Week 4 - Discovering The Cluster

Day 22 – Home Front Pioneers, Central Alberta, Canada

We’re Listening

Pearls of Wisdom

Over the years we’ve learned that everyone has a story to tell and one of most respectful gestures we can provide is to listen. Today, on our walk around this community, we met several people at the row of mailboxes. All of the folks in this area pick up their mail here and we make a serious effort to meet as many neighbours as we can, including the Canada Post delivery lady.

We’ve had some delightful conversations including how far some travel to attend church and how some unique religions, like the Two By Twos, are familiar in this area. We listen to their comments and learn a great deal about their tolerance of others and appreciation of their faith.

On occasion, we get to express that as Baha’is we are expected to acquire more knowledge about our Faith by searching truth for ourselves. We try to provide gems one drop at a time.

“Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and non-progressive it is without the divine life; it is dead.” – Abdu’l-Baha

Day 23 – Home Front Pioneers, Central Alberta, Canada

Sharing a Meal with Friends

Alberta Rose

Today, we spent a glorious time at the Bentley Senior Drop-In Centre. We contributed to the potluck lunch with a salad and practised our listening skills. We heard from one of the ladies how it became too expensive to pay the utility bills at the United Church and how it was purchased by a business. She described how it could not be managed with only twelve parishioners.

Frank waited patiently and when it was a comfortable moment shared with her that we are Baha’is and how it is that we are responsible for learning about God and His Messengers and the pace we take to bring it into our hearts. We were happy to hear that she knows some Baha’is.

The lovely lady invited us to meet her next week at the museum.

Later, a friend from Drayton Valley contacted us and asked how she might be of assistance. We spoke with her about our being pioneers for the first time and how it would be gracious of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Red Deer to contact us. Also, we’ve been working diligently on trying to meet with the closest Baha’i - no luck so far. We look forward to visiting with her and her children.

We continue to study Ruhi and contemplate the daily readings from Reciting the Versus of God. Today’s theme – righteousness – gives us strength.

For the teaching opportunity that is now before the Bahá’í world to be seized to its fullest extent, creative thought needs to be given to the conversations that could unfold with every kind of person. In the course of such meaningful conversations, perception is heightened and hearts are opened—sometimes immediately. Universal House of Justice – 2017 Ridvan Message

Day 24 – Home Front Pioneers, Central Alberta, Canada

Meeting Friends and Friends of the Faith

Welcome To Ponoka

We drove to Ponoka to visit a Baha’i who is a member of a group in that town. She invited us into her home and we had a brilliant elevated conversation about her coming into the Faith, her life as a travel teacher and her habits now as a participant in the children’s classes, a worker and a member of the community at large.

Welcome To Red Deer

Afterwards, we travelled to Red Deer to attend the 9^th Day of Ridvan celebration with a small group of friends in a private home. Two of the attendees were friends of the Faith. Their comfort and familiarity with the event made it clear that as a husband and a mother-in-law, they enjoyed the prayers and explanation of the purpose of our celebrating Baha’u’llah’s Declaration as a new prophet of God on Earth. 

… verily, this is the spring season of God. In the Holy Books a promise is given that the springtime of God shall make itself manifest; Jerusalem, the Holy City, shall descend from heaven; Zion shall leap forth and dance; and the Holy Land shall be submerged in the ocean of divine effulgence … It is a day of joy, a time of happiness, a period of spiritual growth. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 38.

Day 25 – Home Front Pioneers, Central Alberta, Canada

Patience and Reward

Guided Direction

With the support of one of the friends living in Drayton Valley, we turned what we had thought were disappointments into further clarity and direction. We had been guided initially on our arrival in Central Alberta as homefront pioneers to approach as many Baha’is as possible and ask them what is needed and how we could be of help. We grew disappointed at not being contacted by the Local Spiritual Assembly and were advised that there is not an active teaching committee in this cluster.

We’ve now been given a list of cluster members and will be contacting them during our stay in Central Alberta – until June 30.

Our meeting with one of the friends in Ponoka set up a clear and delightful path for us to follow. We’ve declared that we will support the group in that town in whatever way we can. We’ve written a condensed story about one of the Baha’is living in Ponoka and it will be published on the Campbell River website.

Change is an evolutionary process requiring patience with one’s self and others, loving education and the passage of time as the believers deepen their knowledge of the principles of the Faith, gradually discard long-held traditional attitudes and progressively conform their lives to the unifying teachings of the Cause. - (Universal House of Justice, Lights of Guidance, p. 620)

Day 26 – Home Front Pioneers, Central Alberta, Canada

Filling Up Our Activities Calendar

Open Hearts

We are now in our second month as homefront pioneers. Our May calendar is filling up fast and it feels glorious. Supported now by a list of Baha’is in this cluster, our plan is to visit as many of the isolated friends as possible. We’ve been advised that not everyone will respond with enthusiasm at being contacted. Sadly, we are well aware of this phenomenon.  Over the past three years Frank and I have tried to connect with remote Baha’is across British Columbia and the Prairies, and while some have been very kind in their response and welcomed a visit – others have not.

Happy 12^th Day of Ridvan.

Blessed Is The Spot