Springdale is "filled with a new energy and courage"

Here is a brief report from the Springdale Area, AR cluster, where inspiration from recent Regional Bahá’í Conference and home-front pioneers have galvanized the friends there to new levels of teaching. The friends’ first direct, collective teaching effort has further energized them. Since this story was submitted, Springdale has advanced to the B-stage.

Dear Friends,

The Baha'is of the Springdale cluster in Northwest Arkansas were much inspired and energized by the Dallas conference. Springdale is a C cluster, and has only recently started warming up to doing direct teaching.

We have two wonderful homefront pioneers in our community who came and settled here from an A cluster in Texas. At the end of December, two weeks after the conference, they helped 7 friends study Ruhi Book 6 in a 4-day intensive program organized in their home. As a result, 4 of those friends completed Book 6 and at least 2 of them have now completed the sequence of courses. . . .

These same friends organized 2 Saturdays in January where the friends could go to the Bahá’í Center and practice Anna's presentation and then go out to do some direct teaching. The first day was a huge success. Never has the community gone out simultaneously in groups to do direct teaching. There were 3 groups of 3 friends each (each made up of a secretary, the prayer person, and the one who gave the presentation). Another group of 4 friends stayed at the Center and continued to work on Anna's presentation. It was a wonderful experience for everyone. The second such meeting will take place soon.

The friends also successfully hosted a Bahá’í table and activities for World Religion Day on January 20th.

The community is definitely filled with a new energy and courage since the Dallas conference. It is all very exciting.

With warm Baha'i greetings,

J