Missions Log:

Check out a listing of our previous missions trips.

Midnight, January 5th, 2009: A dozen Blackhawk college students (and some old people) crammed into cars across Madison to begin their freezing nighttime journey to Chicago, Illinois. There they would meet up with a dozen more of their peers (and more old people) from the UW – Madison Landscape architecture team and escape the Midwestern frost and head to the steamy jungles on Latin America. There they would embark on a two-week adventure known as Blackhawk CAM/UW Landscape Architecture Honduras Trip ’09 (or BCUWAHT, for short). Their first stop would be Orica, Honduras, a small rural town in the hills of Honduras. There they were greeted by Pastor Andres (whow!), pastor of Alpha y Omega Church, a longtime ministry partner of Blackhawk. Here the team worked diligently on the ongoing park project in the community. Shoveling, cement mixing, motorcycle rides, and Coke in a bag are all the order of the day. The team also had the opportunity to bond with the Orican community, especially the children, rather they liked it or not. The people were so open and friendly, it’s hard to not come away from the trip with a new friend. Also, there were some great new opportunities in Siguatepeque, a slightly larger city in Honduras and the home of our translators, the Vegas. Here the LA team divided their time between redesigning the city’s main park and the development of a courtyard in a clinic at an orphanage just outside the city limits (you can find out more here: http://providenceworldministries.org/. Highly recommended). Others found themselves spread out between the two sites or simply enjoying the local color. The close proximity with other team members, nightly debriefings and optional bible studies helps to form a tight community and foster lasting relationships between team members. The spiritually diverse nature of the trip offers a unique and challenging opportunity to share with others that isn’t found on most mission trips. Sadly, the two weeks past rather quickly, all good things must come to an end eventually, but no one walked empty-handed, either with wickedly sharp machetes, bags of delicious coffee, footlong Honduran cigars, or a new friendship or two.
(Nathan Sime, Student)

A handful of Blackhawk college students had the opportunity to travel to Beacon of Hope, one of Blackhawk’s global ministry partners, in Ongata Rongai, Kenya, a short matatu ride from Nairobi. Beacon of Hope is an non-governmental organization that works to empower women in poorer communities who are living with or affected by HIV/AIDS by providing them with entrepreneurial skills to allow them to support their families, as well as providing spiritual, emotional, and physical support for the women themselves (beaconafrica.org). These students were not alone, however. The Kenya team was a multi-generational missions team, with team members ranging in age from 13 to well…pretty old. This is a unique experience as it combines the energy and enthusiasm of the younger with the wisdom and resources of the elder. While at Beacon of Hope, the team was engaged in a multitude of activities including visits to the home of Beacon women, back-pack stuffing for children in the elementary school, medical clinic preparation, carrot peeling, puppet making, wood cutting, child tickling, the list goes on. Also, along with the medical clinic put on at Beacon, there is another free clinic in that takes place in a small Masai village. This is an extraordinary opportunity to be immersed a new culture strikingly different from our own. The passion and amazingness of Kenyan worship cannot be communicated by words alone; it needs to be seen, heard, and felt (especially by us Midwesterners). The interaction is mutually beneficial and provides fascinating insights to both groups. Finally to cap off the trip, there is a team safari for those who are up for it. You can see photos from the whole trip here: http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/reach/Kenya_2008/index.htm.
(Nathan Sime, Student)

What do you get when you take 7 minivans and add 39 hardcore CAMmers, an 18-hour roadtrip, a few pounds of boiled crawfish, a pinch of down-home southern-fried hospitality and dash of drywall compound (for flavor)? CAM Spring Break 2008! This trip marked the second year CAM partnered with Urban Impact and Castle Rock Community Church to participate in Katrina relief work in downtown New Orleans. While at Castle Rock, the CAM team was joined by a handful of students from the high school ministry from Blackhawk led by Leif Erickson, as well as other churches and colleges from across the country. This offered some great opportunities to build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the US, including a game of ultimate Frisbee with a team of students from the University of Tennessee and rebuilding a church with Campus Crusade-San Antonio. Besides rebuilding Rock of Ages church, other teams worked to repair damaged houses, hang windows and doors, and one lucky CAM member got the chance to be a cashier at an out-of-home soul food restaurant. Junior Nathan Sime, a team member from both NO trips commented on how he felt about the progress in New Orleans from this year to last, "It's great to see God's hand at work down here in New Orleans. Last year, most of our work was focused on demolition, but this year everything is very construction oriented. Not to say there still isn't a lot of work to be done, but it's definitely a step in the right direction."
(Nathan Sime, Student)

College students from Blackhawk joined a group of UW students from the Department of Landscape Architecture to build a playground. Team member Mari Etzel says, "The trip was amazing! Amidst chasing energetic kids, experiencing the culture, and building a playground, we were blessed to delve deeper into what it looks like to serve God by serving others."
(Life@Blackhawk, April 2008)

On January 5, twelve members of Blackhawk's CAM piled into two mini-vans and headed to Brunswick, GA, sunny skies, and much warmer weather. This was of course much more than an escape from winter's nipping bite. It was a chance to be the hands and feet of Christ right here in America. The team worked with the Glynn County Habitat for Humanity, painting, tiling, and doing some stucco work on the home of Michelle, a single mother of four young children. With the help of Habitat and numerous volunteers, Michelle and her family should be able to move from public housing into their new home very soon. Michelle, who was on the work site on CAM's first day as well as in the middle of the week, seemed very pleased and grateful about the work being done. It has been her dream to design and build her own home ever since she was a little girl, and with the help of Habitat, her dream will soon be a reality.
(Sarah Whiteaker, Life@Blackhawk, April 2008)

We left Madison and arrived in Minneapolis at around 9 P.M. We did four different service opportunities throughout the trip. That night we made and served a meal to teenage kids after they played a basketball game. This is helpful for them because it gives them something to do on a Friday night rather than be on the streets. The next day we woke up and packaged food for an organization called Feed My Starving Children. We then helped a woman move houses (this was a last minute thing, but really cool). We then visited a really nice shelter and played with kids for an hour or so. Finally, we went to another homeless shelter and served a meal. We were pretty wiped out by the end of the day. On Sunday we went to a really awesome multicultural church in Minneapolis and left for home.
(Erin Bahmer, Student Leader)

About a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans and the surrounding coastal area, the devastation of the disaster was evident on most of the streets we drove through. There was a feeling of abandonment all around; schools closed down, apartment buildings boarded up, community centers barely standing, stores locked up and left with water lines of the flood stained just below rooftops. It seemed like America had forgotten about the people whose homes were washed away with the storm. However, there are still many active charity groups helping rebuild the community of New Orleans. Urban Impact Ministries is one of these groups located in the inner city and reaching out to the community before the hurricane hit. After Katrina in August of 2005, Urban Impact Ministries remained in their building and started bringing in hundreds of volunteer groups to help with tearing down the old and building up the new. In April of 2007 a group of college students from Blackhawk Church joined with Urban Impact Ministries to help gut out houses and stores so people could have a fresh start. There was a lot of hard work and sweat in really smelly places but the best part about our spring break was getting to know the people in the community and ministering to them. Encouraging them in their struggle through big ways, gutting houses to allow for rebuilding, and seemingly small ways like hugs and prayers. A big lesson we took away from our trip was that God's people are much more important than our work and if we can revitalize people's spirits through hugs and laughter, that day was much more successful than any amount of physical labor we accomplished. Urban Impact Ministries challenged us to bring this priority of service home to our own communities and since then I have seen many of the college students get involved in service projects around Madison.
(Maggie Rodgers, Student Leader)