On Sense of Community: There wasn't a day we didn't convene in one way or another

Becoming a Baha'i is ultimately between the believer and God, but faith does not grow very well in isolation. Communing with one's fellow-believers is a special bounty for the individual Baha'i that not everyone partakes of. Sooner or later there is that need to connect. That blogging provides connection but not like face-to-face contact, is a subject I have touched upon more than once on this blog. In the entry below Dawn Marie describes the steps she is taking to connect with her new local community after having experienced years of sustenance in her old one. -gw

I am going to a Baha'i function tomorrow...my first one since 1999. They call it a Teaching Dinner which will consist of a 20 minute discussion about the journey of the soul followed by food and socialization. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. From 1994-1999 I was a member of an extremely small Baha'i community in Council Bluffs, Iowa (I made the 9th person) and we were all a very tight family. There wasn't a day where we didn't convene in one way or another. When I moved to Florida, I distanced myself from the community because I was afraid. Afraid that the new Baha'is around me would be nothing like my Iowa friends. It has taken me this long to muster up the courage to meet other Baha'is.

A week and a half ago I was emotionally miserable and burdened with stresses of life and I suddenly realized that I didn't have that Baha'i light anymore. I felt dead inside and desperate to say prayers in a group with other Baha'is. I immediately wrote an email to one of the local members that I had a brief lunch with 2 years ago. I told her how desperate I was and that is when she told me about the Teaching Dinner. She also said that she, and perhaps some other members, would be happy to come over and say some prayers with me in the meantime.

Dawn Marie, "Baha'i," Random Expressions

Here's a photo of one of the last gatherings I attended in Iowa. This was at John and Priscilla's house before they went to China to teach. There are local, isolated and out of town Baha'is in this photo

{Re-posted with permission}