I am overwhelmed and empowered and humbled and emotionally charged by all those who attended and the love and prayers of those who could not. Our conference was attended by somewhere in the vacinity of 5,400 believers and had 6,000 registrations for this most holy weekend.

My heart and my prayers go to those in countries who do not or did not have the same priveleges as we did, who had to sacrifice much to be in attendance and these brave Baha’i souls are an inspiration to those of us who have it so easy.

The “light bulb” moment of my experience at this most precious conference was the fact that we are those who will go down in history. We are the “pioneers” of the faith. We are the ones who are trying to open the doors for all future generations to be able to bathe in the light of God and to recieve his love unheaded.

In the words of Baha’u'llah (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf):
“The Divine Messengers have been sent down, and their books were revealed, for the purpose of promoting the knowledge of God, and of further unity and fellowship amongst men. But now behold, how they have made the Law of God a cause and pretext for perversity and hatred. How pitiful, how regrettable, that most men are cleaving fast to, and have busied themselves with, the things they possess, and are unaware of, and shut out as by a veil from, the things God possesseth.”

It is our time and our responsibility to teach and help turn civilisation around, move out of those dark ages of war and poverty and hatred – this task is huge but it will be done and we are the forces who will set the stage for that implementation and movement towards peace and harmony. It is also something we will probably not see in our human lifetimes, but we will know that we have paved the way for the future and the future of our generations to live in the beauty and bounty offered by God.

Beautiful imagery.

He must think that all westerners write in an arcane style; if only he knew that my penmanship is uniquely atrocious. The counsellor from Haifa marches on, unwinding a spool of guidance on the healthy dynamics of growth. But the boy keeps gazing at my looseleaf pages. I catch his eye and smile, welcoming his quiet inquisition. I nod to the sheaf and pick up the pages, offering them to him. Abashed and delighted, he hesitates yet accepts.

His sister peers over his shoulder and they inspect my work. I am surrounded by true Malays, in a corner of the conference where English is limited and the steadfast rural dedication of these friends is far from the ephemeral distractions of our globalised lives.

The young Malay boy leads his finger along the leaning lines of my script. His sister frowns and shakes her head. They mutter to each other and giggle, shrug; he is me peering at scribbled Sanscrit. I am his unknowing gaze at ancient and runic stone-cut tablets.

But suddenly they pause in their amusement. The Malay boy’s sister recognises a word. She looks to him for agreement and he nods. From a tangled blue mess of wires they single out the electric current. It’s the only word that matters, the one worth nine and countless lives, the one that says Bahá.

The teachings of my faith revolve around justice, and this past weekend, I received a profoundly moving confirmation of my belief that justice will inevitably prevail on this planet. I attended a regional Baha’i conference in Atlanta, one of a series of 41 global conferences dedicated to a single purpose: systematically studying and reflecting on the implications of the teachings that underlie the system of justice that we are building, and applying their principles in our individual and community lives. We are not waiting for justice to come to us; we are not looking for deliverance; we are establishing a system of justice for ourselves, step-by step, person by person, neighborhood by neighborhood, instititution by institution. It’s more than revolution. It’s transformation. And being part of a transformative enterprise is breathtaking.