“A healthy soul is anchored by your core beliefs which live in the subconscious. Often they are contrary to conscious beliefs and ideals,” said Bible-based transformational life coach Marc Jackson, whose profession is dedicated to helping people achieve better relationships with themselves and subsequently with others.
Jackson, a Harrisonville resident, just returned earlier this month from a business trip to Romania, where he taught leadership skills at churches. Jackson spent most of his time in two places, Sanmihaiu German and Baia Mare which is about a 90-minute drive from the Ukraine border.
This was the fourth time he’s visited Romania as a relationship coach. The first time he went was in 2019. His mentor, a man named Allan McCray, was originally asked to teach his curriculum, but would be unable to travel to Romania.
“He asked me if I would be willing to go,” Jackson said. “I almost broke my phone typing ‘yes.’”
This opportunity was a kind of dream come true for Jackson, who prior to studying under McCray had been putting off for his entire adult life doing the sort of work he knew he was meant to do.
“I knew my whole life that I was called into ministry, leadership and preaching,” Jackson said.
He was born and raised in Coffeyville, Kansas, where he was raised a preacher’s kid. However, Jackson admitted he didn’t want any part of being a preacher.
He said that is part of why, later as an adult, he stayed in a job he was miserable at and delayed following in the footsteps of a long line of preachers, civil rights leaders and social justice activists. The other reason he stayed was the pay.
“Nothing will rock you to sleep like money. You don’t feel like you can walk away from it,” Jackson said.
He knew there had to be something more he was made for and he couldn’t do the sort of work he was doing anymore. On a prayer phone call, a friend recommended a book called “48 Days to the Work You Love” by Dan Miller.
The next day, he went and bought the book on his lunch break and read it at his desk.
“I was plotting my escape,” he said.
On June 30, 2010 he was fired.
“I’d never been fired from a job before, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” he said.
It led to him studying to do the sort of counseling work he does today. He had to undergo the same sort of transition he tries to help his clients through, and once on the right trajectory he was ready when McCray asked him to go.
“As a believer, there’s some things you pray about, and there’s some things you’re just like ‘Yes, I’m going to do that,” he said.
The first time Jackson went out of the country for ministry related reasons, he went to Haiti, where at one point he preached in front of 35,000 people. He said it was as a powerful experience.
“I never thought this would send me around the world. First to Haiti and now Romania four times,” he said. “It’s been a wild ride of being contagiously passionate about people walking in freedom.”
After the first time he visited Romania in May 2019, Jackson returned to the United States with more than a dozen clients he picked up, which Jackson said turned out to be a huge blessing because during the COVID-19 pandemic he had enough clients to keep him busy working remotely from the comfort of his home.
Jackson also takes clients locally. He works out of a borrowed office on the Square in Harrisonville. He also has clients in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
He was asked to visit again in February 2020 and again in May 2022. His wife, Tamar Jackson, accompanied him on his trip this year, which ran from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3. Jackson said he particularly likes how beautiful his wife’s name sounds when said with Romanian inflection.
“When I’m feeling especially affectionate toward her, I might say it that way,” he said.
After about a week, one of his wife’s sons and his wife’s mother flew over to join them for the remainder of the trip. Jackson extolled Romanian hospitality among the Christians there.
“That’s my church family,” Jackson said. “They wouldn’t let me pay for anything, and they feed us like dignitaries. In Romania you need four arms, two mouths and four stomachs because they just feed you and feed you. That’s part of their love language.”
As far as actual spoken language, Jackson said he does not know Romanian well enough to speak very eloquently, so he teaches using an interpreter.
“It’s fun because you learn how many people are bilingual and speak English. Because if you say something funny, a certain group of people laugh and then the rest catch up after the interpreter,” he said.
Jackson said one of the reasons for this visit was to help church leaders address internal strife between church members.
“Churches become families, and every family goes through misunderstandings and challenges,” he said. “There were misunderstandings and unintended experiences, (and some intended).”
According to him, people were hurt and offended, which can easily fester into pride, bitterness and unforgiveness. These are the same sort of problems individuals face when navigating what Jackson refers to as the “self-self relationship.”
“That self-self relationship is often one of hostility, animosity, self-guilt, self-shame, self-judgment and self condemnation. When you change the self-self relationship, your relationships with everyone and everything will change,” he said.
Jackson said a person must have a clear understanding of his or her innate worth in order to have a healthy soul. A little compassion can go a long way, whether directed toward others or oneself, according to Jackson.
“There are so many external battles in life, and they’re made so much more intense and difficult when we’re losing that internal battle.”
According to Jackson, people often believe they don’t matter, or nothing matters, or they matter because of who they are and what they’ve accomplished.
“People need to put the bat down and stop beating the crap out of themselves,” Jackson said.
Jackson said he helps people learn to believe they matter, period. They innately have value.
Jackson encourages people to address some deep and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the way they should live their life.
“How do I get to a life I really want? How do I get a life of passion and fulfillment, relational and economic success and adventure and joy? And how do I begin to confront the beliefs that are contrary to the life I feel I am called to?” he said.
This is the message he said he tries to instill in people. Asking these questions can be a kind of starting point for people.
Jackson said powerful things can happen when people live lives of self-acceptance and authenticity from their cores.
