JY!

Since the House of Justice initiated the latest Plan a few months ago, interesting things have happened! New energy, new arisen souls, and most encouragingly, new progress in community development.
Three instances stand out.

A first for PJC
One animator raised a whole new JY group in PJ Central with the help of one parent. Together, they reached out to a relative and now five JY attend this animator’s new gathering! The joy is especially sweeter because Central neighbourhood has, for the first time now, bounty of contributing to the cluster’s Junior Youth Program!

Blossoming and spreading the fragrances
One JY made an inspirational effort to invite her classmates to the JY Program. As her result not only was a new group created for these JY, but an opportunity was created for two older youths to rise up as animators! Damansara neighbourhood now has its very first group composed entirely of friends. To top it off, they are at the very first level of development.

Silent workers
In Damansara neighbourhood’s quiet corner of Kampung Cempaka, several Baha’is strove to make contact, befriend and ultimately garnered the respect and confidence of the residents. Out of their loving endeavors, one JY group with 6 participants sprung up! This is a breakthrough for the chinese teaching team in Kg. Cempaka. The confirmations of the Blessed Beauty can clearly be perceived as we witness minds and hearts opening.

This cycle, we are excited to offer a new resource material for the community’s perusal – a promotional poster for the JYSEP done by our very own JY! Armed with materials, ever-ready and expectant animators, a pool of interested parents and JY, and fervent prayers, we are certain that the path ahead will be extremely fulfilling. Parents, youth, we urge you to support and participate actively with us on this journey.

Junior Youth Coordinator
Chong Wei Shern
jycoord@hotmail.com

Children classes

Cycle one in PJ saw children classes in three neighbourhoods, namely Sri Damansara, Damansara and PJ Old Town. A total of 43 children with 26 COI children attended these classes, held every Saturday at 4–6pm. A cluster reflection meeting for children class teachers was held in early August. Many issues were discussed and teachers went back with enthusiasm to increase the number of COI/classes in their own neighbourhood. A task force was also formed for the year end cluster event.
By the end of the cycle, the number of children increased to 50 with 31 COI now. These new children came through the Bahá’i children attending our classes. The Damansara neighbourhood has also come with storytelling sessions called Kippy’s tales, an innovative way to attract friends. Early November we will see the Year End Event – Kids Blast, sports carnival being carried out at the Dewan SS7/28, Kelana Indah. This should spur some other activities like parenting talk and children’s class previews in coming weeks.

As the next cycle falls during school break, there are plans for Ruhi Bk 3 and 3A as well as skills training for teachers and wannabe teachers. The goal for the next cycle is to increase 1 class per neighbourhood with at least 5 children. Good luck everyone.

Children’s class coordinator
Devaky
kcdev@pc.jaring.my

Bring COIs to Study Circles!

Overall,  the community  did well in steadily going through the Ruhi Institute process during the last cycle, and in raising the number of  trained human resources in PJ Cluster.
Three new book 7 graduates from PJ Central and two new ones from PJ Old Town during the last cycle brought our number of Bk 7 graduates to 48. 

Four Bk 7 graduates who have never tutored before- Amy Lim, Benjamin Loh, Crawford Prentice and Shashi Kumaran- heed the call for more tutors to start their own groups. Amy tutored a Bk 5 (animator’s course) comprising 5 young adults from SS and PJ Central, and all of them have committed to becoming animators for the coming cycle. Crawford and Shashi who tutored a Bk 4 group showed how performing arts can be incorporated in a creative and amusing manner when the group put up a skit during a Nineteen Day Feast. Ben Loh ably conducted a Bk 7 group, keeping up the pace of study so that the group completed the book within one cycle. Currently, our study groups are mostly in the higher sequences, raising our human resources even further by Ridvan 07.  

The ‘engine of growth’ hopes during this cycle, home visits, events, etc are focused on inviting COIs  to Bk 1 because our community has used up our base (Bahai’s) that can move up the institute courses. With no new people coming into  Ruhi study circles, core activities will slow down, and growth of neighbourhood will be stifled. It is vital that during this cycle each one of us stretches our limits to bring our COIs to the study circles. If each team brings in 5 COIs to start a Bk 1, it will see fresh growth in our community. We would also be contributing our efforts towards our national goal of 1000 Bk 1 by Ridvan 07. 

An area of  focus, this November and December holidays should be the 15-year-olds. In each neighbourhood, we have 15-year-old Bahá’í junior youths who, with their COI friends, can start on Ruhi book 1 intensives, then move on to other books.  By Ridvan they will be the new pool of Bk 5 graduates (trained animators) who can start their own JY groups, thus helping to meet our national goal of 1000 animators by Ridvan 07.

So, let us be focused in our activities, aligning our approaches with that set in the guidance letters from the Universal House of Justice. “The Five Year Plan ….requires that you concentrate your energies on this process and ensure that the two complementary movement at its heart are accelerated”. – The Universal House Of Justice, Ridvan 2006 

Cluster Institute Coordinator
Leela Govindasamy
leelagov@tm.net.my

The launch of our 2nd cycle of growth

Dearly loved co-workers,

The CGC set out at the beginning of the first cycle in the newly unveiled 5 year plan to increase the COI base of our cluster. Armed with prayers and bolstered by confirmations on every side, the Bahá’ís of PJ enthusiastically arose to search out receptive souls and teach them. As a result, the CGC is heartened to note that 30 new friends enrolled in the core activities. On top of this, the call of Bahá’u’lláh’s message has reached the ears of many more of our neighbours and co-workers via home visits, firesides and other ad-hoc teaching activities.  

The Universal House of Justice in its 27 December message says that “…especially in the first few cycles, … the goal is to augment the number of those willing to participate in core activities.” With this firmly in mind, the heart of the next few months will be home visits. Bahá’ís are encouraged to visit one another in the spirit of love and unity, and to reach out to new and old neighbours often and spontaneously.  

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, writing about the conditions to attain the station of an Apostle of Bahá’u’lláh, describes how the “divine friends” should be “attracted to” and “enamored of” each other:

Should one soul from amongst the believers meet another, it must be as though a thirsty one with parched lips has reached to the fountain of the water of life, or a lover has met his true beloved. For one of the greatest divine wisdoms regarding the appearance of the holy Manifestations is this: The souls may come to know each other and become … the stars of one heaven.

O ye friends! Fellowship, fellowship! Love, love! Unity, unity!–so that the power of the Bahá’í Cause may appear and become manifest in the world of existence. 

As you exert yourselves in the field of service, we would like to encourage you to send lots photographs, short reports and stories to cgcpetalingjaya@gmail.com as they happen. We hope to include some of these in the newly launched “Arise!” newsletter which will be published once a cycle. We hope that this newsletter will serve as a space to unite, inspire and focus our teaching endeavors as a cluster into one cohesive movement forward.

In light of the victories won for the Cause in our previous cycle, we are confident that the Bahá’ís will further rise to welcome more and more friends into the core activities. We look forward to working closely with you as we enter the 2nd cycle of growth for PJ community themed “Fellowship! Love! Unity!” 

With loving Bahá’í greetings,
CGC of Petaling Jaya