On Intensive Programmes of Growth: Raising Up Baby Baha'is in Kinshasa and at Home

The first picture is of the Area Teaching Committee of the Salman cluster in Kinshasa, a cluster which will launch an intensive programme of growth on the 19th of March.

The second picture was taken at the statistics training in the National Office in Kinshasa. With so many laptops around, this office had never looked more high-tech.

These pictures and taglines are included in a post by Maarten, one of the many Baha'is who work at the Baha'i World Center and who keep a blog as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends. For non-family blog-explorers, reading these blogs are a delightful way to gain a sense of what a special experience it is for Baha'is to be able to provide such service. Maarten writes in "Another Trip to Africa":

At the end of February, I went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to facilitate a training for a number of Central African countries on a software program developed by the Department of Statistics at the World Centre. After the training I had the privilege of attending an institutional meeting in Kinshasa where friends from all over the Congo gathered to consult on the new Five Year Plan.

When I saw Maarten's photo of the Area Teaching Committee for Kinshasa cluster in the Congo, I thought of the dear souls serving on the ATC in my own cluster here on the other side of the world, where we are beginning our fourth Intensive Program of Growth. We had our Cluster Reflection Meeting today for its launch. What a privilege it is to be alive in this day and have the bounty of attempting to contribute to the growth of the Faith!

I am aware that the blogging experience can never replace the face-to-face teaching experience that confirms souls and builds community, and so I will gladly put aside my blogging at such times. Pray for our cluster as we strive to raise up baby Baha'is.

Speaking of baby Baha'is--the other kind of baby Baha'is--there is another picture on Maarten's blog that is just too cute for words. That's Maarten and daughter on the left.