Openness and teaching in Minneapolis

Sweet news from Minneapolis, MN (A), which finished the expansion phase of the second cycle of their intensive program of growth. Not only is the younger generation at the forefront of teaching, not only is there such an atmosphere of openness that even individuals who have not yet enrolled in the Bahá’í community are accompanying teams of believers to teach the Faith, not only are new believers immediately arising to teach, but the friends are seeing the joyful results of children’s classes. Here is the report from an individual believer:

Dear Friends,

I just got some wonderful news from Minneapolis. Their second expansion phase was brought to an uplifting conclusion this evening. There were 10 to 20 teachers participating each day of the teaching campaign and almost all of the teachers were youth and young adults. Two of the participants on teaching teams this weekend were not declared Baha'is.

On Saturday, one of the believers brought a friend to the Bahá’í center to learn about the Faith. After listening to a round of prayers, he went to a separate room with one of the friends who shared a presentation about the Faith while the rest of the group had some training and deepening. When the group came back together, this individual shared their decision to be a Bahá’í. They said, "I knew there was a good reason for me to be here today. Thank you for welcoming me to this circle. I thank God and thank Bahá’u’lláh for bringing me here today." This individual then joined their friend and another seeker to go out together that afternoon and teach the Faith.

Today, this team went back to visit a family who had expressed interest the day before in learning about the Faith. This new believer spent time with the children while their teaching partner shared the presentation. At the end of the visit the entire family declared, bringing the total number of enrolments at the end of the expansion phase to 10.

Of particular interest during this cycle was a focus on children's classes. Two other families are very interested in the Faith and the core group is starting children's classes in their homes. Today, a teaching team shared a lesson from Ruhi Book 3 with one of the families. The teacher said that she was so touched by how much the children enjoyed it. She said they were excited about learning. The children didn't want to stop singing the verse she taught them and were very engaged in discussion of the spiritual concept in the lesson.

Please keep these dear friends in your prayers as they nurture the faith of these precious souls, enkindling their own hearts.

Love,

A