On Community Building Through Home Visiting: Doing the Ruhi book 1 practice

I love the Institute process! Today we had a Ruhi tutor training that is in keeping with the focused spirit of the Baha’i Faith today.

It was scheduled from 10 to 2. It was BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunch). Why in the middle of the day? I wondered. Why smack dab in the middle of a good Saturday? It was for practice.

We gathered and had a round of prayers. After a relatively brief discussion, we were ready for the task at hand: practice the practice of Book 1 by actually going out to do a home visit to study a prayer with another Baha’i.

In short order we had formed teams and identified believers in the community to go visit. And no one was reaching for their cell phones to call ahead. Better to just go without calling; the visit is more likely to happen that way.

Each team had three possibilities in mind as they headed out. Surely one would be home and available. And for each team, one was.

Bonita and Dawn was went to visit Barry. He was up to his neck in work with a deadline of Monday. Nevertheless, he was glad to see the friends. After chatting, the three began to study a prayer together. About 30 to 45 minutes later, Bonita and Dawn left, and Barrry got back to work.

Chris and Rick went to see April, a new Baha’i from our last teaching cycle who attended her first Ruhi study circle just yesterday. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. April “needed a hug.” Together they went to visit her mother who is in a nursing home nearby. How is that for service in action?

Sandy and I went to see Jonathon. We dialed the number to his apartment at the gate, once, twice, no answer. Just then another tenant ws coming in, so we came in behind him and went directly to Jonathon’s apartment door. Hearing our knocking, he opened the door and welcomed us in. The entrance intercom doesn’t ring to his apartment; it’s been broken for months, we learned.

What a great visit we had! What a thorough study of the “Intone, O my servants…” prayer we conducted. His articulate contributions to the discussion were very moving to hear. Sandy’s saying of the prayer from heart having learned it as a child was lovely. I committed to visit Jonathon, who doesn’t get out much, on a regular basis.

Deb and BJ went to see Mary Ellen. Their visit was the longest, so long they were the last to return for our debriefing. They were all smiles. “You know Mary Ellen!” Deb answered, when I asked how it went. Yes, I do. She’s a crackerjack!

All these home-visits happened without any calls in advance. This was a no-muss no-fuss training, of doing and not just talking. By 2:30 Bonita and I were on our way home to change into our running gear for the next activity of our Saturday, both feeling thrilled with what had just transpired and satisfied with our service, for now.

My plan is to take our weekly Thursday devotions “on the road.” Instead of expecting folks to come to join Walter, Bonita and I for prayers in our home every week, we’ll do our devotions as part of a home-visit to someone else’s living room, maybe three weeks out of four.

And, of course, the next time I tutor Ruhi 1, you can be sure my practice will have us actually out doing home-visits.

Home-visits are part and parcel of community building. Going to the mountain, instead of expecting the mountain to come to us. It is what Baha’is are up to these days as we systematically move toward sustained “entry by troops.” The Baha’i Faith never was intended to be an esoteric “alternative” faith; it was, and is, a Faith for the masses, the vehicle for the unification of all the peoples of the earth. -gw

Top photo: Uploaded on August 10, 2008 by walker cleavelands on flickr,l icensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic