Reprinted with permission of the Bahá’í International Community

The photo above was taken in Ivel, the same village where the following report takes place – from a similar act of violence two years ago. Baha’i World News Service reports:

GENEVA — Homes belonging to some 50 Baha’i families in a remote village in northern Iran have been demolished as part of a long-running campaign to expel them from the region.

The demolitions are the latest development in an ongoing, officially-sanctioned program in the area which has targeted every activity of the Baha’is.

“They’re being forbidden to associate with Muslims, or even offer service to their friends and neighbours,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

“Even the smallest acts of good will – such as taking flowers to someone who’s sick in hospital or donating gifts to an orphanage – these are being seen as actions against the regime.”

Read the full story: Homes demolished in campaign to drive Baha’is out of Iranian village.

Reprinted with permission of the Bahá’í World Centre

On a 90 degree weekend, we tried to complete Unit 3 of Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth. Building off what we learned about training junior youth animators last week, here is an update on the second weekend:

• Not everyone read all of Spirit of Faith during the week, so we split into small groups, each of which studied one section. Than we reconvened to share what we had learned. Participants who had been quiet in the big group ended up sharing wonderful insights in this smaller space. And the whole group developed a deeper appreciation for the material.
• At the end of Unit 3, we split into groups with our co-animators to make plans. Each group made some kind of commitment to enter the field of service, and the tutors compiled a calendar of these pledges.
• The participants are amazing individuals, all of whom are willing to contribute time and effort for the betterment of society. Adults often underestimate what young people are capable of doing, but it was clear from both weekends that these young people (age 14 to 60!) are amazing. Oh yeah – we had a 14 year old classmate of one of the participants come for the second weekend. She is a rising sophomore in high school, and she contributed a lot to that group’s planning discussion.
• Pictures! There’s a small set of photos up on Flickr called Animator Training June 2010.

As we step into the field to visit with the junior youth, these words from the Universal House of Justice come to mind: “There is every indication that the programme engages their expanding consciousness in an exploration of reality that helps them to analyse the constructive and destructive forces operating in society and to recognize the influence these forces exert on their thoughts and actions.”

Reprinted with permission of the Bahá’í World Centre

This last weekend, we completed two units in Releasing the Power of Junior Youth, a training course for animators of junior youth groups. Here are a few things we learned:

• Having a sense of purpose changes the environment of a study circle. When the participants are there because they intend to help adolescents contribute to the betterment of their communities, then everything we talk about – everything we read – everything we do – is in light of that commitment to study and action.
• Preparation is super helpful! Tutors should get together beforehand and read through any material to be covered that day. Look for places in the text that may require a different pace, or a different approach to study. What are the major concepts or themes? Is there relevant guidance that might apply to discussions when they arise?
• Youth will invite other youth! This has been one of the best parts. When participants are excited, they will invite their friends. Then the conversation is enriched with diverse expression.

Will share more after round 2 this weekend. Have you been in one of these trainings? What did you learn at yours?

As the growth of the junior youth empowerment program continues in our region, and as Negin and I look at the next few years, it seems like we’re entering a new phase. As such, I’ve been seized by an organizational bug – trying to arrange my hopes and goals for potential doctoral programs, trying to be more systematic about the continued growth of junior youth groups, even going to bed earlier! The following passage from Baha’u'llah sums it up nicely:

a take away show from Nikolas Konstantin on Vimeo.

Between Two Worlds by Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi talks about the Baha’is in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on NPR Weekend Edition. Ms Saberi’s interview is remarkable. As an American-born Baha’i, I have certainly asked myself whether I would be strong enough to persevere amidst the religious persecution faced by our dear co-religionists in Iran. Ms Saberi confronted a similar situation during her time in Evin prison, and speaks frankly about the challenges, the pressure to make false confessions, and the strength she saw in her cellmates – Mrs Fariba Kamalabadi and Mrs Mahvash Sabet.

Her description of Mrs Kamalabadi and Mrs Sabet echoes this passage from a reknowned history of the Baha’i Faith:

Despite the shame and cruelties they were made to suffer, not one of these captives was known either to recant or to utter one angry word against his persecutors. Not even a whisper of discontent escaped their lips, nor did their countenances betray a shadow of regret or grief. No amount of adversity could succeed in darkening the light that shone in those faces; no words, however insulting, could disturb the serenity of their expressions. The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha’i Revelation, p577

We have all been children. Maybe not all of us have been or will be parents, but we have all had the experience of being a child. No matter what race, what class, what culture we come from, we have all felt that peculiar smallness. We have watched the grown-ups come and go. We have tried to measure the meaning of our lives against their erratic and often contradictory motions.

Light My Fire 2 (CC / BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Daniel Y. Go)

Last week I posed this question: “How do you feel about the idea of ‘burnout’ with respect to service? Any idea why it doesn’t sit well with me?” There were lots of thoughtful comments both in this space, on Facebook, and in “real life.” I don’t have a fully articulated answer, but here are a few thoughts culled from those various conversations.

Just about everyone I spoke with talked about “balance.” Balance is an interesting metaphor, because it implies dichotomy. Picture a balance, essentially like a teeter-totter on a playground. The implication is that there are two distinct weights, one on either side, and we are trying to balance the two of them. If our life is meant to be a united whole, then this metaphor of balance implies separation and distinction between service on the one side, and whatever else we wish to balance on the other. So while balance is a common part of our discourse, it actually carries with it some ideas that don’t align with my conceptual framework.

In one of the conversations, the metaphor of the bicycle wheel was introduced. Here, service is at the center – the hub where the spokes of the wheel meet. Life has many components, but they all radiate out from service. One compelling part of this metaphor is that you can get rid of a few spokes and still have a functioning bicycle wheel, but if you take out too many, the wheel falls apart. Similarly, if you take out the center – service – then the wheel cannot function at all. It loses any meaning as a wheel.

Phillipe, over at Baha’i Thought, noted that burnout is an observable psychological phenomenon, which was fascinating. And Delara commented here on the blog (yay!) about how we may not realize how many different acts in our daily life can be undertaken in a spirit of helping others – which is one of the definitions of service we learn in the junior youth group.

Thyolo, Malawi (© Bahá’í World Centre. All rights reserved.)

Day Thirteen of the Baha’i Fast. Yesterday, Negin and I were preparing for junior youth group. As it turned out, no one was home. But the preparation was great. Since we are in the midst of expanding the group, we reflected on some of the initial conversations we might want to have with new participants. And given our experience with a service project last week, we tried to assemble a set of concepts related to service.

With the help of Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth, the fifth book in the Ruhi Institute, we determined the following sequence of ideas:

1. That we all need other people; that we all depend on one another.
2. A question: Who do you depend on? Can you imagine a world where we never received help from anyone?
3. A definition: service is any act undertaken in the spirit of helping others
4. We just had an experience with service last week. Use the three elements of cooperation to analyze our service project.
   • A common goal: What was the goal of our service project?
   • Collaboration: How did we all participate? What did each of us contribute, and in what ways would the service project not have been possible had we lacked the contribution of any one of us?
   • Coordination: How did we coordinate our actions? Possibly provide external examples of coordination. e.g. Imagine two people meeting to construct a fence. If one comes on Monday, and the other on Tuesday, they cannot build the fence.

It was wonderful to realize that the concepts introduced in earlier books (in the context of teaching cooperative games to young children) are not separate from the concepts used later on in the sequence.

Light My Fire 1 (CC / BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Daniel Y. Go)

Had a wonderful non-lunch with PJ Andrews yesterday. We talked about service, and it was just generally good to see him after a few months of not having done so. Toward the end of our visit, one topic that came up was the idea of burnout, and how you maintain the energy for service. I didn’t have a ready answer, and so we agreed that this was a topic we would continue to explore. I did express, though, a feeling that this notion of “burnout” felt wrong – today I might say it was somehow embedded in a false dichotomy, perhaps between service and relaxation, or altruism and self-interest.

What do you think? How do you feel about the idea of “burnout” with respect to service? Any idea why it doesn’t sit well with me?