5. Forming our group

​Our next step is where things begin to become real…

Our next step is to move from thinking to being and doing together. How we form our group is important to our time together. Therefore, while the other sections we’ve provided in this booklet have been filled with suggestions for you to explore, we ask that you read this section fully, as it will help to prepare.

Learning together

Have you ever spent eight days in a van with 10 other people? 

This chapter of the Racial Justice Pilgrimage will focus on the civil rights movement and its history. Through this experience, we will learn more about ourselves and others and how to share a close space.
It is one of the joys — and discomforts — of this experience. 

Best practices

Here are a few
best practices we’ve discovered. Please read these prior to the beginning of the trip. We will talk through this list and create agreements about how we experience the trip as a group.

1. Listen to understand; ask questions. Let curiosity be your guide versus judgement.
2. Be vulnerable and willing to share your point of view and experiences with the group.
3. Be open to feedback, new information and different perspectives that may feel like challenges, trusting they will lead to a better understanding.
4. Others might be testing new concepts for themselves, so consider your responses; your contributions impact both of your learning experiences and those of others.
5. Be aware of Southern etiquette: "Miss Mary," or "Mister Joe" versus calling someone by their first name.
6. Show courtesy to others by being on time.
7. Share snacks.
8. Never use the last bit of toilet paper without fixing the problem.
9. Trust the process. The more willing you are to engage fully, the fuller and more alive this experience will be for you. In other words, you’ll get out what you bring into this experience.
10. Expect that there will be times when you feel overloaded.

Acknowledging differences

Keep in mind that each of us will bring different experiences and motivations into this space. These varied perspectives might cause clashes. 

The pace of each individual will vary. Some of us will move and think faster than others. That means we may talk sooner than others, too. Are we listening to everyone’s voice?

We all need to be self-aware, so that we can keep these differences from becoming barriers to our relationships and others’ experiences. 

Group agreements

Towards the start of our trip, we will talk about the best practices list and how we understand them as a collective group of pilgrims on this learning journey. We may decide to form agreements on how we interact as a group.

Please consider if there are specific needs or recommendations you might want to bring to the group beyond the best practices list above.

Changed by the journey

Mennonite Mission Network is hosting this pilgrimage with the hope that, as Rice and Katongole state in their book, Reconciling All Things:

"Pilgrims return home as new people. Changed by their journeys, they change the world where they live."

As a mission agency that believes in nurturing a holistic witness to Christ around the world, across the street and in the marketplace, we are committed to creating a space for change. We do not aim to change you. We aim to create a space for a full and fruitful experience that might lead you toward seeing God’s continued presence in this world. We offer this space as fully and safely as we can. We invite you to come as fully and openly as you can.

Action steps

Be prepared for the start of our pilgrimage by:

1. Reviewing your thoughts and responses to the questions in this preparation section.
2. Bring your awareness of the group’s best practices and any added insights you might contribute to this.

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