Last year, a
self-described “outgoing” woman volunteered to follow-up in her
Baha'i community with a seeker that was referred to her in her
community. She describes the invitation to respond to a seeker who
asked to learn more about the Faith as “...an
amazing experience.”
In its 2010
Ridvan message, having enumerated the main developments in the global
Baha'i community, the Universal House of Justice describes “yet
another advance at the level of culture,”
a change with “far-reaching”
implications: the importance of accompanying souls on their journey.
The Supreme Institution writes about the merits of “accompaniment”:
It signals
the significant strengthening of a culture in which learning is the
mode of operation, a mode that fosters the informed participation of
more and more people in a united effort to apply Bahá’u’lláh's
teachings to the construction of a divine civilization, which the
Guardian states is the primary mission of the Faith
The Baha'i reached
out to the seeker, also a woman, and invited her to her home. Along
with her husband, together they began a conversation like Anna (in
Ruhi Book 6), sharing fundamental verities of the Baha'i Faith. After
one session of looking together at the content in the “Reflections
on the Life of the Spirit” (Ruhi Book 1), this Baha'i writes: “she
declared.”
They met again,
and this time the newly-declared
Baha'i confided with her and her husband that she had a tragic,
personal loss several years prior, and how the Bahai Writings
provided her with comfort during a difficult time.
Later,
after she had declared, she shared with us that after seven years of
feeling no comfort, she felt so assisted by the Baha'i Writings and
felt she was reading the Word of God. She said that in that moment
she had made her decision to become a Baha'i,
it seemed as if the Concourse on
High was guiding us to put what she needed into her hands.
The Baha'i writes
that, “we presented her with two
Writings from Abdu'l-Baha”
regarding consolation.
Through
accompaniment together, the journey continued for this new believer,
as she later attended her first unity Feast with the Bahia community,
and her own husband joined her. The Baha'i teacher shared the joy she
observed about these new friends...
They
were both radiant at the end and she commented that she would have a
sore face tomorrow from all the smiling. They were overwhelmed with
the love and the diversity of the friends.
The Universal
House of Justice assures the Bahais of the transformative effect that
the quality of relationships have among friends, and our communities:
In
relationships among the friends, then, this development in culture
finds expression in the quality of their interactions. Learning as a
mode of operation requires that
all assume a posture of humility, a condition in which one becomes
forgetful of self, placing complete trust in God...
Through this
Bahai, we can begin to see the quality of this interaction on her
service to another...
I
am an outgoing person and I cannot imagine a more
exciting and rewarding service than assisting those who are seeking
the Truth.
To be continued: Part 2 of Assisting
Seekers of Truth
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