My personal experiences sharing the Baha'i Faith and participating in the Ruhi Institute process I am now including as "personal learning" and part of the mix along with "pithy excerpts" and "mentions of Baha'i on the blogospher" on my primary blog Baha'i Views. My wife's blog Flitzy Phoebie also reflects our teaching experiences together.

Flitzy Phoebie

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Myong and our home devotional

It used to be that putting on any kind Baha'i event, including those by personal intiative, was a big deal. Big as in a lot of work. Not so anymore with the current guidance and inspiration flowing in this divine springtime for teaching.

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It is so easy, really. After exchanging visits with Myong to our home and her home, it seemed like such a logical next step to invite her over to our home for prayers.

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That's a devotional. And we've had two of them so far, complete with music, and Myong has been an eager attendee at both of them.

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No renting a facility, no hauling speakers, no elaborate coordination among community members. Just, "Come on over at 7, we'd love to have you."

Today, NawRuz brunch at Tim and Deb's. Visited with mathematician Ed, friend of the Faith, who has grown children living in Israel. With engineer Roya, we talked about Ruhi. He found it interesting that Ruhi originated in Columbia. He has been invited to participate in a Book 1. More than once. He just may do it.

Last night it was Feast at Toby's. New believer is an old believer now, fully integrated into our community through loving follow-through by her teacher.

Monday night, Myong brought over two dozen white roses as a thank you from her students, boarders from Hong Hong, who visited our home Sunday.

Myong, from Korea originally, came over at 11 a.m. with the students for breakfast. They had a chance to see my son and daughter-in-law's pictures of pilgrimage and look at blog entries about the Faith in Chinese. "God is love," Raymond translated from one post.

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http://www.cap.org.hk/leisure/wk_chiu/stamp/god_is_love.jpg

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Photos by Flitzy Phoebie

What a week!Just as I was thinking about how long it had been since I had heard from Polin, he called. Bonita and I invited him out to dinner. We asked him what restaurant he recommended. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant we've passed by but never been in before on 38th St. A Vietnamese historical drama was playing on one TV and rap videos on another while we ate. I had fish in a soup. Great stuff. That was Tuesday night.

Wednesday night was a two hour visit with Jamie, getting to know him as I never had a chance to get to know him back in 1970-71.

Thursday was Feast. Great singing, thanks to 17 year-old Stephanie. Great voice. And I got to drive home BJ, Judith, and Corinne. BJ is healthy again. Yeah!

Friday night we visited at the house with Megan and Taraz about their pilgrimage. This was after my in-home physical for life insurance. Will my newly diagnosed diabetes prevent me from getting the insurance? Dunno, but I'll find out soon. Either way, it's OK, really.

Saturday Bonita and I took Vaneda to children's class in Gig Harbor, but this time along with Mary's grandchildren, Dolly and Bailey. Mary planned to go with us, too, but she was congested. We did a quick review of some questions she had about some questions in Ruhi 1 while I waited for the girls to finish their breakfast before we headed out.

Saturday night we had a fireside with Myong. I showed portions of the 1992 World Congress video to demonstrate the unity of the Faith. She strongly values diversity, too.

Sunday morning a home-visit. We were over at Myong's for breakfast at her invitation. One of her boarders, a student from Hong Kong joined us. The Faith came up three times in our two hour conversation.

Then we went for a paddle on Offut Lake.

And then we had Ruhi. It was really a four-hour session, not three, as there was a mix-up as to the start time, and five of us were there ready-to-go at 4 p.m. Whew.

Phil Lucas

Today one of the Baha'i friends I visited during the 9-day Intensive Phase called me back. I had gone over to see him on the second day of the campaign for a 40-minute conversation in his living room. He had some photos he had taken thirtysome years ago of the Baha'i friends he wanted to share. It had been a long time since any of the friends has had a chance to hear his voice, but it was the recent death of a Baha'i, Phil Lucas, who was instrumental in introducing him to the Faith, that had moved him to call me, resulting in the home-visit.

We agreed at the end of our conversation that I would keep in touch to find out how his project of processing these old photos was coming. I called back last Sunday on the last day of our 9-day effort and left a message on his machine to ask, "How's it going?" And today, after being down sick for a few days, he called me back.

We talked several times today, in fact, and agreed to get together again next week. We even identified a sort of agenda of things to talk about, one of which is the status of the Faith today. Now that is a compelling subject.

I consider our reconnecting to be the fruit of the culture of mutual support and loving-kindness that exists today in the Baha'i community in great part because of the Ruhi process.

Veneda, her Mom, and baby brother, photo by Flitzy Phoebie

Nine days, four home-visits. It doesn't seem like a lot for our Intensive Teaching Campaign, but it was all I could muster. It was smack dab in the middle of the campaign, after experiencing symptoms impossible to ignore, I learned I have diabetes.

Four home-visits, one on each day of the two weekends. The first one was actually a 50th-birthday party for Arlene, one of the Baha'i friends. There were three non-Baha'is present, and the Faith did indeed come up in conversation.

My symptoms were raging that day. I remember the homemade pumpkin pie. Not too sweet.

The second visit was to the home of a Baha'i photographer. I'll do a separate post on this dear soul.

The third was to Veneda's. That Saturday was an early Ayyam-i-Ha party for Leaves of One Tree Baha'i School that I wanted to be sure that Veneda was able to attend.

I called Friday night and talked to her uncle. Saturday morning I spoke with her Mom. "Yes, of course, Veneda can go," she said. "And guess what! My baby came early. Please come over and visit."

Bonita and I immediately got into gear, got dressed, and went by Target to get a baby gift and card. Bonita wrapped the gift in the car as we drove over.

We had more than a 30-minute homevisit with Samir, Veneda, a visiting guest, grandma Neang, and the brand new baby boy. I read a prayer for the new baby and gave mom a booklet with prayers for the baby in it. Then we spirited Veneda off to the school party. (See Bonita's blog post about it.)

The fouth visit came after one, two, three attempts to find people home with my teammate for the afternoon, Arlene, the birthday girl, at various addresses in downtown Tacoma and the North end. Our fourth try was to what I hoped with be a sure thing. We went to visit Mary.

Now Mary is quite house-bound with four grandkids she has the joy to raise. But not that house-bound. Tuesday nights she goes over to Judith's for Ruhi 1, as she was pleased to remind us.

Mary's grandkids are her pride and joy. We got to talking about the wonderful Baha'i school I had been taking Veneda to. "Hey, if I'm talking Veneda, can I also take Dolly and Bailey with me, too, next time" I asked. Yes, she said, and she wanted to come along, too.

That wasn't all we agreed upon. We discussed getting fat and the need for exercise. Diabetics like me need their exercise.

We agreed to go walking together on the weekends. Now that is meeting needs!

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Every weekend I try to set aside a block of time for visiting somebody. I don't do much planning for this activity, and this past Saturday morning was no exception.

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I realized at about 10 a.m. that this was the weekend of the Baha'i children's class in Gig Harbor. At the assistant's meeting a few weeks ago we had discussed the importance of supporting the exisiting children's classes with the idea of seeing a further proliferation of them in the cluster in time.

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I wasn't sure of the starting time, so I went to the Cluster 19 website and got an 11 a.m. time but the address of the class was not given. Hmmmm.

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I called Tim and Deb, but they weren't home. I realized I had Chris' number on my cell, called him, and he had the address. In fact, he was supposed to be there by now, it was now 10:40, and the classes were supposed to have started at 10:30, not 11, he said, and they go to past 1 pm. Ok, so the website was not exactly correct. But I had the address.

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I got a map to the address from Mapquest before heading out to the car. As I let the car warm up, the defroster took care of the fog on the inside the windows, and I put a call in to Veneda's house.

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So I'm late, so I haven't set anything up with Veneda's grandparent's ahead of time, but it was still worth a call to see if Veneda would like to check this Baha'i school out.

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Veneda, who just turned 8 in December, was the one to answer the phone. Sure, she'd like to go. She put her grandpa on. I explained. He said, yes, and gave the phone back to Veneda. I told her I'd be there in 20 minutes. She said she'd get ready right away.

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It's more like 25 minutes over to Veneda's home. And I had to get gas first. Veneda was still putting on her shoes when I arrived. Her grandpa greeted me warmly and watched us from the porch as I backed out of the driveway.

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I told myself I'd probably be able to get to the children's class by noon, an hour and a half late, but with still an hour for Veneda to, hopefully, enjoy the ambiance of the place. It was more like 12:15 when we finally got there, after crossing the Narrow's Bridge, and following some rather complicated directions out to some mini-ranches and horse farms on the other side of the Purdy Spit.

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The full sunshine made everything seem gorgeous. Seeing horses with winter horse-coats on made me want to stop to take them off for their comfort, it seemed so warm.

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I knew I'd found the address when I saw the 12 or so cars in the driveway. There was a wonderful feeling to the house even from the outside. There was a front porch with rocking chairs. There was children's art in the window, and the name of the Baha'i school, Leaves of One Tree. We rang the bell.

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Helen answered the door. Boy, was she welcoming! We took our shoes off in the front entry way. Seeing the corner of the entryway covered in shoes reminded me of what Veneda's entryway looked like, all the shoes in the household piled there, as Cambodian families always take off their shoes when coming into a home, just like the Persians.

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The house was gorgeous, very country-looking with beautiful knotty-wood floors. There was a table surrounded by 12 or so adults doing Ruhi 1. There was Chris. He made it. Faces were radiant.

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Helen asked Veneda her age and told her her class was upstairs, guiding us up the stairway to a big room with big windows and a round, woven cloth rug with 10 or so grade-school-aged children working on individual white boards sitting on it.

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I knew Veneda had to be pleased with what she saw. Girls her age! Lots of them.

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The teacher, Karla Jo, brought Veneda up to speed, describing what the class had been doing before our arrival. She also moved into a story about 'Abdu'l-Baha. Karla Jo tells a very good story. And suddenly it was time to go downstairs.

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The older class joins with the younger class two floors down to do crafts at the end of Baha'i school. There were another 10 younger kids already engaged there, plus a few toddles being watched over by their parent(s).

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The space was enormous, a craft-palace of sorts, complete with a kiln. Outside the window you could see a swing set and slide and a very large fenced yard.

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Dominating the room were two low hand-made tables, with attached seats, around which 20 children could sit. The project of the day was to make Ayyam-i-Ha cards to send out inviting the Friends to the annual party the end of February. Kids were hard at work, adults buzzing around with materials and gentle guidance.

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I hovered around Veneda. I cut out nine-pointed stars for her. She made three cards.

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It was 1:30 when we moved toward the stairs. Veneda made a detour to the adjacent room where Baha'i school starts with devotions each meeting, each child seated on a carpet square, Karla Jo had told me. Hey, the room looked just like a Head Start or kindergarten classroom!

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We have to come back, but on time next time.

From the Cluster 19 Newsletter. -gw

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Photo: flitzyphoebie

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Declarations for Cycle 6:
3 through a Book 1 study circle in
Pierce Peninsula: Peggy, and
Jennifer and Lyle (from Kitsap Co.)
1 through a home visit in Pierce
Peninsula: Harry (see
Robbie's home visit story)
1 through 3 years of one-on-one
teaching: Debbie in Tacoma
Total of 5!

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Home Visit Story by Robbie
I wanted to give you a follow up on the
two home visits that Helen and I went on.
They were both transfers in to Gig
Harbor that we didn't have phone
numbers for.

So we attempted to visit
them but both were not home, so we left
flowers and a note welcoming them to
our community with our phone numbers.

We received calls back from both of
them. They both were excited and
thanked us for the flowers. We invited
them to Feast and sent them both our
community calendar and community list.

Joanne emailed back and said that she
planned on making it to Feast. When she
arrived at Feast as she walked through the
door she handed me her husband's
declaration card! Wow! She has been a
Baha'i for some years and was so excited.
She said that he really wanted to make it
to Feast that night and was so impressed
with the welcome that it encouraged him
to sign his declaration card. He was ill
Feast night and wasn't able to make it, but
on Saturday the Nolens had a home visit
to welcome him into our community.

Bob, the other transfer in, had spoken
to Helen and she offered to give him a
ride to Feast since he does not drive at
night. He had moved here from the San
Diego area. He has been a Baha'i for 40
years, but had been inactive for the last
25. At Feast we talked about the Ruhi
books going on and Bob showed an
interest in joining one. On Saturday we
started a new Ruhi Book 1 class and he
attended along with five non-Baha’¡s.
This Ruhi class was started to
accommodate the adults that were
bringing their children to children's
classes. I am now a true believer in home
visits!