Ship - Final spurt: 100 days to go to the finish line

I have been working on the ship since April 2012, pursuing my dream of transforming this old warship into a place where I can live and help people. I hope to be finished by April 2014. Firstly, because I have promised the shipyard this and I like to keep my promises. Secondly, because the double burden of the ship and the publishing house is really taking its toll on me. In a normal week, I spend 15 hours on the ship – plus I have a 6-hour journey by S-Bahn. On top of that, there are another 5–10 hours of organisation: searching for and bidding on materials on eBay. Making arrangements with companies and volunteers. All in all, despite all the joy it brings, it takes a lot of energy. I can only keep this up for a limited time.

That’s why I’d like to finish the ship as planned, within the next 100 working days. To do that, I need your help. 

Get hands-on – spend a few hours or days on board:

There are still approx. 2,000 working hours I’ve got my work cut out for me. I can’t manage this on my own. And I can’t afford to pay for it all either. So I still need a lot of help – both from people who are skilled and experienced in DIY and from those with no experience at all. Every hour counts, but of course it’s especially great when people can lend a hand for a few days at a time. Perhaps you’ve got some holiday left over from 2013 that you’d like to donate to the ship – and perhaps you’ve got a few friends you can encourage to come along. That would be brilliant.

Prayer 

It’s not just a cliché when I say that this project needs prayer. Some things went surprisingly well and were almost miraculous – I saw that as a gift from God. But there are also times when the obstacles seem insurmountable and I feel completely discouraged… at such times I need people to join me in praying to God and asking for His supernatural help. If you’d like to be kept informed about current concerns, please do let me know.

Finances

Although I’m doing a lot of the work myself, I still need money to see the project through to completion. More than I can earn myself over the next five months. According to the budget, the costs are likely to be between 20,000 and 30,000 euros – depending on whether I can get the materials at a lower or higher price.

The biggest chunks

– €500: A fireplace for the seminar room.

– €1,000: Flooring in the seminar room

– €1,000: Portholes below deck

– €2,000: Electrical work (cables, switches, lights)

– €2,000: Water-resistant timber for interior walls

– €2,000: toilets and showers

– €2,000: Flooring in the entrance hall and main room

– €2,000: Flooring in the bedroom and guest area

– €6,000: heating

– €5,000 (or more!) – Water supply and drainage, sewage treatment plant

– ??? euros: paint, screws, skirting boards, tools, cleaning products….

It’s almost impossible for me to manage this on my own. I work as much as I can, run workshops and coaching sessions, and sell second-hand books and anything else I can spare on Amazon and eBay, I’m renting out my bedroom to visitors to Berlin and sleeping on a mattress in the office… in short: I’m doing everything I can to scrape together as much money as possible. But I’ll hardly be able to manage it on my own.

So here’s my request to you: please consider whether you’d like to support me with a donation over the festive season to help me through the final stretch. There are various ways to do this:

My project at Betterplace: A fundraising platform where you can also donate anonymously. I’m currently taking part in a fundraising competition there. Whoever recruits the most donors in December will receive additional prizes. My aim is to get 200 people involved by the end of December… currently (5 December) there are 19.

PayPal – It’s really simple. You can click on the button on the right-hand side of the blog. PayPal will take care of the rest.

Bank transfer – the classic option. Simply pay into my account. (0478578209 | Sort code 10080000 – Commerzbank).

Whether it’s 5 cents, 1 euro or more. And then I hope to hold the first seminar on board at the end of April…