Bahá’ís and collaborators in the Northern Lights section of San Diego, California, doubled their core activities between January and October 2017, and not just to build an appreciative audience for their celebrations of the bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh — wonderful as that shared experience the weekend of Oct. 21–22 was.

In the same spirit of wedded worship and service that permeates all interactions there, the dozens of people — particularly children and their parents — who entered into the community-building process during this period were given key roles in making the celebration a meaningful one for all.

And paths to continued learning and service are being opened for each of these new friends, with systematic accompaniment from neighbors who took those first steps before them.

A goal and a process

The challenge of turning 11 core activities into 22 in nine months was presented by the Area Teaching Committee at the community’s January reflection gathering, says Julie Iraninejad, a Bahá’í in the Del Sur neighborhood.

Immediately a process began of reading the current reality, identifying needs and agreeing on the whats and whos of a plan.

The Northern Lights team started pointing its way forward by examining the existing base of activities: five devotional gatherings, three children’s classes, two study circles and one junior youth group.

And they started with the children’s classes, which Iraninejad says have been the catalyst for growth. “We saw three children's classes full and vibrant,” she recalls. But to offer classes for each age group, a class for infants and toddlers and a class for third-graders would have to be started. And with existing classes bursting at the seams, additional classes for every age ultimately would need to be added.

To achieve all that, the team realized, activity would have to be increased on every front. Further visits to the homes of children’s class participants could help some parents and older siblings get interested in teaching classes. Another source of potential teachers: parents from outside the neighborhood whose kids wished to participate in classes but couldn’t be accommodated without new classes forming.

Training those new teachers would require new study circles, followed by their placement in classes assisting teachers so they could build the confidence to become lead teachers the next school year.

Ensuring sustainability

An added benefit would be to increase junior youth groups as students reach middle-school age and their teachers train to move with them and become their facilitators.

This constant and systematic flow, says Iraninejad, is “critical to making this continue and be sustainable because we have to keep providing for each of the different ages of kids.”

The neighborhood team recognized that home visits also would bolster devotional gatherings, by encouraging families who are already praying together informally to make that activity part of the rhythm of family life and invite others to join in.

As the process played out starting in January, initial efforts snowballed — fueled by regular reflection and neighbors sharing their excitement by posting new activities to a Facebook page.

“And it was also a lot of prayers,” says Iraninejad. “Our community chose the prayer for the Western States [revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá] and said it every day for a concerted period of time.”

By October, the neighborhood had “more people participating in our neighborhood core activities than we ever had before,” she says.

“We have 160 participants in those 22 core activities. We have 24 individuals serving in our neighborhood either as devotional hosts, study circle tutors, or children’s class teachers. And we have 13 new children’s class teachers teaching this [school] year for the first time ever, including five youths.”

The celebrations and beyond

Not surprisingly, planning for the community bicentenary celebrations at Del Sur Elementary School put those engaged neighbors — particularly children’s class participants and their parents — front and center.

Starting a few weeks before the bicentenary, each class except infant-and-toddler learned about the significance of the occasion, created materials for the program, prepared a song about the Messengers of God, and memorized prayers and quotations to share.

“The older two classes memorized quite a lot to share,” says Iraninejad. The 7- and 8-year-old class (Grade 2) memorized “principles of Bahá’u’lláh and a quote from His Writings that highlights that principle” and the 9- to 11-year-old class (Grade 3) “memorized the write-ups about each of the Messengers of God and their words about the Promised One, plus the ‘Unite the hearts’ prayer and the song about the Messengers of God shining forth the same Divine Light. It was really beautiful.”

Through home visits, the class teachers told family members about Bahá’u’lláh and the bicentenary, and these people from diverse backgrounds offered to share “prayers in their own native languages, wearing their own native costumes from their country of origin,” says Iraninejad.

And the conversations have continued, she says, since “two wonderful celebrations” in the Del Sur neighborhood attracted 91 friends of the Faith among the 187 participants. Fireside gatherings in five homes were scheduled for attendees who expressed interest in knowing more, so they could view the new film Light to the World and discuss the teachings in a relaxed environment.

New study circles are likely to emerge from those firesides, says Iraninejad. A concerted effort also is being made to engage high school youths in hopes they’ll train to become junior youth group animators.