weekend, two people with this strength blessed me that it would also develop in me. As a person created in God”s image, I possess the ability, at least rudimentarily. And it could still develop.

Nevertheless: All these things stretch me to my limits. There are phases when I find everything to be terrible, and I suffer in silence. Or aloud. And then there are moments when a switch is flipped. This happened on Sunday evening. I saw difficulties and challenges without end. And instead of being sad about them and allowing myself to become discouraged, I thought to myself: now more than ever!

Now more than ever

  • – I want to tackle this
  • – I want to believe that God is with me
  • – I want to trust that there is a way
  • – I want to hope, believe, pray
  • – I want to keep going.

Now more than ever – not because it”s easy. That”s not it. But because it”s right. And it”s worth it. Even in the face of difficulties.

Now more than ever!

– See more at: http://kerstinpur.de/allgemein/leben-entdecken-jetzt-erst-recht/#sthash.sF26eEIb.dpuf

Discovering Life – It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask

IMG_0137Was I alive today?

Yes!

It is simply wonderful to walk through autumn leaves and whirl them up with your feet.

What new thing did I learn about life?

It doesn’t hurt to ask. My theory: people almost always want to help when they have the ability and opportunity to support another person in making their life better. They just sometimes don’t know how they can help. And they don’t dare to ask.

In the last few days, I have asked a lot:

1. The cool online-shop Avocadostore for fair and pretty things: if they would like to promote our 2014 calendar during the holidays.

– The answer:  We’d love to. And they put it on their start page right away.

2. A friend: if he would lend me his welder for a couple of days until I can find my own that functions well (the monster that I have on-board doesn’t have a plug that’s compatible, and I have to consider whether I want to learn welding on a dinosaur-welder…no, don’t worry…at first, I am just watching… then perhaps I will practice carefully outside on the deck)…

– Answer: Yep.

3. A seller of hand-held welding equipment: if I can get a discount.

– Answer: Yes! 

4. A waste-water specialist (a contact of a friend): if he would help me plan the water disposal on the ship.

– Answer: Sure. I am a specialist for seeping water, but I would happily look at it, and if I don’t know what to do, I can recommend someone who does.

5. My dentist: If he can repair a broken mouthguard that I improvisationally patched with superglue.

– Answer: Bring the mouthguard over on Friday, and I will do it over the weekend.

6. A friend in Hamburg: if he could pick up and bring an affordable, used fireplace for my ship from Hamburg… so that it will be cozy.

– Answer: Of course.

7. A brilliant professor and architect for environmentally responsible building: if he and his students would like to help with the planning.

– Answer of his assistant: The tasks for this semester are already assigned – I sent your request to him anyway. (I also sent a request to my God about this and told Him I would find it really cool if there was a way that I could get support from the top professionals!)

8. A friend: if I could borrow her car for a transport.

– Answer: No, I’d prefer not. The car is brand new, and we haven’t paid it off yet.

Surprisingly another friend, who didn’t know anything about this, sent me a note: “I would love to help you more, but my time is very limited. It would be impossible for me to commit a half or whole day. But I could happily procure things for you or make drives, bring lunch by or things like that, or even pick up visitors…anything that I can squeeze in – one or two hours can always be found…” 

9. A shoe-maker: if he could make a hole in a belt that had become too large for me.

– Answer: ok 

I am surprised how much people enjoy helping. Surely it also plays a role in wanting to help that the ship will become a place on which other people will be helped. Still: it is a huge gift. And I am sooo thankful for all of the big and little helps.

What did I learn about myself?

It makes life so much more relaxed and nice that I can casually and openly ask today. I didn’t used to be able to. I sometimes expected that others already knew or suspected what I needed. Only: they usually didn’t. Or I worried that I would become a burden to them, and I thought too much about what they might think, what might burden them, what might stress them – without, of course, knowing whether it was true. For this reason, I didn’t dare to express my requests.

Today, I usually assume that people are adults and can make their own decisions. I try to express the background of my request clearly and comprehensibly, to make it understandable why I need help and why I am asking them. And then I allow the other person to decide whether they want to fulfill my request or not. And when they say “no” – like my friend with the car – it’s totally fine with me. They are making a decision for themselves, not against me. This unwinds.

Asking is nice. 

– See more at: http://kerstinpur.de/besser-leben/leben-entdecken-fragen-kostet-nichts/#sthash.O3dc7I5X.dpuf

Discovering Life – Questions for God

IMG_0237 – Was I alive today? Yes! I had prayed that God would send me a senior that had time and skills and the desire to help me. God must have thought, “Well, if that’s all…” and He sent me a nice senior who has much building experience, likes boats, and has time. He has already helped me a few times and will continue on board. On Thursday evening he told me and another woman, who had also helped on board, while riding back together in a car (with seat-heating, which was wonderful for my stressed back) the story of how he met and fell in love with his second wife (he was a widower). It was simply wonderful to hear such a love story out of the mouth of a man. – What new thing did I learn about life? That people have very different questions for life and for God. After getting out of the car, the other woman said to me, “Sometimes I wonder why God gives some people a spouse twice and some like us not even once.” I was surprised. That question hadn’t come into my head at all. The next day, I was making a fruit salad. Again with hands that were oozing with mango juice. I am never successful with portioning mangos in a “civilized” way. I ask myself, “Why did God put such a delicious thing like mango in such an impractical package?” In short: The questions that people ask themselves and God are apparently very diverse. – What new thing did I learn about myself? Apparently, feeling jealous of happy couples is no longer an issue for me. For one, because I know that with most portions of happiness comes a good portion of work. But perhaps also because during a phase where I often struggled with jealousy when I saw happy couples, I learned how to bless them (like this unknown pair on the photo). Just say a short prayer for them that God will strengthen, preserve, and bless them and their relationship. Hopefully, this will be good for them – it’s certainly good for me. – See more at: http://kerstinpur.de/besser-leben/leben-entdecken-fragen-an-gott/#sthash.HoJSoxy7.dpuf

Discovering Life – God Can

2013-09-17-08.17.36– Was I alive today?

Yes!

– What new thing did I learn about life?

Two things are moving me right now. The first is that one harvests what one sews, even if it’s years later. This message came in a moving 3-Minute Video. There are prayers and “faith-investments” that I sewed more than 30 years ago, and of which I still wait excitedly for the harvest. In one areas, I “harvest” with a twinkle in my eye. A while ago, I published the inspirational booklet “Gebetsnotizen” (“Prayer Notes”) to encourage people to take note of their prayers and the ways in which God responds.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been moved by the story of the quails and manna. In this story, a leader is confronted with a challenge: a few hundred thousand people want meat. Even if they slaughtered all of the animals they had, it wouldn’t be enough. And soy burgers hadn’t yet been created. It was impossible for him. And then his God asked him, “Is anything impossible for me?” The answer is, logically, “No.” And then God seriously dished up – the Israelites had the BBQ of their lives. Mountains of meat. Nothing for vegans. But the others were happy.

This story moves me in relation to my boat. The beginning agreed-upon budget has now, through mistakes and unforseeables, been exceeded by one third. And another 50,000 Euros worth of costs are due by April 2014 – and then after that, I still have to repay the loans. I am doing what I can to offset the costs:

– I publish books

– I sell used things

– I coach people

– I give lectures

– I rent out my guestroom to vacationers

– I want to give blood

– I live economically

Impulsheft GebetsnotizenBut even with these efforts, obtaining the needed 50,000 Euros in 8 months is impossible – for me. But not for my God. Going back to the inspirational booklet Gebetsnotizen that I made a few years ago: I am currently using it myself for my prayers about the ship project. And while I was turning to a new page this week, I saw:

“Is anything impossible for God?”

I thought it was funny to be reminded through my own booklet of the assurances of God that are currently moving to me. I think God also smiled. Now I am excited to see when and how the quails will fly to me.

– What new thing have I learned about myself?

I am soooo alive when I coach. Today, I had a coaching appointment about cravings. To coach about this theme is essentially a really simple skill. One discovers where the customer has bound eating, or a specific food, with certain emotions, and then breaks the bond. Through this, “the spell is (more or less) broken” and it loses its power. It makes me happy every time to experience how things get unbound in people’s minds and new thoughts and feelings are now possible for them. It’s simply wonderful.

– See more at: http://kerstinpur.de/allgemein/leben-entdecken-gott-kann/#sthash.407hu1a1.dpuf

The Next Stage -The Seminar Room

Seminarraum-225x300

The Seminar Room, May 2013

We are making progress. The seminar room has been completely derusted and primed and is looking really great! All that is left to do is to give it another lick of paint.

If you have never scraped off old paint and enamel from the inside of a ship, you will not be aware of how much of a milestone this stage is. Hats off to Karl, the ship-builder and all the other helping hands who scraped, rubbed and sanded down.

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Scraping off rust in the seminar room.

The next step is to get hold of watertanks for drinking water and waste water and build them into the ship. Then we will need to insulate the walls and lay down the floor.

Seminarraum-Oktober1-300x225

Seminar room October 2012

In the meantime, we are also looking for moorings in Berlin where we can continue working on the ship – this is a real challenge! If it works out, we will bring the ship to Berlin as soon as possible.

The Situation with the Shipyard costs is as follows: I am only missing 5,153 Euros of the total 22,507 Euros. At the end of July, I will have to pay back a loan of over 5,000 Euros. I hope that I will have acquired the rest of the money by then!

 

Goal in Sight

Goal in Sight photo

The big day has arrived. First, some good news: The shipyard invoice has been paid in full.

This was made possible partly through loans, but mainly as a result of the many generous donations I received – over 15,000 euros! In the lastfew days, I have received even more support, so now the remaining sum is only 7,000 euros. It feels so good to see a four digit number!

In addition, the things that people have written, have brought me close to tears. I never dreamed of receiving so much help and support.

We believe in a great God and believe in you and that He has a plan for you and the ship. For that reason we have transferred you the money and bless you with it.

Or:

For my birthday I will hopefully persuade my guests to get inspired by the ship project. I hope that you will find peace and know that you are not alone on this emotional roller-coaster ride.

It is really unpleasant, to find yourself with a problem like a huge unexpected dockyard invoice. However it is really wonderful to experience how people are so willing to open their hearts and their purses to support the project. I have never cried so many tears of gratefulness as I have in the past few days.

If you would still like to contribute to the cause, so that I can raise the remaining funds and not have to continue to rely on loans, then please feel free to do so here. Every little helps!

 

God didn’t just hear my prayer…he exceeded it!

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If I’m honest, when I heard the news from the dockyard, that I needed to pay 20,000 euros more than I had orginally planned, I was just schocked. Then I cried and then I talked with my God. For one, I didn’t know how I should go about getting the rest of the money together. Secondly, the idea that I was going to have to pay off €20,000 extra over the next months or even year was a complete nightmare.

I prayed that God would present me with at least a quarter of the sum required -I asked for exactly €5555. I couldn’t really imagine any more than that. As I am writing this, we have surpassed the requested €5555 and I am completely overcome and crying with happiness. I did not expect or think this would happen. It moves me, that so many people (over a 100) have contributed to the cause, from as little as €1 to as much as €1000. Lots and lots of people have contributed 1,5,10 or 20 euros and together this amounts to a lot. Others could give more and they did that, which is also wonderful! It’s such a miracle how all the little donations add up to 1,000.

With the help of the donations and a loan, I was able to pay the dockyard. The ship is now free and we can start work again as normal, welcome helpers on board and so on. This makes everything so much easier!

Encouraged by the 100+ miracles I venture to ask my God, that the rest of the money that we need will come together, so that I won’t need to spend months paying off loans, but rather use the money for further rennovation work.

What you can do:

. Contribute financially: as much or as little as you can. The best way to do this internationally is via paypal. The email address is: info@down-to-earth.de alternatively you can click on the paypal DONATE link at the side of this blog.

. Make something: perhaps you could paint, bake or make something to sell in order to raise money for the ship. Eg. Sell homemade cakes after a church service.

. Sell something: you could collect old objects, books and items of clothing and create a mini-flea market with a group from church. Alternatively you could use web platforms such as EBAY (clothes, objects) or AMAZON (books) to sell your items, and then donate the money to the ship.

. Help on Board: this is particularly wonderful in the summer. We work hard during the day, and then enjoy a barbeque on board in the evenings. Previous handywork experience isn’t required.

. Donate materials: perhaps you have some things lying about that could be of use to us. We need a lot of stuff: wood, toilets, fireplaces, lea, paint brushes etc. If you have access to building materials – please let me know. I can give you a more specific list of things.
. Become a Partner: commit to being a Godmother or Godfather of the Ship projekt over the next 10-12 months through the following:

– Praying for 5 minutes a week
– 5 hours of practical help on board a month (if you don’t live in Germany, perhaps you could commit to spending a week helping out)
– Donating €5 or more a month to the ship project fund.

Godmothers and godfathers of the ship will be the first to know of any important developments.

Heart of Berlin 2

I am ever so grateful for all the gifts and donations that I have received for the ship over the last couple of days. It’s so overwhelming!

As well as donations, there are other ways of supporting the Shipproject where you can get something in return.
I source my income primarily from the Down To Earth publishing house and coaching. At the moment, all the money that I earn that I don’t need to use for rent, food, health insurance etc. goes directly into funding the Shipproject.

You can support the Ship-project indirectly and get something in return!
– Why not treat yourself or a friend to a new book or leaflet from Down To Earth. The books are available from the Down To Earth website, as well as Amazon (although they do take a lot of money from us!) please choose whatever is easiest for you.
We currently have two English titles:
‘The Father’s Love’

The FAther's Love

Print DTE: http://down-to-earth.de/englische-titel/quadro-the-fathers-love.html
E-book DTE: http://down-to-earth.de/englische-titel/e-book-quadro-the-fathers-love.html
E-book Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fathers-Love-Experience-ebook/dp/B00946R5MC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368007236&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Father%27s+Love+Manfred

‘Learning To Forgive. The Art of a Life of Inner Peace.’

Learning To forgive

Print DTE: http://down-to-earth.de/englische-titel/quadro-learning-to-forgive.html
E-book DTE: http://down-to-earth.de/englische-titel/e-book-quadro-learning-to-forgive.html
E-book Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Forgive-Inner-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00946HK9K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368007912&sr=1-1&keywords=Learning+to+Forgive+Kerstin+Hack

– We are currently in the process of translating our LEA online training course. I wrote LEA in order to help people find freedom from their physical or spiritual burdens. It has been incredibly successful in German and we are looking forward to starting our first online course in English from the 1st July. The course lasts for 3 months and costs €99. More information coming soon, but if you are already interested please send me an email.

I hope that you will enjoy these products, along with the joy of knowing that you are helping to build something that many people will use and benefit from.

God´s Classroom

For a while We have all come to the right place. We all sit in God´s classroom. Now, The only thing for us to do, my dear, Is to stop Throwing spitballs for a while. by Hafiz, Persian Poet

Berlin prayer letter

Berlin is on the move. We decided to start to work on a Berlin prayer letter which will be edited monthly. Four people, two men and two women will start working on this project, soon. And other things are in the tube, too. Watch this space. Much more will happen.

Prayer for Berlin

My friends from USA (now living in Prague) who are visiting are still sleeping…yesterday we had a prayer time for Berlin celebrating the richness of what God is giving us through other nations and what we can give to nations…..wonderful richness….

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