Long Overdue Catchup!
Greetings!
It’s been a while since my last post. We’re fresh off our Unit Conventions, which powerfully demonstrate a different, better way of choosing those who will lead and serve our communities in different capacities. At a time when we’re all mired in the contention of partisan electoral politics, I found it a joyful, hopeful, encouraging, and uplifting experience. I hope you did, too. I was able to update much of the Iowa community on the Project and to share some stories and content from the website.
While we’ve added some great new content to the site in recent months, we’ve spent more time making contacts and cleaning up residual effects of the hack earlier in the year. We are mostly caught up with that, with a few exceptions, especially in restoring external links to obituaries. I look forward to adding more gems from the Des Moines Bahá’í Archives and pursuing more leads on important stories from our history in the coming months. Our Facebook page remains active and a great place to connect or reconnect with others who have shared experiences over the years. In fact, seeing those joyful connections has been a wonderful surprise blessing of working with this Project.
Two specific requests: First, if anyone reading this was involved and can help us flesh out a story about the Hmong believers that came into the Faith in the Des Moines area through Bill Brown’s English language classes in the 1980s, please contact us! We have wonderful photos but have had trouble gathering information and stories for the narrative. We want to do justice to this significant story.
Second, we could use an additional team member or two with a little time and sincere interest in actively participating. Specifically, we’d love to find an additional person interested in doing occasional videorecorded interviews with longtime Iowa Bahá’ís. One of the stories I shared at our Convention is about the unlikely bond between Hugh Chance and Chappie Sires. The story comes from a video-recorded interview on the website with Don Sires, Chappie’s son, which is wonderful as a whole. But this particular story is also a great example of the importance of gathering and preserving our history while we can. Don passed away a few months ago, and how sad it would be to have lost these great stories because we didn’t capture them when we could!
As always, I encourage you to visit the website, register as a user, browse through the content, and leave comments about specific entries. I also encourage you to get involved. Submit your stories, photos, documents… Talk up the Project! Tell others about it and encourage them to check it out and to share their own memories. This Project has become a rich resource, but relies for growth entirely on your participation. YOUR STORIES AND MEMEORIES ARE IMPORTANT! You’ll find the website at www.iowabahaihistory.org. Email us at ibh@iowabahaihistory.org.
Discover more from Iowa Bahá’í History
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
