Alicia Skeeter
whats up with the whats up
hey everybody.
im alicia skeeter…obviously… um and im nineteen years old. im from milwaukee, wisconsin and I will be spending the next year in south atlanta, atlanta GA. WHAT?! i know right. you may be wondering why? well let me tell you. over the next year i will be trying learn what jesus meant by community. i will be living with five other people[matt, kirsten, julia, nicole and of course brando], loving on my neighbors and spending time serving in the community. i cant wait to learn this year and be beyond amazed by the end of this time to see what god has in my heart and in the hearts of others.
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Alicia Skeeter's Blog
reflection on BLACK in AMERICA / Nov 1, 09:29 PM
sometimes it’s literally too much. it’s so much that it disables my ability to speak. i have no words at times. sometimes i am wordless. wordless i am sometimes but my thoughts and emotions are many. tonight at a city wide gathering of all the atlanta teams, we watched a documentary called Black in America. This subject is nothing new to me. I am a biracial woman who was raised by a single mother in the inner city. People who meet me may question that as perhaps i dont come off as what you might think of when you hear those characteristics…but my experiences no less are as such. This documentary was made by CNN and it brought up the issues black Americans face today such as health care, poor or lack of education, AIDS, unemployment, violence, high teen pregnancy rates and
the list goes on. I took in statistic after statistic. For example, 70 percent of black children in America are born into single parent homes and only 50 percent of black students finish high school within four years which implies the huge drop out rate. 50 percent of our prison population is African American but only 13 percent of the general population is African American. With each statistic my head shook
and my spirit grew heavy. My heart broke once and then again as i thought about two of my brothers who are just adding to these statistics. can they be blamed? why them and not me? I then thought of people i know who are striving
and going beyond these statistics. The thought of those people made me want to be better. Inspiration hit my spirit and i had hope for a bit. After the documentary was over i was frozen. i was still. I stayed in my pretzel legged position on the couch and did not move or speak for a few minutes. i sat in silence while everyone else was up, grabbing food, talking, watching the Phillies and laughing. I did not talk. I could not talk. My mind, my spirit, my everything i felt like was somewhere else and i suppose i needed that space to simply be before i thought or did anything else. As i made my way home from the city wide meeting, i found myself walking into a dance party and everything was light again. Everything was okay again but just for that song. Just for that moment.
Where does one begin? How does one not feel overwhelmed? I know it’s not up to just one person nor one group of people to change these issues and i know one shouldnt feel like “it’s up to me” and i know many people don’t feel like that but maybe we should? thats not the answer either though….i dunno. sometimes it’s literally too much.
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