February 2010 Pusch Ridge Christian Academy www.prca-tucson.org
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
Hi Don and Jenny,
I enjoyed seeing your pictures. I can see now that you do nice concrete work Don.
wow!! you guys look like you are having a blast! i cant wait to hear all about it! love you!!
Ken and I took a look at your blog today. The pictures are great. I envy you. I would love to try this some time. Maybe at sometime in the not too distant future we can try a month. Have a great time in Alaska. Anxious to see pictures of your work there.