Permanent Teaching Team
A recollection by Chris Cholas
After returning from the 1988
International Bahá’í Convention and meeting of the Counsellors in Haifa, Dr.
Ahmadiyeh wished to establish “permanent teaching teams” in Central America and
in the Yucatán Peninsula. There was an upsurge in teaching in many parts of the
world and he did not want his region of service to be deprived of the increased
benefits of teaching. With approval of
our National Spiritual Assembly a permanent teaching team was started in Belize
with three and sometimes more members. Along with Emma Hutchcraft (Our Auxiliary
Board member), Jean Ferrell, James Elijio, Betty Peel-Prior (Canadian), Therese
Elijio and others, I was one of the early
members serving on the team. The initial
team was Emma, Jean and me and we were based in Corozal Town, where Emma and I
lived. Dr. Ahmadiyeh approved the idea, but preferred us to be based in Belize
City, and after a short time in the north, we moved to Belize City. Jean and Emma had hospitality with Crystal
Straughn and the Ahmadiyehs provided me a bedroom by having one of their sons
share a room with his brothers. I felt
bad about that, but the family insisted. Emma and Jean would come each morning.
Rezvan did most of the meals and went out with the team whenever possible. And,
at times, even Dr. Ahmadiyeh would prepare a wonderful Persian dish. After
breakfast, we would begin each day with prayers and study followed by consultation
on the day’s plan. Then we would set out, usually returning in the late
afternoon and debrief together before dinner.
Each week we would reflect on
the team’s efforts, dividing our attention on expansion efforts, consolidation
efforts and team dynamics. This way we
could adjust what we were doing to try to be more effective in our efforts. If
special challenges or matters concerning our team came up, we could handle them
before major complications would arise.
We generally had one free day a week, but adjusted our schedules
depending on the personal needs of team members—for example: Emma needed to return
to Corozal Town periodically, as I did, to be with family. We had the love of the Ahmadiyeh family
always around us, and occasionally could move to another place, such at the
Bahá’í Center in Belmopan to allow that dear family some space and family time
without caring for us. Dr. Ahmadiyeh
would regularly meet with us and most evenings we would debrief to reflect on
the day’s efforts. Some evenings we would participate in deepenings or
firesides. A special treat was when a small group of friends would gather and
Jean, who had a heavenly voice, would sing melodies that incorporated the
Bahá’í Writings.
Early on we focused on direct teaching in a
neighborhood known as “Trench Town,” supposedly a rougher part of the
city. Most days we set out on foot (I
was using crutches and braces in those years) and would visit home after home
until we felt the need to stop for the day and walk back to the Ahmadiyeh home,
often with the declaration card of a new believer. Return visits to new
believers were included in our weekly schedule, sometimes resulting in an
evening meeting in the new member’s home.
I often remember the sacrifices
that the Ahmadiyeh family made for us, centering their time and energy on
serving the team, and how patient their wonderful children-- Naysan, Nasim,
Navid and Nabil—were to have the team, especially me, being the center of their
home. Challenges would come up, too,
like the day an electrical “brown out” ruined their refrigerator. Dealing with the Belize Electric company to
replace the fridge while hoping to save as much of the food in the fridge took
up hours to resolve.
Poetry
Lesson
One day
we had returned early and had some down time for rest. To enjoy the moment I
selected a book from the Ahmadiyeh’s wonderful Bahá’í library and sat down in
their living room to read awhile from a book by Ustád Muhammad-`Alíy-i Salmání,
the Barber, My Memories of Bahá’u’lláh, translated from the original Persian by Marzieh Gail. The volume included a selection of poems by Ustád
Muhammad, poems which he apparently composed while cutting Bahá’u’lláh’s
hair.
As I
perused one of the beautiful poems in the back of the book, Dr. Ahmadiyeh
entered the home returning from his office. He immediately asked me what I was
reading and I told him the book by Bahá’u’lláh’s barber, and that I was
enjoying his poetry. To that Dr. Ahmadiyeh
smiled with pleasure and asked me to read a few lines from one of the
poems. I read several lines and Dr.
Ahmadiyeh began reciting it out loud simultaneously in the original
Persian. Then he asked me to read the
English translation again. Then he said
that the translation was good, but actually the English should be more like
this and he thoughtfully recited the same lines I had just read, modifying some
of the English words as a more accurate translation of the original. He asked me to read a few more lines. Again he recited them in the original, which
sounded far more melodic than the English version, making a few changes to the
English. His love for history and poetry
and his scholarly understanding of it always amazed me. Not only was he a wonderfully humble being,
but he was also an extremely erudite soul.
Here is the poem from the Blessed Beauty’s barber that we looked at
together:
And if unto Thy
robe I cannot cling,
then I must sate myself with tears and sighs.
Cut off by fowler's net on every side,
Or in Thine ambience I'd spread my wings.
I weep alone here in my prison cage,
O nightingale that with the rose dost dwell!
O caravan that to my Love intend,
My ears are longing for the starting-bell.
In blood unwritten lies, from start to end,
This loneliness of mine on my heart's page.
If only this, my final breath,
The mournful tale had penned.
My love is like that fabled bird
That doth a crown presage.
And for the rest, or so I gauge,
This whole round world
Is but a midge,
Or say, a bagatelle.
Each man has someone for his haven--I
Have but Bahá.
And truth to tell,
To me, none but Bahá
In either world doth dwell.
Through the
Downpour
One
afternoon Jean Ferrell and I decided to visit someone who lived a short stroll
from the Ahmadiyeh’s home. Clouds had
been rolling in overhead for a while and as we left our friend’s home, it
started to rain. Without warning the
rain turned into an unrelenting downpour.
With no umbrella with us all we could do is move as quickly as possible
to get home. Our stroll turned into an
urgent charge. Except when swimming, I cannot
remember ever being so drenched. I think
the rain even soaked into my leg braces’ joints. I do remember dripping on the landing for a
while before entering the house, our wet clothes stuck to us.
Teaching
with Miss Emma
Emma
Hutchcraft (known in Belize as Miss Emma) served as an Auxiliary Board member
to Belize during those vibrant days of teaching fervor. She and her family had pioneered to Corozal
Town from Oklahoma. She had several fairly
serious health issues as I recall. I
think high blood pressure was one, but her energy for teaching and being with
people never sagged. Very perceptive and
firmly grounded in the Covenant, it was an honor to be able to serve with her,
and see how her trust in God often opened the door to teaching opportunities, sometimes
in the most unexpected ways.
One day
our team went out on the streets of Belize City making home visits
together. As usual, it was a warm, humid
day. We had left the home of one family
and were headed to another home. As we
strolled along the street, we saw a man coming towards us. As he came closer, we recognized him as
George Price, who was the Prime Minister of the Country. (George Price served as “First Minister and
Premier under British rule until independence in 1981 and was the nation's
first prime minister after independence that year. He is considered to have been one of the
principal architects of Belizean independence. He is referred to by many as the
‘Father of the Nation.’" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cadle_Price.)
We met
in the middle of an intersection and greeted each other. He cordially asked us how we were doing and
wanted to know what we were doing. Miss
Emma said that we were Bahá’ís and we were out visiting some of our
members. Mr. Price nodded and said he knew
about the Bahá’í Faith and appreciated the efforts Bahá’í religion has made to
the progress of Belize (I don’t remember his exact words, but his sentiments
were very positive.) He told us that he
was also visiting his constituents. We
shared a few thoughts about how Belize was an example of peace in a region
marked by civil war (Guatemala and El Salvador had civil wars raging at the
time.).
As we
said our farewells to the Prime Minister and walked along, we looked at one
other reflecting on the pleasant encounter we had just had with a Head of
State. Where in the world would meeting
the Head of State on a street be such a natural occurrence?
Transformation
One of
the great joys of the teaching work was to witness the process of
transformation on those who accepted Baha’u’llah. Not everyone kept their “spark of faith”
enkindled, and some, sooner or later, strayed from their new Faith and returned
to whatever path they were on before.
However, for those who continued on the path of recognition, to
confirmation and then to consecration, the transformations could be stunning. In the early days of the permanent teaching
team, this definitely was the case with Caterino James Elijio and later with
his dear sister, Therese. James had
connected with the Faith in Belmopan when he came to a Bahá’í public meeting
with one of his cousins, who already was a Bahá’í. Though the meeting had been arranged with
hopes to attract new people to the Faith, only Bahá’ís had come. Outside the hall rain came pouring down. The meeting had already started when James
and one of his cousins, who was already a Bahá’í, entered the room soaking wet
from the rain outside. It never was
clear to me if they actually had intended to come to the talk, or if they happened
to be passing by and entered the room to get out of the rain. Whatever, the outcome became significant, as
James took in every word being shared and before the end of the gathering Athena
Cholas took James aside and went through the teaching book with him. After the meeting James accompanied the
teaching team to the Belmopan Bahá’í Center, where the team members were staying. The sharing went into the night and James
wanted to know what the plans were for the next day. We told him about our efforts to go out in
teams to share the Faith. He expressed
interest to joining us, and we, of course, invited him to go out with one of
the teams.
James
was living in Belize City at the time and, as fate would deem it, he lived only
a short distance from the Ahmadiyeh’s home.
We immediately arranged for evening firesides at the Ahmadiyeh home and
James would come, sometimes with other members of his family, including his
sister, almost every evening. After
prayers, Dr. Ahmadiyeh, or one of the team members, would share something about
the Faith. James loved the discussions
and would share his own understanding of the topic. Each time he came we could see how his
understanding was moving closer to what was expressed in the Writings of the
Faith. We noticed the same process with other souls seeking truth from the
Faith, but with James, the transformation was remarkable.
One evening
after James had gone home, Dr. Ahmadiyeh referred to a prayer of
Bahá’u’lláh: “I testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the
potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His mouth, and the First Call gone
forth from His lips than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that
are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths.
Through that Word the realities of all created things were shaken, were
divided, separated, scattered, combined and reunited, disclosing, in both the
contingent world and the heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and
revealing, in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and oneness.
Through that Call Thou didst announce unto all Thy servants the advent of
Thy most great Revelation and the appearance of Thy most perfect Cause.”
From Prayers and Meditations by
Bahá’u’lláh, p. 295)
Dr.
Ahmadiyeh shared a thought that each soul goes through a transformation process
after hearing of the Faith. Just as the whole creation is being revolutionized
by the Call of Baha’u’llah, each soul is recreated by the Word. Sometimes the first reaction to the Word causes
the soul to be shaken and scattered, but if the Word takes effect on the soul,
that person is reunited with God and transforms into a new creation. For some,
the process may be slow and take months or even years. With James the process moved rapidly, like a
torrent as he discarded old beliefs and replaced them the new Teachings with
clarity and certainty.
At the time
of James’s enrollment into the Faith, one of the early Belizean believers,
Nathanial Neal, was still alive. When
James met Nathanial Neal, a magic bond immediately formed. On day I watched the two souls together, in
their own spiritual world connected by a spiritual cord.
I
remember that travel teachers were coming from outside Belize, such as Ted Glabush
and Doug Gray from Canada, and they would bring youth to the firesides,
too.
This added new
energy to our efforts, reinvigorating both us as team members and quickening
the work itself.
In
James’s case, he felt moved to arrange his affairs so he could be a full time
team member for the coming months. What
a joy to be serving with him. No sooner than we would set out to teach then we
would meet someone James already knew.
James with expression of delight would introduce the person to us with
“This is my good friend, ____!” or “This is my cousin, _____!” There were days
when we never reached the neighborhood we had planned to visit, because of all
the teaching opportunities along the way.
Teaching in
Trench Town
One of
our primary target neighborhoods at the time was a large area known as “Trench
Town,” which was considered a “rough” zone with tough youth and infected with serious
problems 0f crime and drugs. Our
experience as a team discerned that though there were rough elements among the
residents there, the receptivity to the Faith was one of openness. I, for one, never felt any fear about being
in Trench Town, even going alone at times to follow up on a new family or
individual. Ted and Doug dedicated most
of their energy to connecting with young people in the neighborhood. While they were in Belize they had success in
teaching and nurturing a number of youth.
However, we didn’t have an Institute Process in those days and we all
had to rely on our individual consolidation efforts, which often became
piecemeal and not very systematic.
We found it difficult to give enough individual time to
nurture those new to the Faith in a way they could stand more independently in
the Faith.
Ted and Doug stayed for a while to
support our teaching work and then were asked to go to Guyana, where another
intensive teaching campaign was in process.
On their heels, almost as their replacements, came Ted’s son, Sky, and a
new believer, also from Canada, name JB Eckl.
We all sensed that we needed
something to strengthen the new believers, but we didn’t have something readily
available to use. Dr. Ahmadiyeh realized
the need with the growing number of new believers and began developing what he
hoped could be a “home-based deepening program” that could help with the
consolidation. Other parts of the world
were also seeing the need to systematize consolidation and working on
materials. The Ruhi Institute in Colombia had been concentrating for many years
on a way to have “expansion and consolidation” go together “hand-in-hand” and,
eventually, around the year 2000, Ruhi became the standard institute model
adopted world-wide.
Toward the end of his life, Dr.
Ahmadiyeh was working on two writing projects: The first one, he told us, was a
compilation of Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings on His own sufferings and that in a short
time he had already compiled over forty pages; and the second was creating the
“home based” study program for systematic consolidation of new believers.
Suffering
for the Faith (sort of)
The Ahmadiyeh home was a pier
and post style home with a long staircase leading up to the entrance. Under the house was a parking space for the
family car. I remember coming back very
tired one day with James on a particularly hot and humid afternoon. Seeing Dr. Ahmadiyeh’s car, we knew he was
home. As I looked up the stairs,
probably with a drained expression on my face, Dr. Ahmadiyeh was standing at
the landing looking down the steps at us. As I pushed myself up each stair
slowly using my crutches, I could hear Dr. Ahmadiyeh remarking aloud in words
such as these, “Look at them! How they willingly suffer for Bahá’u’lláh, giving
their all for His Faith! Look at his
arms!“ He was pointing down at us and
must have been calling to Rezvan in the house.
At that point I don’t remember thinking of myself as suffering for the
Faith. I was just exhausted from the long walk back to the house from Trench
Town.
Always Going
Forward
One
amazing observation I had of being around our Counsellor was his conviction
that the Faith always moves forward, never in retreat. The history of the Faith has proven this
since the Heroic Age of the Cause in the times of The Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. No
matter how fierce the opposition or calamitous crises facing the Divine Souls
who manifested it and the thousands of heroes who followed Them, the Faith has
been assured of victories and forward movement.
Dr.
Ahmadiyeh certainly exemplified this realization, that going forward we
must. To think of backing up did not
seem to be a part of his thinking, maybe even physically.
For example, one day the Counsellor said he wanted to go
out with me on his lunch break to visit one of the families in Belize City we
were teaching the Faith to. I may have
been the only one free that day, as I don’t remember any other team member
being with us. I navigated us to the
neighborhood where a family lived who had expressed interest in joining the
Faith. They lived on the corner of a dead end street. We parked on that street and had what I
remember to be a very uplifting visit with the family. After our farewells, Dr. Ahmadiyeh and I got
back into his car, and he suddenly realized that he would need to back up in
order to get out of the dead end street.
This was a struggle as there was not enough room on the street to simply
turn around. He tried that and then put the car into reverse and ended up in
the very place we had parked. It took a
while, but eventually, after several failed attempts of turning around, I was
able to encourage him to pull into a driveway and back out into the street
facing the other way. Any type of going
backwards, even on a dead end street, was a frustration.
On the
way back to his home he candidly shared that it was not easy, even for a
pediatrician, to make a livable income in Belize. He could have set up his practice somewhere
else where his family could have lived with greater comfort and means, but he
preferred putting service to the Faith first.
Maxims from
the Counsellor
The
permanent teaching team consulted regularly with Counsellor Ahmadiyeh and
learned from the wisdom he freely shared.
Here are a few “maxims” from his wealth of wisdom that I remember (some of it phrased in my own words):
1)
Intensity.
Success in teaching requires intensity.
If you are trying to read a book under low light, it becomes tiresome to
read, but under a bright lamp reading is easier on the eyes. It is also that way with teaching; if one
teaches with little enthusiasm or without deep devotion to Bahá’u’lláh, the
result will be meager. The hearer’s heart will not feel the power that the
Words are meant to convey.
2)
A soul is a stranger in this world until it
finds Bahá’u’lláh. When the soul accepts
the Manifestation of God, the soul comes home. A prayer from Bahá’u’lláh
expresses the idea of the stranger seeking to attain his Home: “Behold Thou this stranger, O my Lord, who
hath hastened to attain his most exalted Home in the shelter of Thy shadowing
mercy, and this ailing soul who hath set his face towards the ocean of Thy
healing.” - Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, p. 269
3)
If a plan is not working, it’s usually due to
one of two reasons: either we lack intensity and perseverance in carrying out
the plan, or we need to modify the plan to some degree.
4)
When we convey the Message to souls, we want to
connect heart to heart using the senses of both eyes and of ears to ascertain
their receptivity to the Message. When
using the teaching book, we engage them in a heart to heart conversation, and we
also want to draw their attention to a photo or words in the book in a natural
way. We can also use the nature around
us to help them grasp an idea… We say ‘we are the leaves of one tree’, and
point to the tree by their house, or we are ‘the flowers of one garden’, using
the flowers by their home to teach them the concept of unity in diversity. The photos of diverse groups of Bahá’ís shown
in the teaching book confirm this unity in diversity.
Respecting
the Cultural Mores
A lesson
travel teachers to Belize needed to be aware of was that although we recognize
the oneness of humankind, we also needed to appreciate differences. Orientation for teachers, especially those
coming from North America, when they first arrived became an essential part of
incorporating teachers onto teams. What
might be considered acceptable in one part of the world can be viewed as
inappropriate in another place. A couple
stories from teaching in Trench Town illustrate the value of orientation:
A visiting teacher and I were in Trench Town
sharing the Faith with a man in his front yard, when another travel teacher,
newly arrived from North America, came by looking for us. The two Bahá’ís, both men, were best friends
and upon seeing one another ran together and embraced in a welcoming hug. This display of affection in public didn’t
sit well with the man we were trying to teach as he looked on in disgust and
then, turning to me, exclaimed in shock, “What are they doing? A man should not be hugging a man like
that. That is not what we do here!” I tried to explain that they were best
friends in their country and very happy to see one another again. The explanation didn’t placate the man and
our teaching encounter abruptly came to an end.
Of course, when we debriefed later in the day, we reviewed what had
happened and agreed that public displays of affection between team members, men
or women, could easily be misunderstood in Belize and we should avoid
them.
In another case, a newly arrived
teacher from North America was assigned to be my team partner. He was eager to try “street teaching.” He had long, blondish hair halfway down his
back, and his light skin and features made him look younger than he was. He told me that Rezvan had advised him to cut
his hair before going out, but he wasn’t ready to part with something he felt
was very important to his image as a musician.
Apprehensively, we went together to Trench Town and soon were invited to
share the Faith in the home of a humble, Creole family. His light features and long hair drew all the
attention as the family in the home looked puzzled. The father asked me if my friend was a girl,
and I tried to explain that in my friend’s country, long hair on men was
acceptable. In conservative Belize long
hair on men was often associated with drug use and immoral behavior. As we left the home, my team partner looked
downtrodden, and was whispering under his breath, “They thought I was a girl.” We soon had another opportunity to share the
Faith and the same reaction to his long hair occurred. It was decision time for the travel
teacher—cut his hair or consider returning home. We walked along and he suddenly said, “I need
to have Rezvan cut my hair!” He had
decided to stay and conform to the local attitude, whether it was right or
wrong. The wisdom of the seventh
Glad-Tidings from the Tablet called Bisharat (Glad-Tidings)
Became clear to us:
“The choice of clothing and the
cut of the beard and its dressing are left to the discretion of men. But
beware, O people, lest ye make yourselves the playthings of the ignorant.’ (Tablets
of Bahá’u’lláh)
We
returned to the Ahmadiyeh home and Rezvan soon was cutting his hair to neck
length. He turned out to be a very
effective teacher, readily accepted by the local people all over Belize.
Respite from
Team Stress
After many weeks, the core
members of the permanent teaching team—Jean, James, Betty (Prior) and I—decided
we badly needed a rest from the day-to-day team work. Our stress levels were
mounting up and our zeal to continue at such an intense pace waned. We made
arrangements to take a weekend excursion to Caye Caulker. When Dr. Ahmadiyeh found out about our plan,
he did not seem pleased, but he didn’t try to stop us. We did have a name or two of Bahá’ís on the
Caye Caulker membership list, and, of course, we would try to visit them while
there.
As it turned out, none of us
could resist not sharing the Message with people we met there. We got some rest and also the declaration
cards of four new believers (I seem to recall it was four). When we returned to Belize City and back to
the Ahmadiyeh home, the Counsellor greeted us (somewhat reluctantly as I
recall). We told him how great the time
had been on Caye Caulker, the fresh air, the water and food, and how much the
rest meant to us. He seemed okay with us,
but he definitely didn’t look overexcited to hear of about “vacation”. Then we showed him the membership enrolment
cards we brought back and an expression of almost outright glee burst from his
face.
Turning to
Guidance
Counsellor
Dr. Ahmadiyeh always carried the latest Message from the Universal of Justice
with him ready to share it with the team members and all the friends. Whether the Message related to the progress
of the teaching work around the world, or related to the Fund, or reported a
recent development of the properties at the World Centre, whatever, we would
receive the most current letter and often reflect on it together. In this way we realized that every Message
from the Universal House of Justice was important and an essential part of the
growth of the Faith. It was a special
treat when Dr. Ahmadiyeh shared something from the International Teaching
Centre, or from the Counsellors in our region or elsewhere, describing teaching
victories or the success of a special project to reach a certain receptive
population.
Teaching
Trip to Cristo Rey Village, Corozal District
The Bahá’ís
for Cristo Rey Village in Corozal District were delighted to receive a visit
from Counsellor Ahmadiyeh one day. The
Counsellor wished to make home visits to as many of the Bahá’í families’ homes
as possible. The families visited
included the Bencomos, Veras, Uhs, and Anita Che. In each home after asking about the family
members and sharing love from the Counsellors, Dr. Ahmadiyeh shared a verse
taken from the Qur’an (of all places) that basically said: “God is content with
those who are content with God.” He
would then relate it to the love in a family, and how, when a child shows love
to his or her parents, the parents’ love flows to the children. The parents always love the child, but if the
child doesn’t show love to them, then the child may not feel the love coming
from the parents. So it is, he would
explain, with our love to God. When we
show our love for God, we can feel His love coming for us. His love is always with us, but how can we
know it and feel it, if we do not show our love for Him? This simple illustration prompted many loving
thoughts from the families we visited that day.
(After the passing of Dr. Ahmadiyeh, the Cristo Rey Bahá’ís finished
building their local center. They wished to name it in his honor, but guidance
from the Universal House of Justice through the National Spiritual Assembly of
Belize indicated that a local Haziratu'l-Quds [or Hazira] should not be named
after individuals. However, a Bahá’í
Teaching Institute could carry the name of a revered one. )
Dedication to
the Martyrs and Their Families
I believe it was Counsellor
Ahmadiyeh who suggested we dedicate our teaching to the martyrs in Iran. We felt it would be spiritually meaningful to
do that and we chose to devote each month to one of the members of the two
National Spiritual Assemblies of Iran who had disappeared and been killed under
the oppressive regime of Iran in the 1980’s.
Dr. Ahmadiyeh knew some of them personally and had their names, plus was
able to let their families know of our intentions. Amazingly, members of the martyrs’ families
wished to support our efforts and soon were contributing funds to the
effort. Their deputization help allowed
us to enlarge our efforts and be able to encourage travel teachers and local
believers to participate for weeks or months at a time. We soon had more than one team sent for
periods of time to other districts of Belize.
Teachers included, Ted Glabush and Doug Gray from Canada; Soo-Jin Yoon
(USA); Veronica Calderon (Mexico); JB Eck and Sky Glabush (son of Ted from Canada)
Raymond Waight (Cayo); Bettina Grassmann (Canada); Rainee Paull (Canada); Martin
Lorenzo (Dangriga); Muhajir (USA) and numerous youth from local and pioneer families
around Belize . Later, others came and
went to the team, including Aaron Emmel, Miriam Codd and Athena Cholas.
Spoon
Feeding the Friends
What pleased Dr. Ahmadiyeh the
most, I think, was to see the friends engaged in study of the Faith on their
own and in groups, and to have an eagerness to share the Faith with others. Several times he shared with me that too many
of the friends expect to be “spoon fed” with the Teachings, even those who had
been in the Faith for many years. “Some
of the friends want to be spoon-fed,” he told me, “and then they even want someone else to chew
it for them first.” If the friends
(generally speaking) showed little desire to study the Writings or lacked
eagerness in supporting the teaching work, Dr. Ahmadiyeh would look a bit
drained. But when there was enthusiasm
among the friends, whether in discussing the Faith or in reporting the teaching
experiences of the day, his face brightened and his whole being became
energized. That spiritual energy was contagious.
Still, he was extremely patient
with everyone, never assuming to be better, or more intelligent. He was as Bahá’u’lláh told us to be, “a shining light in the firmament of thy
generation,” and “a fruit upon the tree
of humility.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh) In this “humble posture of learning” that he
modeled to us, we were more likely to grow independently stronger in our
faith.
Experiences
from Abroad
Counsellor Dr. Ahmadiyeh’s
responsibilities to the Continental Board of Counsellors (which comprised all
of the Americas at the time) included extensive travelling for the Board. He would bring back stories from what was
happening in other places, especially in Central America and North American,
including Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, the USA and Canada. The response to direct teaching was
different, place to place. Some places used
a more intellectual approach, others places relied more on the simple message
of love to the heart. He observed after
a trip to North America that there were wonderful believers with PhD’s, but
sometimes their knowledge of things outside of their sphere of expertise was
limited. And sometimes, in places where
people had less academic education their understanding of spiritual truths was
deeper than that of the highly educated believers. He was
most impressed when academic and spiritual knowledge were combined, such as a
medical doctor he met in North America, who had the short healing prayer
printed on the backside of his business card, and who, in this way, had many
opportunities to share the Faith with many colleagues very naturally that
physical and spiritual healing go together harmoniously.
Last
Thoughts
This is
but a brief recollection of my memories of Dr. Ahmadiyeh and his love for
teaching. I tried to include those
memories that have stayed the clearest in my mind. Hopefully, they reflect an accurate reporting
of the spirit of teaching in Belize from 1988 to 1990. For those of us serving on the teaching teams
in those times, our lives were changed forever. With the Institute process now in place
world-wide, the learning about teaching and community building is moving
populations to a higher realization of their true purpose in the transformation
of souls and the unfoldment of a world civilization. However, I believe that the spiritual fire
those years of vigorous and prayerful teaching throughout the world enkindled
and quickened the process entry by troops.
