About the time you read this article seven young people and three adults from Unity will be getting ready to head to Staten Island, New York to volunteer at Project Hospitality. The focus of this Mission Trip will be to work with homeless individuals and victims of AIDS. This Youth Mission Trip will be the first one where we will volunteer our time in an urban setting. Though much planning has taken place, and you as members have provided not only financial assistance but also your personal and prayer support; there is still a lot of the unknown that awaits us.

Even though Staten Island was our home for some years, and New Dorp Moravian where I was pastor provided support to Project Hospitality, I am still finding myself feeling somewhat anxious about our journey and work. This is going to be a new and I believe a very engaging experience for the youth and the adults that will be attending. I have a lot of anticipation as we await the unknown, and the unknown is very high on the agenda as we look toward traveling to work at Project Hospitality.

My guess is the unknown for most of us can be very unnerving and cause us to be quite anxious. After all, we are a people that often wants our lives to have some kind of rhythm
and routine; where we at least have some knowledge of how our daily lives will flow. There is much to like about routine, after all it helps us focus on certain patterns in life that can give us meaning and help us to measure what is important and unimportant. The unknown can interrupt life, intrude, and barge in, often unexpectedly; and by doing so disturbing that routine with ideas, concepts, and feelings which may lead us to new and maybe uncomfortable actions. This is the type of unknown that I am anticipating as we begin our work and relationship with people who are going to be very different from our normal daily friends and acquaintances. The unknown may take us to new levels of understanding which might cause all of us to look differently at how we see people whose lives and issues are at a 180 degree difference from our own. Our thoughts and actions in the future may be shaped by what we experience and not all of what we experience may be pleasant or happy.

As much as our journey into the unknown beginning July 1 will disturb many of us; and I believe it will, I look forward to this experience; because I, too, need to have my eyes and heart opened to that which I may not wish to see. So I have some butterflies in my stomach as we get closer to our date of leaving. I also have an excitement of anticipation as I and we move toward the unknown. The one thing I wish could occur is everyone in this church could experience this kind of unknown at least once in life. A time, a moment, an encounter, with others whose lives are at 180 degree difference from our own. To sit down, talk, get to know them, and begin to relate to issues that often we only glance at on the news or in the paper and say, “well that’s too bad that is occurring,” or “sure is sad how something like that happens.” I really believe it would cause us to discover that God’s Creation, God’s Grace and Love, is not confined within the walls of a church building on a Sunday morning. It’s on street corners, down alleys, behind closed doors in apartments, homes, and dingy hotels, and it is in the lives of people whom we would rather not be around - - - in other words it is in the “UNKNOWN” places of our lives. That’s where ten members of Unity Moravian will be heading on July 1. I have a lot of anticipation about what we might discover.

 

-Pastor Zimmerman