Regional Bahá’í Council of the Atlantic States

Delaware · District of Columbia · Kentucky · Maryland · North Carolina

Tennessee · Virginia · West Virginia

June 3, 2016

To the Lovers of Bahá’u’lláh in the Atlantic Region for the Feast of Núr

Beloved co-workers,

On the evening of March 30, just 3 weeks before the end of the previous Five Year Plan, the Council sent this message to our National Spiritual Assembly:

With tears in our eyes and heads bowed with deep gratitude, we just received the word from our beloved North Carolina Board Members that the homefront pioneer along with a local Bahá’í in Southern Border Central held their first devotional meeting with 5 neighbors attending. The local Bahá’í, up to a week ago, was somewhat reticent to reach out and invite, but something changed. She felt an inner confidence to reach out and had 5 joyful and interested friends attend. The homefront pioneer reported that one friend stayed for 3 hours or more and did not want to leave and they made plans to meet again. The local Bahá’í was in tears during the meeting. It seems that the prayers from throughout the Atlantic region descended on Southern Border Central, and it has advanced to the first milestone, enabling the Atlantic region to achieve its audacious goal of 105 programs of growth.

This is the most recent of 79 other similar stories throughout our region over the past five years—stories of sacrifice, love, perseverance and, above all else, a desire to bring Bahá’u’lláh’s Healing Message to a sorely tried world and build vibrant, loving communities. This story illustrates the simplicity of the process where a trained tutor accompanies a soul moving through the institute process to render a service for her friends in the community by inviting them to pray together in her home. Such a simple beginning with such profound results. These 79 programs of growth joined the existing 26 that were raised in the previous Plan to bring the Atlantic region to 105. The magnitude of this accomplishment surpasses all but a handful of national communities in the world and is a clear demonstration of the strength and capacity of the Atlantic region.

Beloved friends, Ridván marked the beginning of this next Five Year Plan. We are already midway through the first of 20 quarterly cycles. Many of you have already attended gatherings where we have consulted on proven strategies and methods to bring all of these 105 programs of growth to a greater level of intensity through the sharing of capacities and resources among a group of adjoining clusters. Opportunities to acquire or enhance necessary capacities for growth are being offered across the region. Yet, at the heart of each program of growth are lovers of Bahá’u’lláh, studying daily His Revealed Word and assisting one another to render acts of service in our communities. We will repeat the simple story of Southern Border Central hundreds upon hundreds of times and take “small steps…regular and rapid” so that over the course of the next 20 cycles we in the Atlantic region will achieve an outcome that is “profoundly significant, even epoch making.”

With great hope and confidence,

REGIONAL BAHÁ’Í COUNCIL OF THE ATLANTIC STATES

Peter Oldziey, Secretary