On Witnesses, the Thief, Cancer, Clients, and the Concourse: More Tacoma Teaching Stories

More Tacoma teaching stories from the 9-day expansion phase of our 12th Intensive Program of Growth. -gw

A Baha’i has a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness, and they have had some prior conversations about belief and faith. The friend came to visit and was bursting with questions about the Baha’i Faith. He was very eager to engage in deep conversations on spiritual topics. As the Baha’i was listening to him sharing his beliefs, she started having a conversation with herself in her head: “Maybe he would be interested in hearing a presentation on the Faith.” ” No, he’s totally into being a Jehovah’s Witness.” “Yes, but he’s interested in the Faith, so he might want to hear a coherent introduction that takes him through the basics.”

“No I couldn’t ask him that.” “If you don’t ask him you’ll never know if he wants to hear it or not. Just ask and let him decide.” All that internal dialog took just a few seconds. When asked if he would be interested in hearing a presentation on the Baha’i Faith, he said he would. He even shared that he’s been defending the Baha’is to other people, telling them what good people Baha’is are.

One Baha’i recently gave the teaching presentation to two friends, both of whom are her clients. The Baha’i scheduled the presentation for Monday afternoon and then with every other client all day she said “I have such a busy day today! I’m going to give a presentation on the Baha’i Faith this afternoon.” Then she would see if anyone else was interested in hearing the presentation. One client asked “So what do the Baha’is believe about contraception?” Not your typical conversation starter, but it provided an opening for a deep discussion of science and religion. Apparently this interest had been stimulated by a recent sermon on the evils of contraception at a local Catholic church. Another client brought up her belief that the church just wants power. The Baha’i responded by suggesting that she might want to read about a man whose spiritual journey led him to investigate the proofs in the Bible, and the client left with a copy of “Thief in the Night.”

Another client who is also a friend of another Baha’i family said “Well, I am a seeker and I would be interested in hearing the presentation.” Both listened attentively throughout the presentation and at the end one of them said “When I read the Baha’i writings I find them so much easier to understand than the Bible.”

One lady had a friend who just passed away from cancer, so a Baha’i told her she should come that very night to devotions and then a study group about life after death. At the Ruhi Book 1 study circle she asked “So who is this Baha’u'llah we keep reading about?” Of course she was given a brief description of Baha’u'llah and then told that she could hear a presentation at another time that distills the basics about the Baha’i Faith. She scheduled a time right then to hear the presentation and she said she would love to come back again to the study circle.

An adult man and a sixth-grade boy went to a home that had been visited twice before, during previous intensive phases. On those occasions, the Baha’is had been very impressed with the children they met, but had not yet talked to a parent. This time the teachers met the mother, a woman of African descent who has raised nine children of her own, runs a day-care for 18 children next door to her home, and plans to open another across the street. For many years she was deeply involved in a church, but has become disillusioned with it. She listened to the entire teaching presentation, and invited our teachers to return soon for another visit. An interesting sidelight to this story is that this home faces on the park where we had planned to hold our children’s classes, although that plan had changed. Coincidence, or nudging of the Divine Concourse?

Photos on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons:  Top uploaded on October 20, 2005 by spike55151; Bottom uploaded on February 5, 2008 by jana christy