Some observations: -since the 'faith of no man is conditioned by another', evidently one's conversion is his/her own responsibility; therefore, the responsibility of the Baha'i is to teach, not to "convert," although of course we hope for our words/actions to assist the conversion of others
-the methods of teaching will hopefully include the concept of 'each one teach one' but there are many, many stories of places where the first declarant has taken many years; I am reminded of St. Pierre et Miquelon, which was opened to the Faith over a half century ago, and has had a stream of devoted pioneers (including an idealistic 17-year-old, me, in 1974), and which, to date, has had two native declarants, the first in 1981 or 1982, some 30 years after the first pioneer, who is a Knight of Baha'u'llah----some places are tough nuts to crack and I think it's unlikely those stalwart servants were doing something wrong; the first declarant in St. P & M. had known 4 devoted and lovely Baha'is who taught her before she was ready herself -the teaching process is as individual as the teachers and the methods--my father has been doing partnership door-to-door teaching in Belize for years and they have had many declarants but very, very few of these declarants stay the course in terms of deepening, so a lot of what Dad, and other teachers, end up doing, is helping the deepening process; the Ruhi method is quite nascent in some of these countries, as yet, but will no doubt have some effect -even those who are the most 'deepened' are never sure of their own ability to be constant; firmness in the Covenant does not seem to be based on deepening; there is some metaphysical grace of God which seems to be part of the equation, which precedent would indicate -the 'fireside' method is being somewhat ignored in the recent emphasis on Ruhi, IMO. It is still a valid way of teaching (how can something recommended so highly by the Guardian become invalid?) and I suspect if we had all opened our homes as regularly as was suggested (each 19 days) then that obedience alone would have seen differences in the numbers -if we are ourselves fulfilling our own responsibilities re teaching, through whatever method, I am still confident that God will take care of the numbers, and the calibre of those numbers; however, the part about fulfilling our own responsibilities seems to be the most challenging component; although I am not yet involved much in the Ruhi process, my hat is off to those who are using it effectively since it seems to be causing a resurgence of interest, although I am not sure if that's due to Ruhi or simply due to the time in which we live being part of the documented "up" cycle of activity and desire ...and on a completely different note, okay, Jim, I'll bite, what's "Tetris transformation?" Greetings from Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Heather ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
