Transcript:US Bahá’í Newsreel/Volume 16/No 1 (Fall 2006)
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Okay everyone, we've reached the lightning round the category is going to be Baha'i elections. It's a favorite, it's a favorite. So in one minute try to list everything that you know about unit convention. Ready go. It happens all over the world to elect delegates to go to national convention. I know the Universal House of Justice what? Actually she's right, the delegates elect the National Spiritual Assembly, the Universal Justice and actually a consultation about many things right and recommendations that go directly to the National Spiritual Assembly and actually read somewhere that 75% of the highs do not vote in their unit convention. You're kidding kidding why? That's so little Unit Convention October 2006 It's time to get together and talk senior year in high school is a time when youth enjoy the bonds they've made with others, they go to their senior prom, they look to their teachers for guidance on their future, they reminisce with friends on the years that have passed. Imagine the youth giving this all up and moving to a new place. Hannah scott is a Baha'i who made this choice? It was a hard decision to make. I consulted with a lot of people about it concerning my education, Was it important that I stayed in the same high school to finish my education or is education a thing where no matter where I am, if I really want to learn I can pursue that the summer before her senior year. Hannah chose to leave her home town of Mount vernon Iowa and moved to Scottsbluff Nebraska Scotts bluff is an agricultural town with a population just under 15,000, the Baha'i community of Scottsbluff invited her to help develop more activities for young people, I just sat down and prayed about it and wondered if this was the right thing for me to do, it just seems so clear that somehow that's where I could be most useful behinds in our community or grandparents, so to have Hannah for the youth to relate to, to see as a role model to bring fun and games and music songs, many songs, the enthusiasm that a youth can add to our community is rather amazing and that's in fact what Hannah has done, she, she has done things that we would simply not have the energy to do. Apparently No one wants to do it guys, you know, the first thing Hannah did was start a number of classes for the spiritual development of Children, like talk about jews and like how he, how he died and then we talk about virtues like happiness, the spirit of Children are so pure, that being around them helps my soul to find its path and its focus and I love being a part of that and helping them grow, helping them discover their own path. When Hannah first arrived in Scottsbluff, she was introduced to a couple of families, we welcomed her into our home with our kids and stuff, she's like a big sister, she kinda grows on you, it was not easy for them to be sure that Hanna's intentions were sincere, she began to develop these relationships and they became a part of her everyday life, she goes to people's houses for no reason whatsoever, just to talk to people. She's open to ideas that anyone has and she's so kind, I can't even explain it how kind she is as time went on, she made more and more connections, she built trust with family after family, she tries to help us keep them in a straight road instead of them going off on wandering and losing them to the streets, you know, she does really good with them. So what if we could create something where anybody who comes no matter how old, no matter how you look, what else, who your friends are, how you talk, where you live in town that no matter what we're going to, what we're going to be friends. Hannah also created a youth group where teens can share their struggles and get encouragement from each other. These youth come from a variety of religious perspectives and with Hannah's help, they've learned the importance of basing their group on the principle of unity, fitting in and feeling accepted was a big part of having hope for the future, feeling like you're worth something to someone into the world and that you can help Hannah is a very amazing person and by just being around her and having her around here, she's changed, I think she's changed the Baha'i community two years before moving to Scottsbluff Hannah experienced Ruhi in the woods, Ruhi in the woods is a program that gives you the opportunity to understand the value of spiritual transformation and helps them express their nobility as human beings, it provides an avenue to share these ideas in positive ways that benefit their families and communities according to her parents before Ruhi and the woods, Hannah was not focused on reaching out and connecting with others. Well Hannah, you know it was very intense and she kind of tended to just walk around with this intense look which kept people away and even in the family, she was the one that everybody gave her a lot of space, you know, there are so many people, I asked for advice, this child is just testing me more than that, I know what to do with when the kids are in that age, the early teenage years, they're kind of searching and it was just like a typical teenager out with her friends and stuff and sometimes you forget to call us and we have to call her and find out where she was at, She was at roof in the woods for six weeks, she came back totally changed and she was happy, she was enthused, you know, we sent one kid away and another one came back, she came back from those few weeks there and had a purpose in life they've never seen before and very spiritual and so all the energy she had was, was was directed towards wonderful things I suppose being a part of a group of 15 youth that were so United and so encouraging and is loving Ruhi in the woods is an enormous, enormous part of my transformation and really rearranging the priorities in my life. Now that Hannah has completed her service in Scottsbluff, she is looking ahead to the new opportunities on her life's path. Next Hannah is moving to North Dakota where she will attend Sitting Bull College and serve the Baha'i community on the standing rock reservation. She remains open to the many possibilities this service will bring, I'm not exactly sure what will happen or what will be called upon to do. I know that I'll be involved with co activities obviously in teaching, pray with the people and meet them and see how I can work with them to achieve the goals that they've set themselves the story of the construction of the Baha'i House of worship in Wilmette Illinois is not simply about the materials or design of the building, it is about the creation of a place for prayer and meditation Right now, the Baha'is of the United States have the privilege of contributing to the restoration of the mother temple of the west and a new visitors center to welcome all peoples of the world, Why do we need a new visitor center and why do we need an environment that welcomes all people to prayer, reflection and fellowship for me, this place has unity and diversity. And I feel like all people is welcome to be, to stay here to pray or to visit here and this is nice to feel something like that. I think it's so peaceful here. It's beautiful. I think it's great for him for my son to see him see a place of reverence and a sacred place where he can kind of learn how to be quiet and calm and feel a spirit. We have a restoration project which is basically repairing and saving the gardens in the building. And then we have the new things that we're adding and building like the new visitor center, I think that we're finally able to build a facility that appropriately um prepares you to for the experience and for the really to be able to appreciate the dignity and the majesty of this structure. We enter through bright, beautiful doors into a bright space with views of the temple in the gardens and the idea is that, you know, as our guest, you're not welcome into our basement, so to speak. You know, right now in the, in the house of Worship, the foundation hall area where we have a visitor center was never built or designed to be a place to welcome visitors and though we've done the best we could with this basement structure, uh, it really wasn't the way we ever were meant to welcome people properly to our house of worship. And so I think the best thing about finally building a real visitor center is that it shows how valuable we feel the visitors to the temple are, so having the new visitor center, which will certainly be in close proximity to the temple will allow, I think the temple to fulfill its original purpose, which is to be solely a place for prayer and meditation and then it will also be a very warm, welcoming environment for visitors and guests to the temple. It's as if the Baha'is have prepared tea and a fire and some put some flowers in the vase to welcome you for your journey up to the temple to first make you feel at home. Uh, the other thing that the reason for making this building kind of quiet and residential and home like is that our lives have become so complex and so busy and so fast and so distracted that to experience the beauty and the melody that this gardens and buildings saying you need to first stop yourself. And I think what I hope the visitor center does is allow people to take a pause before they get up to the temple and the gardens to, to kind of just stop their, their daily track for a little bit and to get ready to experience a very unique place in the world. Oh yes, I think especially now when everything's so loud and busy and hectic. It's nice to come somewhere where you can just sit still for a minute and think about what's really important. Like I didn't even know that any religion can be like, can like get along with each other because I usually hear like about how some religions don't even get along with people like bombing places and stuff. Yeah, I think this is very good place to worship and pray. Um you know, I heard that this place is open to everybody who are in a christian or buddhist or whatever even though the people don't have, don't have a religion. So I think we need this kind of place to just visit and have some meditation in quiet time. It gives us an opportunity to, you know, open up to like, you know, a lot of religions and stuff but not like just like listening to the same, you know, same old, same old religions but also you get to, you know, experience and being around other religions and the same, you know room. I really enjoyed that. That was very fun. I didn't even know about this high house until now in my school and so like I mean like about the founder, like he really like touched us like right here. I really feel like people are really like coming together and like being one over a quarter million people from around the world visit the house of worship each year. Thousands of them are americans who first learned about the Baha'i faith here and many returned home with an increased desire to learn more as enhancements to the temple in north America continue. The highs are also called to contribute to the construction of the last continental temple, the temple in santiago chile. Currently the construction is in the beginning stages and the behinds of the world have the privilege to give to this effort when I think of encouragement, I think of all of the times that someone has helped me through just a loving word or a loving sentence or just a hug even is encouragement, we always think about encouragement for somebody who has grandiose plans and I think it's really important to keep in mind that some of my friends might be going through a rough time, I'd say within the context of what we're doing here in Boulder and just in the Baha'i community in general encouragement is really just that sort involving people when they feel this sense of belonging. That's encouraging, just simply showing people that you love them and that you care about them and you want them around the Baha'I writings say unity is both the goal of the Baha'i community and its operating principle, it is the alpha and the omega of Baha'i life to feel lonely within a Baha'i community can be disheartening Emily Quint e was raised in a Baha'i family and actively participated in Baha'i youth groups as a teenager, her freshman year of college, Emily moved to Boulder colorado to study astrophysics. What she found in her new community came as a bit of a surprise. I didn't feel included in the community, I didn't feel like anyone was reaching out to me to say, hey, you know, we're really happy you're here, come and hang out with us. Other Baha'is in Boulder echoed Emily's sentiment, I felt really lonely when when I came to Boulder, it was really, really hard. It was like, look, I'm a Baha'i hello for Emily and her husband Austin a simple act of encouragement at just the right moment turned everything around. I was the recipient of a really amazing home visit and it was right before I had my brain surgery, we had only been married I think eight months by the time I had been having really severe headaches and I realized that um it was something more than I was getting treated for, I was being treated for migraines and it wasn't working, so I decided to ask for an M. R. I. And finally got an MRI scheduled and then found out I have a cyst in my brain that was putting pressure on parts of my brain and causing problems newlyweds with their college careers and family life still in front of them. The diagnosis was frightening for Emily and Austin, it was pretty scary and it all happened pretty fast and just a couple of weeks, we found out I had to have surgery, there's a real chance that I could have died and we had to deal with that the night before I got a phone call from one of the members of the community saying would it be okay if she and a few other people from the community could, if they, if they could come over and say prayers with us that evening and I was just so moved, preparing for some big trauma in my life. I felt surrounded by prayers and I felt like my community cared about me and it seemed like everyone pulled together to say it's gonna be okay, you know, ever since then I've just been like this is how I want everyone in our community to feel, I want them to feel loved and like they never have to feel like they're alone or dealing with anything in their life, however big or small, you know, by themselves because they're not, we're a family and we care about each other and we can help each other through anything. And that's what I felt that night and that's what I want all of the members of our community to feel all the time, you know, that's the ideal situation, I think for Boulder, as in most cities around the world, behinds in Boulder, elect a local spiritual assembly to govern community life so you can act however governing in the Baha'i sense takes on a distinct style, one that Baha'is are still developing based on the scriptures of the Baha'i faith, far from governing through control or conflict. The high scripture calls local spiritual assemblies to be loving shepherds for their communities. They are charged with helping Baha'i communities stay unified and assisting individual members to use their talents in service to the Baha'i faith and the wider community after her surgery in several months of recovery, Emily and Austin rejoined their friends in the Baha'i community soon after Boulder Baha'i selected Emily to the local assembly, she brought with her a fresh resolve to build bonds of love between the Baha'is I said, you know, I feel like if we change our focus, if we just shift our focus to all the things that are going positive and I brought up this home visit, you know, and I was like this is what we should nurture in our community, we should nurture these moments that we have real connection, the assembly has put it as one of its goals to make everybody should make friends with everybody else. The Boulder Assembly decided Unity building should start with them once their own friendship solidified members of the assembly began reaching out and making visits to the homes of other Baha'is in Boulder, I don't know that everyone really knew that this was a push from the assembly to really welcome everyone into our community again and say we are happy that you're here, we want you to participate in our community because we love you. And then from there, that unity building would kind of um, just blossom throughout the community and, and that's what it did. Um, we're going over to the house right now um, to visit Bahia and her two kids, Mahia and Masa and their grandmother and present them with the idea of doing a family study circle. They just came from Iran Gwen has been my teacher, like for like the Children behind a class and then also, kitty's been my teacher and like, it's a kind of a fun experience to have like the Baha'i friends and all that. Yes, I love them because we're a community that's like a lot of youth and older people, but there's not as many kids or junior youth and I think it's kind of hard for them sometimes being the only ones in the community. Gwen and Katie's visits are especially significant for Bahia, living in Iran, she had become accustomed to only meeting with other Baha'is in seclusion. Actually became here as a refugee refugee. Now I feel free. It's like I'm not any more nervous to say, oh, maybe somebody's connected or actually I'm very happy general our, our culture, we are very happy to have guests. It's any time or it doesn't matter because our culture many times we are at home the family, they don't call just, they not, they don't say hi, we are coming today. Actually, I'm really having fun and happy to have our community or anybody welcome to our house Hi, hi welcome, come on back, I've been thinking about this, I mean I've been really fairly isolated for three years since because of, of having surgery, I think it would be, it will be, it will be a more, you know, a stronger Baha'i community if we really go beyond superficial chatting at feasts and other functions and really become closer and and I think that's what will attract other people more and more to the Baha'i community when they really see that we really are a caring community, I agree, I agree, like when we're unified and strong and know who we are, that's what will be attractive to people for sure. Baha'i is in Boulder, agree that building real friendships is a process, one that takes time and patience day by day, the local assembly sees signs of a more loving community and the involvement of the highs in community life has increased after living for years in Iran where Baha'i elections and assemblies are banned by law Bahia has just been elected to Boulder's local spiritual assembly, isolated by health issues. Catherine has returned to feast participates avidly in community dialogue and now hosts activities, I think I've seen myself mature as the assembly goes through that maturation process as well, so I think that's something that I would never get, you know, at a company um you know, my own business class, like at the beginning, I hated it. I was like, I don't want to be there. It's my high identity was crushed. And now when I think about boulder, yeah, I think about it, my heart. Yeah. And boulder allowed me to become a better behind. We have a culture of love in this community. We are behind, we have the power to make a change, we have the power to make a change through prayer through action and through our institutions. Baha'i Allah has transformed the election process into a sacred act. It's a sacred act, a spiritual act. That is part of the Hollas great plan, A plan for building a world based on justice and unity. One election one vote at a time. We are the highs. We have the power to change the world by encouraging our youth to lead``ership, to show the world a new way, a new way to unite, to govern the world. Is watching us putting Baha'i Allah's divine plan into action, creating um model for the world. We have the power to transform the world. Ojala has transformed elections into a sacred process free of conflict and open to all participating in unit convention is a specific act that each of us can do. We got to get together and talk Unit Convention October 2006, it's time to get together and talk
