Because our team is small and organization is comparatively easy the Auxiliary Board Member encouraged us to engage in collective teaching at regular intervals.
OUTREACH IN NEWRY
The first outreach weekend in Newry took place on 22-23 November and proved an interesting and rewarding experience. After prayer, reflection and study on the Friday evening and Saturday morning the teaching began. A participant reports:
“It was bitterly cold, but we were amazed at how some people stood in their doorways and connected with us. There were of course those who did not wish to know what we had to say, but over the course of the two days there were a number of souls who showed some degree of receptivity, and three whom we felt were our priority in follow up. We found young people from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to show receptivity, although language was often a barrier. We experimented the second day with trying not to use the word religion early in the presentation as we had found that this created an unfavourable reaction. During consultation we realized that two of the teams were expressing feelings around needing somehow to integrate the invitation to the study circle taster into Anna’s Presentation, so we decided to experiment in this area. We made some presentations beginning with the fact that we were inviting people to participate in a course about spiritual subjects such as the purpose of life.
We had a number of confirming experiences.
In one we met a Polish man whose English was not good but who seemed interested in the faith from the little he understood. We arranged to visit again the next day, this time bring Anna's Presentation in Polish. When we arrived at the arranged time, the man was still in bed following a party the previous night, but we told his friend why we had come and asked if he would be interested in hearing the presentation, and he said he would, brought us in and engaged with great interest in the presentation. We stayed for an hour. Then he had to leave for work but invited us back, saying he could talk to us for an entire week because he had so many questions and thoughts! All through the project we had met several Polish people but though many of them were receptive, we had difficulty teaching them because of the language barrier; but now we have found a Polish man with good English who we pray may be the key to teaching his fellow countrymen.
In the bitter cold a young girl (clad in her pyjamas) came to the door, and listened intently to what we had to say, the introduction was prefaced with a few words about the fact that we were offering a course about spiritual subjects and the purpose of life. Notable about this girl was her radiance and friendly demeanour. A few pages into the presentation it was apparent that she was very cold we paused and remarked on this, she agreed but asked us to continue. We told her about the taster that evening, she looked very interested and said that she was a catholic but was very open-minded and would like to attend.
As we walked together to the estate in which we were teaching, we saw two youths coming towards us and decided to speak to them. We had a lively discussion with them about religion, amazed at their insights and perception and touched by how deeply they thought about and understood things. We really came to understand the extent to which that generation is lost and angry; and the extent to which they despise religion as it has been taught to them. Then one of the young men who had been silent for much of the time angrily expressed his inner torment. We spoke to him about his choices, about how he could use his passion to fuel self-harm and destruction, or use it as fuel to rescue his generation and those coming behind him; and we invited him and his friend to train to work with junior youth.
They offered us the advice that they both felt from their own experience that we needed to be working with eleven and twelve year olds, that it's already too late by the time youth reach 13 and 14! They took flyers from us advertising the taster session and giving a phone number, address and web address. We did not really expect them to show up at the taster, and sure enough they did not show up; but we both felt that one of the young men was in crisis that day, and that our meeting with them was fortuitous, gave him hope, and will bear undoubted fruit in the future.
The teaching team was very happy with the project and we look forward to following up with those receptive souls, whom we feel were sent to us by Baha’u’llah. Because our team is small and organization is comparatively easy the Auxiliary Board Member encouraged us to engage in collective teaching at regular intervals. We are planning another outreach at the end of January.”
LTO’M
Issue 141 - 2 Sharaf 165 BE - 1 January 2009 CE
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Bahai faith seems to be spreading of late
teaching jobs
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