On the Hour Is at Hand for Baha'is in Oregon, Texas, and Missouri: Dramatic expansion, vigorous consolidation

TEACHING.BAHAI.US continues to be must-reading for any Baha'i. The hour of dramatic expansion and just as vigorous consolidation, is at hand. Here are snippets from recent postings. Click over and get the complete scoop.-gw

Experiencing the Receptivity in Portland
Breaking news—Portland, OR (A) is on fire! On fire with teaching, that is. This cluster just recently launched its first Intensive Program of Growth, and the inspiring stories of the direct teaching efforts of the friends during their first expansion phase are flowing in. ... And like numerous clusters around the country, they are keeping a wise balance between expansion and consolidation activities.

Campus Course Bridge to Teaching
...they approached the Comparative History of Ideas Department (CHID) about offering a Spiritual Empowerment course on campus, which would include Ruhi Book 1. Today was the second day of the course. During the first class we did introductions and a brief power point presentation to the Faith (a multimedia Anna's Presentation, if you will). The course has 15 participants - 8 Baha'is and 7 non-Baha'is. None of the non-Baha'is are personal contacts! For today we assigned One Common Faith and the 2002 Letter from the Universal House of Justice to the world's religious leaders.

Overcoming Fears, Finding Joy
Over and over, we are receiving accounts from the friends whose initial anxiety about door-to-door teaching was replaced by enthusiasm after they participated on a teaching team.

Unity of Spirit in Jackson County
We are now at three new Baha'is! There are 19 different seekers that have attended firesides to date during this effort. 6 more have attended devotionals. All have been through personal contact.

Breakthrough in St. Louis and Kansas City
St. Louis had 29 new believers during its just-concluded expansion phase. Kansas City saw 9 in the first two days of its newly-launched expansion phase.

Breakthrough in Tarrant County: 39 Declarations
Our cluster was blessed to have been selected along with two other clusters from the Dallas area by members of the Continental Board of Counsellors for a training field for Auxiliary Board members and resource people from all over the Country. They participated two full days in a Seminar followed by two days of teaching in each of the three clusters along with a few local members from each cluster. The result was astounding as there was a total of 59 individuals in three clusters who accepted the message of Bahá’u’lláh after receiving Anna’s Presentation. 39 of these souls live in our cluster.

Opening the doors to a declaration
Here is a truly moving account of a declaration during the first expansion phase of the Intensive Program of Growth in St. Louis, MO (A).

http://teaching.bahai.us/

{Photo: Uploaded on May 21, 2007 by dklimke on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic}