11 June 1995: Visit with Counsellor Artemus Lamb during the
International Youth Conference for Central America held at Lago de Coatepeque,
El Salvador.
Bienshirni and I traveled to the conference by bus from
Texas with stops to visit Baha’is in Veracruz and in Guatemala.
Last night we visited with Artemus Lamb, now ninety years
old and almost deaf. He said that when
he looked back on his life as a Bahá’i he could see how the Guardian was
guiding him through letters and telegrams.
At the time, he said, he did not realize it, but looking back he could
see that as long as he followed whatever the Guardian suggested he do,
everything worked out.
The Guardian told Artemus that his services in Latin America
were more valuable than anywhere else in the world. Artemus said that before he became a Bahá’i
in 1939 at the age of thirty-four he was an atheist. Thinking that having science, he did not need
God. His sister (Valerie Nichols) and mother became Baha’is and as he faced
more and more difficulties in his life, he began to look into the Faith.
In 1944 he went to Chile to the southernmost point in the
Americas in response to Shoghi Effendi. Another Bahá’i had gone to the
northernmost point in Alaska, who Artemus had never met. When they met at the first World Congress in
London for the first time, they were asked to shake hands as a symbolic gesture
of the north and south points meeting.
Artemus said that an electric current ran through their hands. Artemus told me his strange journey to Punta
Arenas in response to the Guardian’s call for a pioneer to go there. In route the ship had a port call in Acapulco. He went a shore only to witness his ship
burning out in the bay taking all of his possessions and money with it. He only had a few traveler’s cheques
left. Being at all man, when he went
into a local shop to buy another set of clothes, he could only find pants that
came up to his knees like knickerbockers. See more in the account below.
Artemus met the Guardian in Haifa in 1953. He witnessed how
the immense workload of Shoghi Effendi was “wearing him out.” “He was worn out.”
12 June 1995: Lago de Coatepeque, El Salvador
Visiting with Artemus Lamb—When I was a Counsellor, I used
to advise pioneers to buy property and a house where they settled. Then, even if they had to leave, they have an
investment. But I never followed my own
advice and since Doña Dee’s death (Artemus’s wife) I
have moved from place to place. I had no
money. Someone told me to apply for
Social Security for Doña Dee after she died, because she qualified for it. I filled out all the papers and sent them in,
but they turned me down and gave no reason.
I accepted the decision figuring it wasn’t meant to be. Then, months later I received a letter from
Social Security telling me that they had changed their decision and had
approved my application. They gave me a
check for $8,000! Suddenly I had eight thousand dollars, which had helped me a
lot. Bahá’u’lláh must have helped out!
A brief and amazing introduction
to his life by Quentin Farrand can be found at https://bahai-library.com/farrand_artemus_lamb
The brief bio shares the strange story of Artemus’s boat
journey to Punta Arenas, Chile: While
preparing to leave, another letter from the NSA explained that there were
urgent problems in Ecuador and they wished him to go there first, and then,
perhaps, to Punta Arenas. Artemus was overcome. He had promised to go to Punta
Arenas to fulfill a special request of the Guardian and felt that he was
destined to go there. For several days he prayed for guidance and finally
decided that for confirmation he should obey the National Assembly and leave
everything in the hands of God. The war was still on and air travel from the
U.S. was impossible. By chance (1) he saw in the Salt Lake City newspaper the
announcement of the last trip' of the Argentinian steamship "Mar de
Plata" up the Pacific coast, to Los Angeles and then back to Buenos Aires.
He rushed to Los Angeles, got passage and in a few weeks embarked - ostensibly
for Ecuador.
On the second or third day the boat stopped in Acapulco,
Mexico~ and all the passengers went ashore. Some time later walking back along
the beach toward the ship. he noticed that the shore was lined with people and
there was lots of smoke. He then saw the steamship was immersed in flames and
had to be towed out and sunk. Everything he had was on that boat: passport,
money, clothes, everything but what he had on and in his pocket.
He found himself in a strange land, with no possessions but
a few travelers cheques. His first reaction was that Bahá’u’lláh did not
consider him worthy of the mission and that he should return home. He then
realized that this was a test of his determination and that by whatever means
he should continue the journey. The steamship company finally got them to
Mexico City, returned the passage money and left them on their own. The U.S.
Embassy replaced his passport and offered him travel to any point in South
America. He cabled the Interamerican Committee in Wilmette recommending that he
take advantage of the offer and fly to Santiago. Chile. by-passing Ecuador.
They approved and air· flights lasting five days and four nights he arrived in
Santiago, and later went to Punta Arenas.
A wonderful highlight of
our time in Tela, Honduras was going to Turnabe to visit Armando Guzman and his
family. This family is very distinctive
and left a deep impact on us. They are in charge of the village phone office,
so have an easy means to stay in touch with everyone in the village. Armando told us that he felt having the phone
office in his home was a blessing from Bahá’u’lláh to help him teach the
Faith. During our short afternoon visit
with them we learned that the family had been Bahá’ís since the 1980’s. Armando knew Counsellor Dr. Ahmadiyyeh and
named many other early believers who worked in Central America. Armando has been active in recruiting
villagers to attend Ruhi institutes in the nearby Institute facility in El Peru. He has organized youth and junior youth
groups who meet regularly. Armando, his
mother, Norma, his sister, Anna are very proud of the CD that they have
produced along with other active Garifuna musicians of the Hidden Words
sung with Garifuna melody and translation.
He was kind to share a copy with us.
Armando also expressed much emotion about his experience visiting the
World Centre during the dedication of the terraces. We were impressed by their
dedication to the Faith and their single-minded focus on the elements of the
Five Year Plan. Theirs seems to be a
stronghold for the Faith in that area thanks to their efforts.
