On Mary Ellen Signed Her Card: Be sure to tell Counselor Murphy

This is a 9-month-old post from Baha’i Views…

Friday, August 24, 2007, The Counselor, Board Member, and Local Assembly Member Do a Home Visit to Mary Ellen’s: She is talking like a Baha’i

We Baha’is today should ask ourselves, do we want the Baha’i Faith to be just a select club or a spiritual community of the masses? This line of questioning has been posed to us in recent years by the Continental Counselors.

I had sent another email to Mary Ellen to invite her to our devotional meeting yesterday, but she didn’t make it. As I learned this evening, Mary Ellen received instead a home visit from Counselor Murphy, our Auxiliary Board member Shawn, and our Assembly member Deb.

Our counselors, auxiliary board members, and local spiritual assembly members all make home visits, setting an example for us all. That’s how important is teaching the Cause, given the urgency of the hour. Because Baha’u'llah did not intend for the Faith to be just a club.

Deb said, “It was a pretty amazing visit. Mary Ellen is reading the Gleanings that Shawn gave her at Chris and Shadi’s, and she is talking like a Baha’i.” -gw

Mary Ellen has an extensive collection of African-American dolls on display in the home she has lived in for more than 50 years, although perhaps not the doll pictured below. Photo uploaded on October 6, 2006 by Sagespot on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

Yesterday Mary Ellen declared, after months of regular participation in a study circle in our home. At the last circle on Wednesday we had a wonderful discussion of the signficance of belief in Baha’u'llah, as stimulated by questions in the Ruhi Book 4 we are studying. Candy wasn’t sure where Mary Ellen stood on the matter, and boldly asked. I think that did it. I could see it on Mary Ellen’s face. It was time to go over Anna’s Presentation with her, so we set up a home visit with her for yesterday. Two hours later she had signed her card. Bonita and I were thrilled.

Afterwards, I called to leave a message for Deb with the good news, as she has been so instrumental in sharing the Message with Mary Ellen. I also called our Auxiliary Board member and asked that he pass word on to Becky, our Continental Counselor, that her efforts and the efforts of all of the friends who have been involved has come to fruition.

What a day!! Our Reflection Meeting in the morning, the home visit at Mary Ellen’s in the afternoon, and in the evening we took Liam and Cornelia to Chris and Shadi’s fireside. There were more people there than I have seen ever, and many of them were attending their first Baha’i meeting ever. And wouldn’t you know it, Saturday had seen a second declaration, a woman who had also been attending study classes for some time, present at the fireside along with her mother, also a new Baha’i.  

Sara and Greg were the presenters, who also did their fireside at our home on Thursday. They talked about their experience living in Indonesia, integrating a neat introduction to the Baha’i core activities as the did so. Whether Indonesia, or Denver where Sara and Greg are living now, or Cluster 19 WA/Pierce County, the core activites and the focus on expansion are same. -gw