by Adeola I., Staff Writer
What do short term mission trips and one-day community service projects have in common? Well, for starters, they are both done by intruders who come into an unfamiliar community with the goal of imparting some good upon the community. While one-time community service acts are not a bad thing, they are a temporary thing. Communities see people walk in and walk out, while the root of their issues still stand. Many people ultimately volunteer in order to feel good about themselves and the idea that they imparted some good into the world. What is your motive when you volunteer? Do you function in the mindset that you are there to help that person do what they could not? Or is your mindset focused around what you can learn from the community you're helping and how?Is it centered around how you can more effectively contribute to the world around you? Are you determined to walk away having learned something new about the issue at hand so that you can continue to help and work with the community you served, even if its from a distance? Before I became an intern at the Hope House, a campus ministry at UTC, I joined the Hope House team on a service trip to Charlotte, North Carolina during spring break of 2017. It was then and there that I met Ramona Brant. She served 21 years in federal prison for a crime she did not commit, as it was alleged she knew her then boyfriend was involved in drug trafficking. She had been sentenced to life in prison. As we stood in the halfway house she was inhabiting, she talked to us about how daunting that sentence was. It wasn’t a number, not something you could have a countdown for or something that had an end. Her sentence was something she would have to die for, for it to end. She told us about the work she did while she was incarcerated. She informed us about the horrors the ever growing female prison population is enduring. She worked with the local government in Charlotte and tirelessly advocated on behalf of the women she left behind in prison. The Hope House invited her to speak for Black History Month in 2018. She suddenly passed away a few weeks later. Although Ramona Brant can no longer work to better the lives of those incarcerated, others who were inspired by her words and actions can continue this work. Service and advocacy is not limited to a “qualified” elite few. Dr. King once said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” to serve. You don’t have to know the Second Theory of Thermodynamics in Physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” Following her death, the Hope House began hosting letter writing days in which students would come and write letters to inmates. Ramona had talked to us about the simple joy an inmate feels when they hear their name called to receive a letter, even if its from a stranger. Abandon the mindset of volunteering or service that is centered around quick fixes and 2 hour shifts. Think about how you can get involved in your community and work with your community (or another community) to face the challenges plaguing it.
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Author's NoteWelcome to The Torch: Reborn, your multicultural newspaper. Archives
December 2018
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