Thursday, August 5, 2010

3 adults and 4 children in my neighborhood were enrolled into our Beloved Cause!

More exciting news is shared by the friends in Bloomington Indiana (A-stage cluser):
Weekly devotions proved to work better on Thursday afternoons; and it is through these devotions that the enrollments occurred. By being exposed to the Word of God at these devotions and through the book, "Healing the Soul" that they took home, a married couple in my neighborhood responded with earnest and asked me to please teach them more about Baha'u'llah. So, the following week, I went through Anna's presentation. They were so overwhelmed that they called a close friend of theirs to come and hear the presentation because this friend had been something of a spiritual mentor for them. He came and listened and said, "This is the truth. This is what I have been preparing you for." They stayed a total of 6 hours; and left with books. They also received other reading material a couple of days later from another believer who had started to accompany me in the process. The following week (June 25th), they were both very excited and said that they believed in Baha'u'llah, but still had some residual doubts resulting from their continued attachment to some of the teachings in Islam. After this gathering, I started daily home visits with the friend (spiritual mentor). My thought was that he might be the one to guide them. At one point during the first home visit, I was inspired to share with him the fact that an entire world community existed that shared these ideals. He was not alone (as he thought). He did not seem to respond to this, but the following day he said that he had been thinking about this and told me that he knew in his heart that there had to be such a community, but he didn't know where they were, and he never thought he would be blessed enough to see the day. The following day (yesterday, July 1st), he arrived first at the devotions and said that he and his friends knew that they had found the truth and were overwhelmed by the joy they felt. When the married couple entered a few minutes later, the husband said was, "I have been guided my whole life to this point. I cannot deny this truth. My heart knows this is true. Where do I sign?" I went to get three enrollment cards, and all three enrolled. The four children will also be enrolled as soon as I sit down with the mom to get this done.

This overwhelming experience of the past couple of months is proof beyond any words that anyone could tell me that by following the guidance of our Supreme Institutions, we will have the success that we long for in our hearts.

There is still much work to be done, and more fruit to gather. Hopefully I will write with more joyous news as the weeks and months unfold.

The Bahai Faith is the religion for me--because it teaches the things I've believed my whole life!

This is a story told by a recently enrolled 15-year-old who learned about the Bahai Faith from someone who was studying the Faith too.  His hope now that he is a Bahai is that his friend finds her way to the Faith as well.
Last year in November, I met my girlfriend for the first time when I went to my cousin's house for the holiday. It turns out that she and my cousin were almost absolute best friends, so I ended up talking with the two of them . . . when we got to the subject of religion, she said she wanted to be a Bahai, which peaked my interest. Now it wasn't until a month later when I started dating her that I began to study the Bahai religion. A half a year later, I confirmed with my inner self that the Bahai religion was the religion for me, not because it was my girlfriend's religion, but because it is the religion that teaches the things I've believed in my whole life--the things that stopped me from believing the religion I was raised on. I had been searching for almost seven years for a religion. Every day since I confirmed my faith within myself as a Bahai, I have prayed that my girlfriend receives the ability soon to convert to the Bahai religion. I hope that her parents see the error of their ways in retaining her to their beliefs instead of allowing her to choose her own path in the beautiful world. The Bahai religion has made my life feel so much more sensible and I can only hope that it does the same for many more.