Rose Hill, here we come!
Pioneering!
Grace Kermani and I have officially moved into our new home today! We decided to move a few months ago in order to be closer to the Nepalese population that we work with in Rose Hill, Oxford. Although Rose Hill is just 10 minutes up the road from Iffley Heights were we used to live… it was a different world away. I have a few friends who who work together as part of a ‘teaching team’ that is learning help the Nepalese community to build resources so that they may fully run and expand all the lovely activities currently going on. In October we were deepening our knowledge and understanding of carrying out this service by reading a document prepared by the International Teaching Centre, one of the Institutions in the Baha’i Faith, it said that one method that had been successful in other areas is to ‘homefront pioneer’ into a community so that you can help support them more fully. Those of us reading it initially were not sure if we should consider doing it. After consulting with our dear friend we realized that from the three of us, only I was in a position to be able to move at that time but that I would actually need someone to go with me. We consulted and decided that Grace Kermani was the most natural suggestion. I was not sure if she would agree to do it. From the moment I asked her she said, “yeah, I think I could do that for a few months. Let me think about it, but why not?”
Grace Kermani, my lovely house-mate
Day 1
this is what Grace says about our first day:
Day 1: Tonight will be our first night in our new home, our new neighbourhood. It’s been a rollercoaster ride just getting this far and I know there’s some exciting times ahead! I can’t wait to meet the families soon
So now 3 months after our initial thoughts about homefront pioneering… 5 car loads later… we are going to be spending our first night in our new home! We do get scared sometimes… maybe that is just because our house was broken into last month and then someone tried to again a few days ago. Maybe it is because it is culturally and socially miles away from our current life? But we are both very excited and ready to serve!
on Feb 3rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Good luck in your new place! I hope to homefront pioneer soon too, just 5 miles down the road.
on Feb 4th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
….and quicken mankind with the song that we sing…. A song of the love, and the Glory of God!!!………..
on Feb 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
You are in the vanguard of the constructive forces of the world, beloved friends Clare and Grace!
Bahá’u'lláh asserts that the “movement itself from place to place, when undertaken for the sake of God, hath always exerted, and can now exert, its influence in the world.”