Message From Rae Gillen, CAM Intern.

January is usually a month that, after the fact, I forget existed. The few weeks after the hustle-and-bustle holidays are filled with forgotten memories that often fade into the concrete skies of winter. But as the month crawls forward, the hibernating campus slowly begins to awaken again. Bundled students emerge onto campus and State Street, and though people are as much curled into a ball as they can possibly be in a standing position, it is good to see the coat of your "everywhere person" around again.

We, at Blackhawk Church, are glad to have you back! Whether you are in school or a person who is just in the age-range of college, we are glad you have returned! It was lonely without you. Your presence was missed in the atrium at Blackhawk, in the basement of the Regent and on campus! The city comes alive again when you return.

The joy of the spring semester is the sense of waking from sleeping--the promise of another chance. You have an entire four months before summer to do all of the things that you meant to do first semester, but never actually got around to doing. More often than not, the second semester is also another opportunity to make Madison feel a little bit more like home.

At Blackhawk, we want to help Madison feel more like home to you, and we realize that connecting to people can be the most effective way. Our desire is to help you develop and deepen those connections on all levels that will make Madison feel more like home and teach you more about yourself--connecting to a friend that you met at CAM last Tuesday, to the older woman that you serve with on the cafe team at Blackhawk, to your friend from class that likes that piece of art too, and to God.

So wherever you are on your spiritual journey, we hope that Blackhawk and CAM can be there as you wipe the winter-sleep out of your eyes and as the picture of who Jesus is and the possibility of the role that He might desire to play in your life becomes clearer. Take a look around our website. We hope that it will answer the questions you have about how to connect, get involved, develop friendships and serve. But please feel free to contact us with any questions that you might have for us.

We hope to see you soon,

Rae Gillen, CAM Intern