Winter initiative strengthens community capacities

Staying alert to opportunities to further strengthen bonds of friendship and initiate elevated conversations, and finding creative ways to advance the community-building processes in goal clusters, distinguished the “Winter Initiative” that took place during the July school holidays in the North Island. All of the goal areas received attention. Here are reports from four of them:

Eastern Bay of Plenty

Opotiki was part of the Winter Initiative with an expansion phase of two weeks that focused on youth. The team built bonds of friendship with youth and families in the community.

During the Initiative, we stayed on the Marae for three nights where Ruhi Book 1 was started with three youth. There is a goal to have devotionals in the homes of the families and complete Book 1. Although children’s classes are on hold at the moment the family is receiving home visits.

We have identified an object of learning: How to have the local community spearhead the community-building activities. Making sure to read the reality of the community in which they live and what is unfolding.

There were many who came throughout the two weeks to learn and support in different ways. Dan Taufalele has decided to move to Opotiki to serve as a pioneer long term.

Whanau day held at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Wairarapa in Masterton was a key part of Winter Initiative activities held in Wairarapa. During the first week more than 14 home visits were carried out to families in Masterton East inviting them to the wh… — Whanau day held at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Wairarapa in Masterton was a key part of Winter Initiative activities held in Wairarapa. During the first week more than 14 home visits were carried out to families in Masterton East inviting them to the whānau day organised by the Masterton community to learn together with families about community building. The whānau hui was held with 30 friends from the Masterton East neighbourhood and 13 Bahá’ís. The study of Ruhi Books 1 and 3 was boosted as a result of the gathering.

South Waikato and Taupo

Although it’s called “travel teaching” we reckon it should be called “travel learning”! We learnt so much about our own capacity to teach on our trip away that we decided we would “travel teach/learn” more often at home in our own neighbourhood.

The trip also reinforced for us what we already knew — that New Zealanders are connected to complete strangers by only a few “degrees of separation”. For example, in Taupō we began a conversation about the brilliant weather with two women who were sitting on a park bench by the Lake. One of them knew a Bahá’í whom we also knew, and when Shah and Parisa joined us they also had a mutual connection; we were soon deeply involved in a meaningful discussion about the need of society to achieve unity. Phone numbers were exchanged and we have continued contact.

We often began casual conversations with the question: How is the pandemic affecting you? In a café in Tirau, this question resulted in a half-hour conversation and sharing photos on phones! So now, at home, when we go about our everyday activities, we do it more purposefully. We almost always stop to chat if we see someone else out walking, or purposely sit in our café where we might more easily engage with others. Afterwards we reflect on what we have learnt.

In Taupō, we shared Feasts, Holy Days and devotionals with the many friends in the community, where the spirit of love and unity richly flavoured all their activities. We also had home visits with friends there and in Tokoroa the focus neighbourhood.

Thames-Coromandel

A team of two youth, two junior youth and one adult joined us for a week to help with expansion and consolidation. The objectives of this expansion phase were to strengthen the relationships with junior youth, to find more junior youth, and to engage new youth. We were able to have 28 conversations, 6 home visits, and 7 people participated in gatherings. These are pretty good outcomes for Thames, especially as we had really bad weather for the week the team was here.

We were able to have a junior youth camp at Waihi which included 21 junior youth from Hamilton, Te Awamutu and Thames. There were 3 streams each doing a different junior youth text: “Walking the Straight Path”, “Breezes of Confirmation”, and “The Human Temple”. Two junior youth from Thames completed “Breezes of Confirmation”, while one youth completed the new version of Ruhi Book 1.

The mobilisation of friends around the region generated not only a strengthening of the capacity of the communities to read the reality of their locality, but also more learning about drawing on the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh to refine language and elevate conversations, maintaining greater focus on the sacred tasks of engaging with others in worship and service, cultivating bonds of friendship with families, being well equipped with relevant materials to share with an ever-widening circle of those around them, and ensuring that children and junior youth continue to receive spiritual nourishment.