On a Wheel and a Prayer

We had another exciting month at Camp LiWa www.campliwa.org this month.  We did not take a normal break between projects since we did not have to move to a new project.  We keep busy with the camp being in full swing with lots of activity and things to be done. 

The main task for the SOWERs for July was to build a new log cabin. Ron and Don spent time getting the base for the cabin ready. Because of the permafrost, they don’t use footers but build on platforms.

Jenny spent more time in the kitchen cleaning and helping with the food prep.

The July group of SOWERs www.sowerministry.org. Peg and Jack from Idaho, Bill and Ruth from Florida, Larry and Marg fulltime RVers and Jenny and I. Picture was taking at Jo and Mark’s house where we had an ice cream evening.

The cabin walls go up. Ron (Camp LiWa Staff), Jack, Larry and Don as they place log on top of log after log.

Jo(camp administrator) and Jenny in the back table as they go through yet another camp registration.

Don, Jack, Larry and Bill at the daily quitting time routine of putting on the temporary roof. Walls are nearing completion at this point.

We recruited help from all available persons to move the 8X12X32’ center beam.

You want this beam to go up there??? Ron looking up, Mark, holding on, Don, wondering what he’s doing and Jeff’s fingers pointing up. John, a volunteer there with another group, helping with the beam efforts is in the background.

The cabin work for the SOWERs is complete as our time is up and we off to another project. The cast of characters are as follows, left to right: Ron, camp staff, Jack and Larry, Sowers, Dave, camp Director, Don, SOWER, Mark, camp staff, and SOWER, Bill.

Jenny had the opportunity to share her story with several groups of the “SALT” (Servant and Leadership Training) girls. SALTs are young people who have volunteered at the camp to do a bunch of the hard work at the camp, like washing all the dishes, cleaning the dining area, etc., as well going through training to become counselors for a later camp.

SOWER’s, Peg and Ruth, working with the staff registering the campers.

SOWER, Marg, helping with the registration. "Sam", staff family helping along with other staff. Registration is a BIG effort each week of camp.

What a privilege to work at Camp LiWa for these past two and a half months.  It has been another opportunity for Jenny and I to grow spiritually and emotionally as we worked side by side with these dedicated Christian folks who work so hard as they present the Gospel Story to the children of the Fairbanks, AK area.

Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support.

Love, Don and Jenny

2010 May/June Camp LiWa  www.campliwa.org

We arrived at Camp LiWa (about five(5) miles NE of Fairbanks, AK) on May 12^th, about 3 weeks before the “official” SOWER (www.sowerministry.org) start date of the project.  We contacted the camp staff to let them know that we were in the area and asked if we might be of service.  The answer was a resounding “YES”, as many things needed to be accomplished before camp started in four(4) weeks.  So we went to work.     

Don installing cement board for the ceramic tile base in the new Ranch House Cabin.

The camp was blessed with two much needed new stoves for the kitchen. Here Jenny is “curing” the new grill.

Jenny and Becky(one of the camp counselors) painted the entryway to the lodge.

Jenny and Becky prepared meals for a retreat group. They look to be having difficulty in taking direction from the Wilderness Camp Director, Collin.

Jenny made a daily trip to the Food Bank with end, Kris, the camp Chief Chef. Fairbanks has an exceptional food bank for homeless. The homeless organizations get first choice of whatever is available on a particular day and the rest is available for other non-profit groups.

Don installed tile in five(5) different bathrooms and a kitchen/entryway in the new Ranch House Cabin.

The camp has a great Petting Farm and guess who got involved in animal care? Two young goats about to receive their twice daily bottle feeding.

Jenny putting a splint on the broken leg of one of the Petting Farm ducks. The duck recovered quite well and was able to join the flock of five.

We were joined at the camp by fellow SOWERs, Dave and Alice, from Palmer, AK, on May 31st for their very first SOWER Project.

Dave and Don installing new kitchen cabinets in the new Ranch House Cabin.

 

Dave and Don making trim boards for the Ranch House Cabin.

Dave and Don installing trim boards.

 

Alice and Jenny sprucing up the kitchen with a new coat of paint.

Alice and Jenny helped a lot in the kitchen. Kris, the Chief Chef, Jenny, Alice(SOWER) and Becky, Counselor/Cook volunteer for the summer.

 

The summer staff of the just the Wrangler Program of the camp. Besides the Wrangler Program, the camp has Base Camp and Wilderness Camp. Kids from Alaska, California, Russia, Washington state, and Kansas who gave their summer to help at the camp. The joy we had in our interface with these young people is difficult to express.

The staff and some of the counselors joined us for our daily devotionals at 7:30AM in the Lodge meeting room. It was truly a privilege to have them worship with us.

 

And here is why we do what we do. THE KIDS at camp. Here they are waiting for lunch.

This is one of the few times where we have had the opportunity to see a camp while it is in full swing of presenting the Gospel of Jesus to young people. What a grand and glorious experience.

Thank you for your interest and support.  Please continue to lift us up in your prayers.  Please pray for our good health and safety as we continue our journey of service.

 

Love, Don and Jenny

We left Nanoose Bay Camp at project end at the end of April and headed to our June project with intent of taking holiday for the month of May.  We ended up getting to Fairbanks in less than two(2) weeks and went to work at Camp LI-WA on May 12th.

We drove to the north end of Vancouver Island and boarded the ferry at Port Hardy headed to Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada.  It was about a fifteen(15) hour ferry ride.  We saved over 1200 miles by taking the ferry and considered it our Inland Passage cruise at minimal costs.

The ferry was quite large and very new. This ride was peaceful and pleasant, nothing like the one we were on to get to Vancouver Island.

On the ferry. Not a warm, balmy trip but, again, so peaceful.

The scenery is beautiful.

Scene as we traveled up the Cassier Highway.

The first glacier we saw as we made a side trip to Hyder, Alaska.

Stop where we had lunch as we left Stewart, BC. Ice was just coming out of the lakes.

Lots of WILD LIFE…

Yukon River where we stopped to take a lengthy hike along the river bank.

So much beatuiful scenery.

We spent one night at Burwash Landing. Delightful people and a relaxing and pleasant place to park for a night stay.

Two weeks of vacation travel through some God's Creation. We are truly blessed.

 We ended up getting to Fairbanks in less than two(2) weeks and went to work at Camp LI-WA on May 12th, a little over 2 weeks before the project officially began.(More to come soon)

Thank you for your prayers and your encouragement in our ministery.

Don and Jenny

Nanoose Bay Camp is located on a peaceful bay on the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island.

We picked up Tony and Amy (our good friends from Minneapolis about to experience their very FIRST SOWER’s Project) at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport late on Thursday night and drove to Port Angeles, WA.  We boarded the early AM ferry and headed to Victoria, BC. We had a trip that was unforgettable.  It was said to be one of the roughest trips EVER in the history of the passage.  We were very thankful to be on land.

After a lengthy process with Canadian Customs, (about and hour and a half, their concern was that we might be taking jobs away from Canadians with our volunteer work) we were on our way to Nanoose Bay, BC.  

There was a great deal of work to do as the result of the major storm.

Tony and Don removed two(2) large widows from an internal wall of the tabernacle and rebuilt/filled-in the space.

Amy and Jenny did a lot of painting and cleaning. Here they are painting a wall in the lodge kitchen.

Tony mowing the large athletic field.

Don had a chance to do some cabin furniture repair.

Painting the wall replaced in the tabernacle.

A lot of cabin cleaning was accomplished by Jenny and Amy.

Painting in one of the dorms.

Local rules dictate fires be hand-fed. Working at the task of burning some huge tree stumps and fallen branches. Warmest Don had been in months.

SOWERs living in Nanaimo, about 20 kilometers south of Nanoose Bay, invited us to join them for supper at their home one Sunday. A great time was had by all.

 Many other tasks where completed by the SOWERs team of Amy, Tony, Jenny and Don as the month unfolded. 

We are so blessed at each site we visit.  Nanoose Bay Camp was a delight and they were so very appreciative of our help.  This project was a special privilege in that we had a chance to serve along side our friends Tony and Amy.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Don and Jenny

Prescott Pines Camp www.prescottpines.org   What a privilege to serve at this place.  We could see and feel the Holy Spirit’s presence throughout our month at the camp. 

The camp, like most places where we volunteer, is in need of help.  Here the need was probably more than some of the other places because of winter storm damage sustained. 

Another wonderful group of people to serve with again this month: from the left, Bob and Mary Lou-Washington, Elaine and Vance- Oregon, Jack and Peggy–Idaho , Jake and Marlene-Full timers from Michigan, Dorothy and Fred-Minnesota and Jenny and Don-Full timers from South Dakota/(MN).

We have been in Arizona from November through March and have been in some “cool” places. Prescott Pines Camp sits at 6200+ feet. The nights were cold and it snowed every night for the first week. We stayed comfortable but the furnace ran a lot.

Fred, Jake and Don laid ceramic tile in the snack kitchen and “Goodies” store.

Marlene, Elaine, Peggy, Marylou, Dorothy and Jenny took on a staff house and the task of deep cleaning and then painting the complete dwelling. They did an awesome job.

Vance, Jake and Jack worked on taking down a cabin that was destroyed by fire in December. They reclaimed all that was salvageable and cleaned up the remaining, saving the foundation for a future build.

A winter storm had seriously damaged the camp’s sewage treatment/sanitation system (actually floated the huge tank out of the ground). While the tank was out of the ground, some major repairs were made by welding some new steel plate sides to several of the tank’s six different compartments. Fred and Don had the opportunity to paint (with 2-.part epoxy) two of the compartments that are 10’ deep.

Fred, Vance and Don laid out and built a deck that will be the flooring for a new room attached to the “Frontier Village” kitchen. Currently, the camp staff must transport the food supplies from the main kitchen to the Village kitchen each day. The new room will house a walk-in freezer and storage for the kitchen.

Jenny , taking time for a photo op, while painting a staff house. The staff house looked just great when the ladies were finished with the job.

Thank you all for your love, your support and your interest.  Please feel free to leave a comment so we know you are out there.  Your interest and comments provide encouragement for us.  It helps us to stay connected with our friends and family and gives us a sense of belonging.

February 2010 Pusch Ridge Christian Academy www.prca-tucson.org

Pusch Ridge Christian Academy is a private Christian school that is independent and not directly affiliated with any specific churches.  They accept no government funding and therefore are able to teach the Gospel without restriction. They have a strong academic program and an exceptional student athletic offering.  The girl’s basketball team won the state title four(4) years running from ’05 through ’09.  Both the girl’s team and the boy’s team won their respective conferences and went to the State Tournaments.  

The setting of the academy is pretty special.  It sets in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains with the Coronado National Forest http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/ border about 50 yards from where our home is parked.

A view of the campus from the front of the school. The green grass was enhanced in appearance by Don and Don as we applied a bit of supplemental coloring. Jenny and I went for a hike on our day off. See the highest peak on the left? Jenny made it to the top. It is 2600 ft up to a height of 5800+ feet and about a 3 mile hike in total distance. She spent 5 ½ hours for the round trip. I made it up about half the way and decided that it was “in my better interests” to seek lower ground.

Jenny and I had the opportunity to work with a grand couple this month. Don and “Charlie” have been full-timers for close to 15 years. They have worked about 125 projects in that time. What a delight to be able to work with them in service to our Lord. This picture was taken in the cafeteria at our break time.

Charlie and Jenny worked in the kitchen everyday helping prepare and serve lunch to around 250 students+/-. Here they are with Karla, one of the regular kitchen staff (Looks like a burger/fries day).

The full kitchen staff, Michelle, Debbie, Jenny, Karla, Kathy and “Charlie”. It took some-kind-a effort to get all six of these ladies to stop for a picture. They all work really hard to get the students fed in a timely fashion.

The ladies worked in the office as well as the kitchen. Jenny doing some filing to help the office staff of the school.

The major task for us at the school was to put in a sidewalk and steps from the upper parking lot. We removed all of the landscaping rock, dug the soil to the level we needed, replaced the removed soil with A/B materials, packed the base, built the forms, and finished the concrete. Here we are looking for what is level(?) and how to form the steps. Don, David(another volunteer, non-SOWER) and Don.

Don running the packer over the base material before the forming takes shape.

Don and Don working on forming the steps.

Wouldn’t you know it? The day mixer truck shows up, the skies open up and winds blow giving us some unanticipated opportunities. Don and David screeding (smoothing ) the concrete as Paul, the schools head maintenance man, shovels excess concrete into the wheelbarrow.

David, Don and Don discussing the task after finishing the second pour. Happy to have it nearly completed.

Jenny and I took a Saturday to go up to Apache Junction to see Jenny’s cousin, Sharon and her husband, Versil. They took us to Goldfield, a town where the people on horseback are almost as numerous as those coming by auto or their pick-ups. You can see the Superstition Mountains in the background.

We have been blessed by being able to serve at this project, just as we always are blessed by each project we go to serve.  The spreading of “The Good News” is happening at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy and it gives us great pleasure to be just a small part of this ministry.

We are heading to Prescott Pines http://www.precottpines.org/ for the month of March.

Please leave a comment and let us know you are out there.  It gives us encouragement to hear from you.

God bless you and yours,

Don and Jenny Rasmussen

612-298-8512

don@donrasmussen.com

www.OnaWheelandaPrayer.org

Our SOWERs for this month, from the left, Roy and Jo, FTs(FullTimers, their RV is their only house), Jenny and Don, FTs, Don and Arlene, FTs, Carl an Corrine, Iowa, Norm and Corlene, Montana, and JoAnne and Jim, Washington State, and our Group Leaders.

Students intent (most of them) on the subject being presented in the classroom.

Jenny presented, several classes, sessions about animal nursing which seemed to be a real big hit with the kids.

Our cat, Suppy, did his part for the animal care day presentations. Here Corrine is the cat handler and student control person. The students loved it, Suppy is not sure about the whole deal.

Jim, Don and Don, in? the addition they are constructing for what was storage and will be the new administration offices.

Arden, far left, manages all the schools maintenance and expansion issues as the work coordinator for the project. He prioritizes all the men SOWER’s activities. Here he looks over the efforts of Roy, Jim, Norm and Carl as they install shelves in the new container.

Corrine providing some one-on-one tutoring for Joshua in the kitchen of the main school building.

Don finishing up the roofing of the new building addition.

Jenny showing some students some animal X-rays on the computer screen.

We had the rare opportunity to tour a soon-active project, Homeless Women’s and Children’s Center of Gospel Rescue Mission of Tucson. Scott of Gospel Rescue Mission explaining the mission as Jenny along with Rod and Jenny Wilson(visiting us from Florida) listening about another Christ centered project where we may have the chance to serve someday.

We always hear how much the personnel at the projects appreciate the services provided by the SOWERs and this project was no different regard their appreciation.  The truth is that we are the ones blessed.  We thank the Lord every day for the opportunities.  We thank you for your support and encouragement.

God bless you and yours,

Don and Jenny Rasmussen

612-298-8512

www.OnaWheelandaPrayer.org

NEW TRIBES MISSIONS

Jenny and I give thanks to our Lord for blessing us with the opportunities to serve.  We have been in McNeal, AZ at New Tribes Missions – Aviation for the month of November.

New Tribes Mission- planting tribal churches – www.ntm.org is an awesome mission with their efforts to reach those tribes that have never heard the Good News of our Savoir Jesus Christ. 

NTM-Aviation is a support arm that assists the missionaries serving in these remote areas by being there to help them get in and out and to deliver needed items of all sorts. 

Many of the staff serving at NTMA here in Arizona have had extensive service time in places like Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, The Philippines, Columbia, etc.    We have heard some absolutely incredible stories from these dedicated team members.  One of the pilots now working here was captured by guerrillas of the jungle of Columbia.  His story of how his faith in God allowed him to escape in the middle of the night out of the middle of a jungle with the plane!!   It has been an absolute priviledge to work side by side with the people here.

The SOWER crew Our working comrades - Jenny and Don from SD, Jake and Marlene from UP of MI and John and Nancy from PA.

Les, Don and Jake taking a break. Les is a volunteer from Kansas to work at NTM-A often. We removed carports and made ready two old trailer homes to be removed from the base. We witnessed, Forrest, a co-founder who had pulled the same trailer down from Nebraska in the ‘50's, pull the trailer off the site using the same towing truck he used in the '50's.

We were guests of the Martin’s family for supper one night. They have recently retuned to the base after 13 years of service in Papua New Guinea. What a privilege to hear of their adventures in the harvest field for the Lord.

Caulking and painting a new staff house at the base. Nancy, Marlene and John.

Jenny on top of the job of painting the new staff home.

Jake and Don replacing skirting on one of the staff housing units.

Some staff had us over to the Fellowship Hall for supper. The missionaries here all seem to have the gift of hospitality. We felt their warmth and love all the time we spent here.

Looking NW

What have we been doing since mid May?

We sold our Eden Prairie house in March so we are and have been, what the RV world referr to as, “Full-Timers”.  We have established a base of operations in South Dakota on the farm where I grew up.  It is a mile south of Howard, SD which is 60 miles west of Pipestone, MN. 

Our goal for the summer was to get a pad and services installed, a place to park and connect our home.   We have accomplished that goal.  A couple pictures.

Looking SW