Greetings from the Munsons!

We, Olan and Jed Munson, hailing from the fine city of Middleton, are honored to be a part of this year's Honduras team (insert cheering crowd, preferably from that of a wild jousting tournament)! yay...

Here are some fun facts about us: Jed looks like an angry bird (the yellow one with spiky hair) when he's put out. Olan still carries around a lunch box (sorry if she enjoys a nutritious meal...), and her right pinky finger is crooked. Jed has a pocket pal harmonica, with which he only knows how to play "Piano Man." We both consider ourselves to be in alliance with (*cough cough* we have tense relationships with) man-eating centipedes that frequent Olan's bedspreads. When Kingdom Arthropoda and the Munsons are feeling particularly hostile, the Munsons usually resort to leaving their bedroom doors open and praying for certain spindly-legged individuals to die in the other sibling's room. Oh, and we're rappers. ;)

With that said...We are both incredibly excited to be part of God's story in Honduras this summer. Having been lucky enough to be members of previous teams, we're looking forward to having the Lord teach us more about Him through another amazing team and a new experience with "Amor, Fe, y Ezperanza" (AFE). Honduras has definitely been on our hearts for the past several years. We had the privilege of visiting AFE in the summer of 2010; that was when we learned about how Christ weeps for and deeply loves the children of the Dump. We can't wait to find out what God has in store for us!!!

Love,
Olan and Jed (OJ)
Jed and Olan (JO)
Jolan
Oed?

and Garrett (the friendly shower-stall spider)

Honduras bound again!

My name is Heather Watts and I am one of the leaders going on this trip.  I work at Blackhawk in the Preschool Ministry. My husband and I have been to Honduras once before in the summer of 2010 with middle school students.  We spent a few hours at AFE (the school we will spend our time at) while we were there and we were changed.  The school is a place that offers hope to people in a hopeless situation.  I find myself often wondering how God will use this team to tell His story of hope while we are there and when we come back. 
When I first heard about this trip I never thought I would be going but God had different plans. I am trusting that He knows what He is doing.  My husband and our youngest daughter Megan are on the team.  I can't beleive we have an opportunity to serve like this together.  We are serving on a team with others who amaze me with their depth of insight and faith.  I look forward to getting to know each other well and to see how God will weave us and our gifts together to be used for His purposes and glory.
Please be praying that our team may follow God's lead as we plan and for a deepening of the realtionships between those on our team as we will need to lean into those relationships as we experience Hondruas.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me at hwatts@blackhawkchurch.org
Because of His amazing grace,
Heather Watts

Hey everyone, welcome to our blog! 

My name is Becca Radix, and I am a senior at Wisconsin Height High School. I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this team and cannot wait to see the huge things I know God has in store for me (and all of us) through this trip. As soon as I heard that the high school ministry was taking a team to Honduras I felt led to go. I had the privilege of doing a trip similar to this in Juana Diaz,  Puerto Rico 3 summers ago, and the experiences I had on that trip, in particular the relationships with the children I made, left me a changed person. Being able to connect with these kids that lead lives so very different from my own brought me to the realization that God isn't just the God of me or my family or Blackhawk or the United States, he is the God of the universe and through him we can connect with and have fellowship with people of any background, culture, or nationality. That is something I will bring to Honduras and I'm so pumped to form relationships with the kids at AFE and show them that we really aren't all that different, that God loves all of us and that he has a hope and a future for them. I've been very sensitive to all the hurt in the world lately, and I think God is using that to prepare me for the hurt we will be encountering in Honduras, but also to give me more ambition to help heal that hurt as well. I hope that through the Holy Spirit we will be able to heal these hurting children and their families, and that we would be servants to them and encourage them through Christ. I feel so honored to have the opportunity to go on this trip and I know God will use it in a big way to change me and change my heart. 

Here's a picture of me, and one of some of the kids we will be serving!

Buenos dias! :)
My name is Katherine Davis, and I'm a freshman at Middleton High School. I am super duper excited to be on this team, and I can't even begin to imagine what God has in store for us. One of the reasons that I wanted to go on this trip is because God has been opening my eyes to the abundance of physical and economic poverty in the world, and He's been telling me that I need to play a bigger role in bringing His kingdom here. Another reason I'm so pumped to go is because I have been to the dump in Tegucigalpa before and have seen all the brokenness there. Last trip, our team only visited the dump for a couple hours. The help that we gave seemed so insignificant. It was horrific to see the way that the people in the dump lived, and it was obvious to all of us that God did not plan for things to be that way. However, despite the tragedy that we saw there, we also saw such hope. The work that is being done through AFE is straight from the hand of the Holy Spirit, and it was encouraging to see the way that God is changing the kids' lives through AFE. It is such an honor to be able to partner with AFE and hopefully help in erasing a bit of the injustice that is present in the dump. I am confident that I will take away much more from this experience than I am able to give to the Hondurans, but it is my hope that I will in some way be able to invest in the kids and bring more hope to their lives. It is a pleasure to be a part of this team, and I trust that this is exactly where God wants us to be!

Hey! Welcome to our Blog! This blog is going to be your one and only attachment to my team and I as we travel to the Hispanic country of Honduras! I am so excited to be a part of this team and it means a ton to me! Well, I guess I should tell you who "I" is. I am Hannah Bunting, a freshman at Middleton High School. This trip means so much to me because I was a part of a team that visited the dump in the summer of 2010. I have a passion for those children buried under those heaps of junk; I want to help get them out! I want to be able to share the love and joy that I receive from Jesus Christ everyday with those individuals. BUT I am not going on this trip to change the lives of the families there; I am going on this trip to be changed. My awesome team (God definitely chose the right group because they are all amazing people ready to do his will. (You will hear from them all eventually)) has talked a lot about poverty recently, and it has made me realize how very impoverished I am, how impoverished we all are. We are not necessarily impoverished money or object wise though, we are impoverished in the heart. My relationships with God and others are not nearly as rock solid as the kids of that dump, and this is what I want to learn from them. I want to learn how to live with impoverishment in items, yet 100% fulfilled in my heart. I know God is going to work through our team and through those amazing people and use us to help spread His word and build His community. I hope that this blog will help you feel connected to us on our trip, and I hope, that in some way, it will let God speak to you. Talk to you soon!
Hannah :)

Following my leader Taylor's lead, here is a picture of me! :)

Going to Honduras! Team Bio #1

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Welcome to the 2012 Blackhawk Church Honduras Outreach Blog, or BCHOB* for short. That's pronounced [b.'t͡ʃob], for all of you who were wondering out there. My name is Taylor Molitor, and I am one of 22 co-authors of this blog, and I am incredibly excited to be going to Honduras as a leader! A little bit about myself: I'm 22, a fourth year student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I have been co-leading a guys high school small group in Middleton since the start of the school year. I have been privileged to work with Lief Erickson and Bob Peterson there, and I've also been fortunate to have the one, the only, the Benjamin Hershberger in my small group. You will hear from him later, as he is going on the trip as well! I've been on four different international missions trips, all to Latin or South America, three to Mexico (once for three months) and one trip to Colombia. Every time I have traveled abroad on a missions trip, God has profoundly changed the way I look at the world around me; from my understanding of the true definition of poverty, to the right way to pour a concrete ceiling using only 5-gallon buckets and tree trunks, my worldview has been radically affected by missions, and I am excited and privileged to have another chance to learn and to serve.


Also, here is a picture of me, in case you are trying to attach a face to a name later, and a picture of William Howard Taft, our most jovial President, because everyone should know who he is and how kind he was:

*Acronym not officially sponsored or approved by Blackhawk Church. Just the product of my mind.