Rolling up our sleeves for further action
A wide variety of plans for follow-up to the bicentenary are underway. These are illustrated by the following quotations from event reports received by the National Spiritual Assembly.
Follow-up with people who attended, invite them to weekly events.
Further regional institutional visits are planned to support the West Coast cluster to reach the second milestone. Several youth may also be deployed to support junior youth and youth activities.
We will continue our prayers and pancakes on a Saturday morning and God willing, this will lead to the establishment of a Book 1.
Home visits/meeting with families to discuss children’s class and junior youth groups next year
Keeping in touch with our friends. Following through with invitations to core activities. One of the families has shown interest in our children’s classes and the same family and one adult would like to attend the devotional gatherings
We have invited all our contacts to the existing weekly devotional. Follow up is to send a reminder invite with place, time and date. After the next devotional, we will make home visits to the friends who could not attend to encourage them for the next time.
Continue on with community devotions every Sunday. An additional children’s class started on Sunday 20 October with 26 children attending. Six teachers have already gone through the intensive study of Book 3. Also all teachers have run through the child protection course.
We are focusing on growing the children’s classes and the junior youth group. Many friends couldn't come so we are still carrying on with the weekly dinners and outreaching.
Follow up home visits and meaningful conversations, starting regular junior youth group(s).
Celebrations in Waitaki
The children’s class and junior youth will have a pool party at the Oamaru Swimming Pool. Its purposes are for the children to make friends and invite them to children’s classes, for the parents to meet and get to know the other parents more and for the children to have fun and invite their friends ….
This gifting of bi-lingual prayer books (te reo Māori and English) in honour of the Báb for the 2019 bicentenary of His Birth will continue till all 200 books are gifted, and there is the intention now this campaign has begun to perhaps continue past the initially proposed 200.
The Soul Food committee has kept in touch with many of the individuals who attended our programme and it has sparked wonderful conversations and cemented bonds of friendship. Soul Food plans to have a social event in the next two weeks (either an international dinner or coffee meet-up) to finish the university year and to follow on from the momentum of our celebration. We also want to leverage the awareness of our club following the event at the next clubs day (Feb. 2020) and have begun planning our Naw Ruz celebration event for next year.
Book 1 needs to be organised for a few interested attendees. Follow up conversation evening in 2 weeks.
We are preparing to have some follow up activities. These could be either a barbecue and a devotional meeting/fireside, and whatever else that leads to, and to continue the devotional meeting on Sundays.
A number of people who were not able to attend the event, or who attended but did not stay for the screening of the film, are being invited individually , or in family groups, to come for a meal and to watch the film Dawn of the Light.
One family of Māori speakers has been invited back for socialising and with the view to inviting their child to join children's classes
Reflection has highlighted a number of actions which will be carried out in the coming weeks e.g. making follow up invitations to quite a few people to come to devotional meetings and firesides, trying to get a copy of the film with Mongolian subtitles for four Mongolians who attended the celebration, inviting specific families to join children's classes, and offering the opportunity to study Ruhi Book 1 in te reo Māori.
Home visits, potential whānau day to engage parents again, visiting primary school.
More conversations about community building in Naenae and what should happen next to progress the devotional meeting.
Starting an intensive Book 4 and two study circles to deepen the friends.
Reflections on the impact - so that we can apply it to future Holy Day celebrations; home visits to deepen on the Twin Manifestations and other spiritual topics that are relevant; start devotional meetings with the friends who participated.
More outreach, ongoing junior group, capacity building of the junior youth to carry out other activities such as devotionals.
