Three Things…

Greetings!

I haven’t posted here for some time. Just too much going on! But I want to comment on three things.

First, I’ve been searching for other websites that address Bahá’í history, to see what’s out there and what we can learn from others’ efforts. I’m surprised at what I am and am not finding! There are quite a few single pages that summarize the history of the Faith in specific localities. There are videos or transcripts of talks about Bahá’í history in general. There are sites that address the early history of the Faith generally or profile prominent Bahá’ís individually. There are sites that offer the opportunity to share inspiring stories of individual Bahá’ís or that collect publications and documents about Bahá’í history. There’s a particularly interesting website, sponsored by the NSA of the Bahá’ís of the United Kingdom, that shares photos and individual stories about Bahá’ís of the UK (https://histories.bahai.org.uk). I’m happy to share links to the sites I’ve found with anyone who’s interested and would love to look at others that you’ve discovered! But, as far as I can tell, no one else is doing or has done anything like what we’re attempting in this Project. It’s kind of exciting to realize that we’re breaking new ground and may be able to offer ideas, if not a model of sorts, to other states or regions wanting to gather, preserve, and share their own Bahá’í histories.

Second, as I see it, what’s special about what we do is all about our—YOUR—individual stories of finding the Faith, trying to live the life, building bonds, and trying to serve as best we can in “our own realities” within Iowa. It’s been a while since we’ve had much original content coming in from current or former Iowa Bahá’ís. PLEASE SEND YOUR STORIES! And please keep talking about the Project and encouraging others to explore the website and submit your stories, photos, or information of historical significance! We have a rich collection already gathered but we’ve barely scratched the surface!

Third, due to a recent flurry of (easily-identifiable) spam would-be users on the website, we’ve been rejecting/deleting a lot of applications. It would be so much more satisfying to accept some real, legitimate new applicants! PLEASE REGISTER if you have not already, and encourage others to do so, too. There really is so much great stuff to explore and take in, and we’d love to have your comments to add to the content pages.

Thanks!