The friendship was constant and unconditional

This story from an A-stage cluster in the Northeast region shows the importance and power of true friendship.  Note also the role that home visits played in the process.  It’s interesting that when the seeker declared, rather than the Bahá’ís running around to get a registration card, they invited him to go online!

T and S have been friends for over 20 years, and S has been a Bahá’í for several years now.  Both are committed to personal and spiritual development and transformation.  T would get together from time to time with a local Bahá’í couple.  They would visit each other’s homes.  So over the past year, T would call his Bahá’í contacts increasingly often and ask more and more detailed questions.  He was given a copy of “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” to read. . . .

Last month, T called up his Bahá’í friends and said he was ready to become a Bahá’í.  They gave him the information about where he could declare his Faith online at the U.S. Bahá’í Web site.  He did so, and shortly after, the area teaching committee was calling him to verify all the details.  T then attended a fireside at the home of his friends where a film was shown about the Bahá’í World Center in Haifa, and he was able to see the worldwide reach of the Faith.

At that gathering, T explained his attraction to the Faith.  For him, he felt his upbringing had influenced him to be very critical of himself and others.  However, with the Bahá’ís, he always felt differently, and was profoundly moved to realize that over the years their friendship had been constant and unconditional.  Everyone in the room was moved.