Seeking souls encounter the Faith of Baha’u’llah from many perspectives, for many purposes and at all ages.
But as illustrated by these stories received by the National Teaching Office through the Seeker Response System database, whether the seeker visited the national website (www.bahai.us) or Baha’i Facebook page or called 800-22-UNITE a consistent message comes through: I am on a spiritual journey and I want to know about the Bahá’í Faith.
Audrey of Colorado needed years to get ready to investigate the Faith in earnest. She reported that she found out about the Faith at a multifaith gathering at the King Center in Atlanta, held by the late Coretta Scott King. Moving to California, back to Georgia then Minnesota, she met wonderful Baha’i contacts but didn’t follow up.
Finally, she wrote recently in the “Contact us” form on www.bahai.us, she “will read more now and understand what I am reading … the student is ready … peace and love.” She has since been connected with local Baha’is and enrolled in the Faith.
Jan, a middle-aged woman in Washington state, also made contact on the Web and within days was conversing about the Faith with two Baha’i community members at a coffee shop.
At a devotional gathering, Jan’s heart was increasingly attracted to the point of being overwhelmed. “I cried when reading my selection from the Writings,” she told a Baha’i contact later after filling out an online declaration form. The Faith, she said, “resonates with me as it was supposed to. … This is everything I thought about God’s love … everything I have thought since I was a child.”
Robert, in his early 20s, shared a graver story of being in “a very bad place in life,” with circumstances including an auto wreck and a brush with death that “left me feeling so numb, emotionally, that I thought there was no God.” But by the time he made contact on the website, he wrote that God “destroyed the old me so that I could have a second chance.”
When a seeker response representative contacted him, she found a sincere soul who accepted Baha’u’llah in his heart several years ago and was newly ready to join the Baha’i community and inform his family of his new faith.
Eric, a young man in Virginia, filled out the website’s contact form a month after a friend in Canada had introduced him to the Baha’i Faith. It “made a favorable impression on me,” he wrote, “but there are a few things I must investigate further.”
A regional seeker response coordinator phoned him, and things they discussed included the station of Baha’u’llah and the role of daily prayer. During the phone call Eric said he had decided to become a Baha’i, and he was connected with the Spiritual Assembly serving his locality.
Excerpts from a few other contacts:
Sara in Illinois: “My husband and I come from different faiths and have been searching for something to help us instill the importance of faith in our children. … The more we have looked into the Baha’i Faith, the more we are finding we believe in a very similar manner, that it all comes down to one religion. I am very interested in finding out more. …”
Mary in Tennessee: “I am a psychology student and am currently taking a class titled ‘The Psychology of Religion.’ In this class, we must research another religion different from our own. I am intrigued by your religion and would like to attend one of your meetings.”
Ruth in California: “I need to understand our true purpose of living, why are we here in this human body. As well as information about the soul/spirit. Thank you.”