Harris Collective Teaching Project: Day 2

Over thirty friends participated in Day 2 of the collective teaching project at Annette Delaney's neighborhood on Saturday, December 16th. Counsellor Aghdasi, along with the assistance of a few participants from Saturday's teaching activities, provided the training for the teaching teams. Overall, 182 homes were knocked on, and about half were home (90 homes there was no reply). Out of the 92 homes that were home, 51 had a positive reply, and most of those need to be revisited. Teams returned back on both days to debrief and reflect on the day's teaching.

Harris Collective Teaching Project: Day 1

Fifty-two of the friends from Harris county, Fort Bend/Brazoria County and Galveston county and beyond gathered together at the home of Kathy Wilson and Salim Zafer on Saturday, December 15th for the collective teaching project as part of the intensive program of growth. Teaching teams visited with neighbors to create bonds of friendship and extend invitations to devotions and children's classes. The friends were trained by Counsellor Farzin Aghdasi in the morning and went teaching in the afternoon. Southern Regional Council members Lupita Ahangerzadeh and Carole Miller joined the teams both days.

Counsellor Aghdasi also spoke at the Houston Baha'i Center Saturday evening about teaching and the Five Year Plan.

Reflection Gathering!

The December 1st Harris Cluster Reflection Gathering was a great success! 66 friends attended as well as both Auxiliary Board member Tammy Goff and surprise guest Auxiliary Board member David Smith from San Antonio. Tammy informed the friends of a special visit by Counsellor Farzin Aghdasi on December 15-16^th for the collective teaching project of the Intensive Program of Growth. The Counsellor will also speak about teaching at the Houston Bahá’i center on December 15^th at 7:30pm.

Anna's Presentation training in October 07

A refresher training was held for all Ruhi Book 6 tutors. This training was facilitated by our ABM, Tammy Goff. The tutors work really hard to ensure a wonderful study circle and help all of us in our initial acts of service.

The tutors learned the importance of Anna's presentation and the sequence of ideas presented in helping seekers as they discover the new Faith of God for this age. As we learn how to use Anna's presentation so we'll our growth occur in the Harris cluster.

For more trainings on Anna's presentation, please contact your cluster institute coordinators.

A short story on teaching using Anna's presentation

Yesterday, our friends invited us (Sami, Collin, and myself) for dinner. We pray for these friends and are finding ways to teach them the Faith. They are currently hosting a devotional. The way the conversation started was their question about the birth of the Bab this coming Friday.

We tried part of Anna's presentation talking to our seekers very naturally about the Central Figures (Baha'u'llah, the Bab, Abdu'l-Baha), briefly on the Guardian, the Universal House of Justice as well as the NSA's and LSA's. Then there was some dialogue and questions. Some questions were about the electoral process and why there are no preachers. They also wanted to read more about the life of the Bab via a link online. It was a wonderful evening.

As most of you have mentioned, you have to know your seeker and where to start. Some seekers will be able to listen to all of Anna's presentation while others cannot. For example, our seekers need a little bit of information at a time and it needs to be very casual and informal. Hopefully, the devotionals will progress and our opportunities to teach them will increase. And a study circle can be formed.

In any event, Anna's presentation has given me more confidence and focus on teaching. It allows me to invite the friends into the Faith and bring them ever closer to the vast Revelation of Baha'u'llah.

The way it was done at their home was very natural and no booklet was needed as plenty of assistance from the Concourse on High descended. Obviously, quotes can be brought and read.

Just sharing! And hope to hear from all of you on your experiences so we can share with each other the learning taking place in the Harris cluster.

We had a declaration last night in Harris cluter! You are all wonderful!!!

Training of Children Classes on 8 September

A training was held for teacher's of children classes on September 15th. There are a number of neighboorhood children classes starting up in Harris Cluster.

Sharpening Skills of participants on Sat. 8 Sept

The Participants got together for a training on Ruhi Book 2 deepening themes to sharpen their skills on presenting the Eternal Covenant and the Life of Baha'u'llah. Cheryl Hanks and Collin Nasseri did a great job of serving as facilitators. For more trainings, contact your cluster institute coordinators.

Intensive Program of Growth cycle from 1 to 16 Sept.

Dear Friends,

The Harris Cluster is launching another Intensive Program of Growth cycle from 1 to 16 September. This two week period is to really intensify our activities. The goal of this intensive is to increase the number of community of interest by 50%. We currently have 84 friends, neighbors, co-workers, and families in the core activities! But for this month, we want to increase to 126 in total. That means we need all of your help in inviting 42 new seekers to the core activities such as a devotional, fireside, children class, or junior youth group.

How will you do this? Well, one must pray and search out souls who are receptive to the call.

Who will do this? All of us from children to adults!!!

Why? Because we have a treasure and we need to share it with the rest of harris cluster.

By the way, if you have a teaching team partner, it makes this process easy. So, we have 2 weeks to work really hard.

Please share with us your experiences and pictures so we can post it!!!

Devotional on Sunday, 26 August at 10:30 AM

A beautiful devotional and songs by Eric Dozier was held at the Houston Baha'i Center. Eric not only sang and gave us inspiration but shared how he became a Baha'i. There were lots of friends of the Faith and we all enjoyed a diversity of all sorts of backgrounds which Baha'u'llah says: "we are the flowers of one garden and the fruits of one tree." Well, let me tell you, it really was wonderful to witness as there were 175 to 200 people in attendance!

Here are a few songs that Eric Dozier sang with pictures of the crowd:

http://www.youtube.com/v/6HnxNExkDW4 Praises by Eric on Sunday

http://www.youtube.com/v/Vtp45BWRWvM This little light of mine by Eric

Devotionals are held every Sunday at the Houston Baha'i Center at 10:30 as well as there are neighborhood devotionals, children classes, middle school age group classes, and study circles.

Tutor Gathering on Saturday, 25 Aug

For those who missed it and yes a lot of you missed it, we had the good fortune of having the talented Eric Dosier who sang to all tutors as a reward for their hard word. It was sponsored by the OAT's Training Institute. There was a short powerpoint presentation giving a picture of what is taking place in our cluster (over 53% active tutors and a nice increase in study circles as well as participants!!!), Raymond spoke about the initiative taking place, and introduced Eric Dozier. We sang a lot!!!

Check it out by clicking on the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ozfw1CM4OqY Allah’u’Abha song by Eric Dozier

http://www.youtube.com/v/AE25CdEjuH4 Shine your light on me by Eric

http://www.youtube.com/v/hB0LHjmbe3s Praises by Eric

We look forward to seeing you all at the next tutor gathering! For any questions, please call Farida Johnson, Quddus Nasseri, and Samarih Monajjem.

Reflection Gathering on Friday, 24 Aug

We had a great Reflection Gathering where we planned our next intensive cycle for growth from 1 to 16 September. For those who missed it, here is an introduction to get the crowed pumped, the second is a skit, and third is a new believer speaking:


http://www.youtube.com/v/XYDp14yDeAQ Quddus, Nagin, Ehsan hyping up at RF

http://www.youtube.com/v/F1JzX1AvoEk skit at RF by Ehsan, Sherwin, and Nagin

http://www.youtube.com/v/kxW4Xd1EF4M Video of new believer

Enjoy!!!!

Ruhi Book 6 - Teaching the Cause!

This group is learning how to become effective teachers of the Cause by meeting each Wednesdays at 8 PM. It is a lot of fun to be with this group who enjoys gaining the insights, skills and abilities to teach as well as time for eating and socializing. The atmosphere is full of love and spirituality.

If you are interest in joining a Ruhi Book group, please call Farida Johnson, Quddus Nasseri, or Samarih Monajjem.

Video of Practices of Ruhi Book 2

This is the first run practice of two youth before going to the home visit:

http://www.youtube.com/v/vc7mgA7L-BA

http://www.youtube.com/v/ar-ck-1TXbU


Please send us your stories of home visits!

Home Visit Part II on Saturday, 28 August 2007

Report by Vafa Bayat:

We started the day with devotions at Collin Nasseri's home, and then jumped into an intensive deepening on two subjects—love/unity and the 19 Day Feast. As a group, we read through selected passages on each of them, making sure that we understood what all the words meant, and then we split up into groups to discuss them at greater length. I was paired with Raj, and we carefully went through them line by line, and he explained to me in his own words what each sentence was saying. We then returned to the bigger group, and each of the three youth present, Raj Parmer, Badi Misaqi, and Bobak Reihani took turns to present both of the topics, we listened, encouraged each other, and laughed. Then we all had a lovely lunch cooked by Samarih, and set off to visit Robert, a newly declared Baha'i. While there we also got to see Michelle and her daughter, Diamond. We talked to Robert about love and unity and had a wonderful discussed for probably two hours, as he shared with us his feelings on many subjects including war and the plight of the youth and the story of how he had first met Baha'is in the 70's in Galveston, and we cheered him up by giving him hope on all these things. At length we discussed the breakup of the Old World Order and the building of the new one, the importance of starting early with teaching children's classes, and several other Biblical subjects. With warm hugs and reminders that we were all always welcome in his home, we set off to our next home—in Clearlake, where we spent time with a newly declared Baha'i named Maria and her son Gabriel. It was a very joyful meeting, prayers were said, presentation by Bauback on the topic of love and unity was discussed, and we talked with her about her great love for everyone and how she wanted to express it to everyone and change the world. We praised her for this, encouraged it, and assured her that other people's spirits could feel her love for them, even if they might not show it. Also Badi gave a wonderful presentation the 19 Day Feast. And thus we left, with joy in our hearts.

Teaching Teams!

A sizeable group of friends from the Harris cluster and Ft. Bend/Brazoria got together at the invitation of our Auxilliary Board Member to discuss how to start up teaching teams. We found that it was easy to get this started. Bassically, you need one or 2 friends who leave nearby to get together and find creative ways to teach, pray together, and support each other. It was also found that a person who has completed Ruhi Book 7 is valuable in that he can start a study circle with his/her seekers and his or her teamate can support it.