Confirmations.

Earlier today my mood had a downward concavity: Does the slow pace of the last few days mean we are achieving too little? Before doubt could marinate in what I perceived to be sloth, the day picked up. Halva came by and gave us another craft assignment (sorting seeds). At first I half-thought that would be a waste of time, but `Abdu'l-Bahá seems to disagree:

"In the Bahá'í­ Cause arts, sciences and all crafts are (counted as) worship. The man who makes a piece of notepaper to the best of his ability, conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving praise to God. Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity. This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in the solidarity of the human race, he is giving praise."

Unfortunately, we can only spend time on Halva's crafts occasionally with so many new developments. It will be pleasing to have a brainless activity that is still a valuable service to a friend.

We are taking Bible study more seriously. For an hour or two, we prepared by reviewing the book of Micah, what William Sears had to say about it in Thief in the Night, and memorising verses. Every week each participant is expected to memorise a verse. This week mine was:

"And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried: but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." Daniel 12:8-9

I loved it today! The teacher/priest said that the prophesies of Micah 3 and 4 have both an immediate fulfillment (Romans taking Jerusalem in 70 A.D.) and a much later (the recent establishment of the World Center, the Shrine of the Báb, the Universal House of Justice on Zion, or Mt. Carmel). It was amazing to be studying this. I strongly wish to convey the significance of these verses to other people in the class. As a first step, I answered a question about lessons learned in the chapter. YAY! I can't find the hymn we closed with right now, but, let me tell you, it was amazing and so exciTheg. Thw whole thing was about Bahá'u'lláh! We developing friendships more with the other members of the group.

Just after Mauva dropped us off at the Center, when we think our fun is done, Lloyd shows up with an long-time friend - a Bahá'í­ from Suriname! They just happened to catch eyes at the dock. (There are no coincidences!) His name is Erik. He's originally from Holland, so I wonder if Pieter knows him. He is here for some kind of agriculture conference. We shared about the moral education project we're working on, and he told us some great stories from his life and offered some great advise: Start every morning with prayer just as you open your eyes; whatever you want to do, you can do it (Seriously, God will assist you); and that's all I remember. He has produced some films and gave us advise for documenting our project in the schools and creating a video about it. Maybe I should get my video camera and equipment from home (and a computer that can heditinge editting from thin air). Heck, then I could video chat with friends.

We also rushed through preparing for tomorrow's virtues presentation at the Convent school. Cristina is very on top of things: she whipped it together very easily. She'll make a good teacher.

Oh! I finally finished Marriage: A Fortress for Well-Being this morning. I really appreciate how it brings up some great points that most of us probably know or at least wouladmitily admint, but might not have realised: specific virtues and skills that everyone should develop before getting married. Even though I probably won't get married tomorrow, this will be very useful because the skills are guaranteed to improve any relationship and your personal development. I recommend it to anyone and might make it required reading for my children.

One more thing. LD is amazing. Every little thing starts him on a profound train of thought through that gives him brilliant, book-worthy ideas.