beholdacandle

 Today I fed the chickens, watered the plants in the greenhouse and the newly planted ones in the garden.  It takes a lot of time to water everything because of this heat wave we're having.  I planted five more hills of summer squash.  Four trees had fallen across the pathway around the forest, so I cut them up with a chain saw and hauled them back to the woodshed.  Then I cut about an acre of grass.  That's all the time I had because I had to get ready for a meeting with Friends of the Library.  We talked about changes that are happening in the library system in the county due to budget cuts.  The economic downturn means that the library will close on Mondays from now on.  They will begin fining people for returning books and other media late.  There are also some changes in staffing.  We talked some about coming up with a logo for our library after looking at a sample one of the friends made.  We are thinking more about how to communicate with people better on the internet.  It's a bit of a challenge since most of us are senior citizens and the others aren't so much part of the texting and twitter generation.

My big concern is still how to reach people who would want to attend classes at Brighton Creek Conference Center.  There's a conference soon about how people can share their Faith with others in a changing cultural environment.  There is a book that goes with the classes.

There are upcoming classes for youth and children as well.  I understand the famous writer of songs for children, Red Grammer, will be attending summer school there.  That will be something very special!  I'm hoping my grandchildren will get to be part of that.  I understand his son Andy Grammer will be with him though that may only be when they sing at the Baha'i Center in Bellevue.

Our cluster is having an intensive program of growth this weekend.  Baha'is will practice what to say to people who want to hear about the Baha'i Faith.  Then they will see if they can find a receptive population.  They will know not to continue a conversation about the Baha'i Faith to anyone who doesn't want to hear it.  We would like to find more people who want to work with us to help save the world from problems which are essentially spiritual in nature.  Such joy I see in those who are participating!  Once again there is a spiritual revolution happening.

 POW! (People for One World)  is a conference that's in the planning stages to be at Brighton Creek in August.  This year is the 40th anniversary of the 1969 YOW!  (Youth for One World) conference in Wilmette that was one of the immediate precursors for the huge numbers of enrollments led by teams of youth doing direct teaching in the '70's.  I thought it would be great for some of the people who were involved with the YOW! conference to get together one more time at Brighton Creek.  We could have a hootenanny on the lawn and sing lots of folk songs, get reacquainted with each other and the development of our Baha'i lives over the years, we could have inspiring talks by people who are still probably some of the most dynamic Baha'is around.  Unfortunately, people like Dan Jordan and Magdalene Carney, and Phil Lucas have passed away, while others like Glenford Mitchell are quite aged.  Still, I would love to hear Sandy English or Chris Ruhe lead us in some folk songs.

 

It seems to me that we are entering a similar stage in our growth of the Faith.  I think I need to find enough people who are interested in this conference to make it worth while, so I need to publicize it and find ways to make it worth while.

 

I understand that there will be a national youth conference in Washington DC this fall.  Why not let us older folks get with this renewal of spirit as well?