Building a vision through home visits
In the Arbor Glen neighbourhood in Toronto, Ont., a series of home visits following an Ayyám-i-Há celebration contributed to building a collective vision of growth.
“During the festival of Ayyám-i-Há, a group of friends serving in the Arbor Glen neighbourhood organized a celebration at the Don Valley Education Centre in Thornhill, Ont.”
“You can’t just organize an exciting gathering; home visits are necessary too,” says Mei Qu, part of a growing band of friends working together in the Arbor Glen neighbourhood in Toronto, Ont. Since the bicentenary celebrations of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb in 2017 and 2019 respectively, Holy Days and celebrations have been increasingly understood as opportunities to strengthen the institute process.
During the festival of Ayyám-i-Há, a group of friends serving in the Arbor Glen neighbourhood organized a celebration at the Don Valley Education Centre in Thornhill, Ont. Eighty-three people attended, including participants of the educational activities and their parents, as well as new and previously engaged families.
The junior youth and children presented concepts they had learned from their activities, in the form of skits, music, and artworks. Themes included education—material, human and spiritual—as well as concepts from the texts Habits of an Orderly Mind and On Health and Well-Being, which the junior youth had recently studied. Ms. Qu explains that the children and junior youth were able to demonstrate the progress they had made in their learning over the past several months.
After watching the presentations, one parent, whose children had been absent from the activities for several months, noted the intellectual and moral development of the children regularly participating in the educational activities. This parent then asked for her children to be readmitted into the activities on a regular basis.
New families saw practical examples of how the community-building activities foster the potential of individuals and communities. However, the team recognized that more was needed to draw them closer to the vision of Bahá’u’lláh. They decided to carry out a series of home visits during the Bahá’í Fast to build a vision with families of a coherent long-term process aimed at the betterment of the world, rather than seeing their efforts as a series of events and activities.
Team members prepared for the home visits by reading recent messages from the Universal House of Justice, as well as sections of Book 2: Arising to Serve together. For her conversations, Ms. Qu expanded on the themes shared at the Ayyám-i-Há gathering around the three types of education1 and from the two junior youth texts. The National Spiritual Assembly’s 6 February 2023 message was also on their minds, which called on the friends to foster a culture of home visits. In it, the House of Justice’s Ridván 2010 message is quoted, referencing the spirit with which these visits should be carried out: “You are channels for this divine love; let it flow through you to all who cross your path.”
The conversations flowed naturally when they were focused on what the families were most interested in discussing. For example, one family was interested in the Bahá’í perspective on other world religions, which led to a conversation around the concept of progressive revelation.
The visits also helped families think about their own contributions to the community-building process. Shortly after receiving a visit, one mother reached out to three other families to organize a play date for their children. Like many families in the neighbourhood, her family is new to Canada. Through the home visit, she built a ten-year vision for her family, including starting a children’s class with the children of the families engaged in the play dates, to be taught by the older children.
“The [Ayyám-i-Há] gathering and the home visits are like two pillars to bring [families] closer to Bahá’u’lláh,” says Ms. Qu, “One is to see the fruit of learning from others, and the other is to see how they themselves can do that too.” It is hoped that some of the friends will begin studying Book 1: Reflections on the Life of the Spirit together; and others may initially be ready to organize small play dates. “We’re trying to learn about how to engage someone from the beginning without them feeling they’re being pushed to do something they can’t,” comments Ms. Qu.
The team understands that over the next several months, each family must be allowed to participate at its own pace, including those who are ready to intensify their efforts. In this regard, Ms. Qu explains, “We’ve learned that when a person is actively engaged and serving while learning, they benefit the most.” Building understanding around the work in the neighbourhood is a process, and home visits have been a critical means through which families are encouraged to take initial steps.
