Using seeker's background as starting point for teaching

Here is an enlightening teaching story from an experienced teacher of the Faith.


P and I met for the fifth time with the wonderful African American couple...They are of the retired upper crust of our nation. He was very active in the civil rights efforts during the 60/70s.

As I have explained in my previous posts, it really takes skill to teach him the Faith. Today he stated talking about how the lightning strikes, and then there is thunder, and rain, then the fruit comes. He likened this to what happened with Martin Luther King Jr. as lightning and the follow up as thunder and rain.

I enthusiastically agreed and articulated my understanding of this as lightning that saved the nation from more riots and greatly enhanced our country with ability to deal with the racial bigotry in the USA. Now remember he has studied the Faith some and sees the Faith as no more relevant than all the other great things such as King.

I stated that people like him and I have been the thunder and rain that followed King's lightning, and have found a profound feeling of accomplishment in our lives and this is as it should be!

I then suggested that I feel some of us have developed a "COMFORT ZONE" that has interfered with our ability to see the lightning that only the Baha'i Faith has brought that would have gone a long way to prevent all the major wars including the first and second world wars and the terrorism that is threatening the world today.

I asked, "Can I explain the part that the Baha'i teachings have brought as a lightning rod that would have mitigated or prevented these wars?

He was hooked!!!!!! The door was open wide.

I stated, "The Baha'is were given a blue print at their founding to reorganize the concept of religion and politics. The Baha'is accept that the present organizations in the world that accept racial togetherness are good. But the Baha'i lightning states and empowers a focus for every Baha'i to go way beyond agreement and provide the thunder and rain in the following areas:

An advanced language that states, we are one race the human race.

The color of peoples skin is likened unto a flower garden of black violets, red roses, white lilacs, etc.

It is God's plan for everyone on earth to move as quickly as possible to a world-embracing concept of organization that believes we are citizens of the world. We understand that after the first world war the League of Nations was a step in this direction, and the UN advanced this concept. And now God will advance the world's organization so that we see ourselves as "One nation-the earth." No one can prevent it. The Baha'i focus on a unanimous belief in the world embracing understanding necessary to bring warring nations together. This is done by one person at a time embracing these teachings.

Our 6 million + members are organized with no clergy. In its place the Baha'is elect with a secret ballot 9 members to make decisions. No one is a leader! The body of nine appoints a member to speak for any particular program. Then they set up committees that function in the same manner as the elected. It is a program that necessitates members stepping forward. It is without the drawback of clergy being empowered and paid. It brings the best aspects of democracy empowering organizational change. It works and is used on the local, state, national and international level.

Also the election process makes it possible for women to have the same input and status as men. Plus a multitude of other aspects for global change.

The membership of the Baha'is is preparing individual participation for involvement in all aspects of a global society.

The Baha'is lightning has struck! The thunder has been gaining momentum since 1844, over 100+ years. And the Baha'i rain is falling and the growth from the rain is worldwide.

(Then further proofs were given from world and Baha'i history)

He was very interested... It was wonderful!

Dedicating devotional to passed relative effective

An 85-year-old woman from the Adana cluster in Turkey told how she had started devotional gatherings three years ago, dedicating them to her late husband. Fourteen of the people she invited have since joined the Baha'i community, and all were at the conference. "I thank Baha'u'llah and wish to be able to continue these devotionals as long as I live," she said.

http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/istanbul.html

Podcast of talk on the Plan, Paul Lample, Aug 2008

This was posted to the US-Baha'i administrative website.

September 08, 2008

The National Spiritual Assembly is delighted to share with you an audio recording of an inspiring talk given by Mr. Paul Lample, member of the Universal House of Justice, at the Nashville, Tennessee, Bahá'í Center on August 24, 2008.

Abundant with vital insights on the great spiritual enterprise our worldwide community has embarked on, this talk can be downloaded or listened to in streaming video from the below links.

Note: To download to your disk, many browsers require you to "right-click" on the link (or "Ctrl-click" on a Macintosh) and choose a "Save" or "Download" option from the menu that pops up.

Click here to stream or download the entire audio file (1 hour, 6 minutes; 30 MB).

To stream or download smaller segments of a few minutes each, use the links below:

Segments 1/2 (3 MB)

Segment 3 (4 MB)

Segment 4 (2.7 MB)

Segment 5 (1.8 MB)

Segment 6 (2.8 MB)

Segment 7 (6.7 MB)

Segment 8 (10 MB)

Segment 9 (6 MB)

Segment 10 (6 MB)

Segment 11 (6 MB)

Segment 12 (2 MB)

Segment 13 (4 MB)

Segment 14 (1.5 MB)

Segment 15 (5 MB)

Segment 16 (0.7 MB)

Outreach focusing on Junior Youth and Children's Classes

Here is a refreshing and informative report from Northern Ireland:

“NORTHERN LIGHTS” SERVICE PROJECT

A service project in Northern Lights cluster over 15—16 November aimed to set up one children’s class and one junior youth group. It resulted in the establishment of one junior youth group, initially with 10 junior youth, and two children’s classes, one for 5 – 7 year olds initially with three children and one for 8 – 10 year olds initially with seven children.

“The plan was to have teams of two people go out in their respective assigned streets and offer a children’s class and a junior youth group. We would offer that same day a ‘’taster session’’ of about 45 minutes long to give people the chance to see what we would do in a children’s class or a junior youth group. On the first day eight of us met at 7.30 am for a spiritual mix of individual and collective prayers, deepening and consultation. After this four teams of two went out to their assigned streets and/or parks that were within walking distance of the local Community Centre. We knocked on doors as well as meeting people on the streets to inform them of the opportunity to join either a children's class or a junior youth group by inviting them to the taster session that was going to happen that day. Nine children and 10 junior youth attended the taster session.

Given the excellent turn out on Saturday the team after much reflection and consultation decided to forego outreach on Sunday and instead decided to visit the parents of the children and junior youth that came on Saturday. The main purpose of the visit was to inform the parents of the content of the course and child protection procedures. Also we knew there was a possibility that those whom we made contact with on Saturday who didn't come to the taster session may turn up at the taster session on Sunday.

There were seven of us on Sunday. We met at 8.00 am for a spiritual mix of individual and collective prayers, deepening and consultation. Following this, three teams revisited the homes of children and junior youth that had attended on Saturday. All but two homes were contacted with positive responses. The other two homes were followed up soon after. For the Sunday taster session we had five junior youth attended, of which three were newcomers. One child attended, but had also attended on Saturday. And on Sunday evening we reflected on a great weekend of learning through experience.”

AHZ

CommuNIqué - Newsletter of the Bahá'í Community in Northern Ireland
Issue 141 - 2 Sharaf 165 BE - 1 January 2009 CE

http://www.btinternet.com/~iain.s.palin/bc4ni/comm/ti.htm#project

Small teams easy to organize - report from teaching project in N. Ireland

Here is a report of a few interesting teaching encounters under a project in Northern Ireland recently. It concludes:

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

http://www.btinternet.com/~iain.s.palin/bc4ni/comm/ti.htm

CommuNIqué - Newsletter of the Bahá'í Community in Northern Ireland
Issue 141 - 2 Sharaf 165 BE - 1 January 2009 CE

One starts the conversation, the other shares the presentation

(Bangkok, 16 November)

Here is an excerpt from two very interesting reports from a teaching project held at a university in Bangkok:

"What we learnt most from our experience from going teaching at the University is courage, because this time we had to teach people who we did not know..."

After many prayers and planning, we broke into teaching teams and went direct teaching at Ramkhamhaeng University . This site was decided upon for several reasons: a higher number of people are available to approach, the student population tends to be younger and more open to new ideas, and the university is closely located to many of those who would be available for consolidation.

Our group of three went straight to an area of study Salas where many people were sitting. We sat down looking for small groups of one or two individuals. We saw a group of two young women, and without hesitation, walked up and introduced ourselves. We asked if they were free to listen for about 20 minutes about the Baha'i Faith. They confirmed, and we broke out Anna's presentation. We went through the first part of the presentation until we came to the time to ask our "checkpoint" questions. We asked if "the teachings they heard about would be hard to follow?" They answered 'no'. We asked "Did they believe that Baha'u'llah was a prophet of God for today?" They answered 'yes'. Encouraged by their responses, we then collected contact information and chatted for a few minutes. One of the young women hadn't slept the whole night as she had worked the night shift at a local mini mart so we said our goodbyes.

- Aa.

Last Saturday, we had a chance to go teaching at the Ramkhamheng University which we had a chance to teach two people. First was Mr. Salit. Since this was the first time that our team (I and Jit) decided to go out and teach total strangers, we were so nervous and scared. It took us a while to finally build up the courage to go up to strangers but finally we decided to approach Khun Salit. We planed it in such a way that one of us would be the one who starts the conversation and the other would share the Anna’s presentation. This time Jit went in first to approach him and I was the one who shared the Anna’s presentation. The sharing part went smoothly; he did not ask many questions, probably because he was shy. Afterwards we gave him a pamphlet to keep for further information and asked for his contact number...

What we learnt most from our experience from going teaching at the University is courage, because this time we had to teach people who we did not know at all which is something we have never done before and is very difficult. There were times when we got rejected or perceived as weird, but after a few times it gets easier, even though that day no one we taught declared, our hearts we filled with joy and happiness.

- Ar.

(Reported from the Bangkok Cluster Growth Committee)

Learning about planning and human resources

(IL, 14 November)

Here are a couple of key learnings gained in the Chicago, IL (A-stage) cluster:

Study circles can be very effective when they are in small groups, for example a 2 or 3 people including the tutor. It helps respond directly to a seeker’s needs, there is no time wasted in waiting to put together a group, and after the study circle has started, there is more flexibility.

Planning in the last few cycles has been first strategy based and second resource based. A key learning has been that planning should be resource based first and then strategy based as well. This is related to learning gained about teaching and the institute process. We have learned that if the friends participate in the institute process without being involved in teaching, it slows down the teaching work, just as we have learned that if people participate in teaching without also being involved in the institute process it creates challenges for follow-up activities with new believers. A balance of both is needed for growth, so the cluster institute coordinators are working with the tutors to strengthen the friends’ understanding of—and participation in—the institute process.

http://teaching.bahai.us/2008/11/learning-about-planning-and-human.html