sarawakbahai.org

The 7th National Institutional meeting was successfully held at Li Hua Hotel Bintulu from 30th to 31 October. A hunderd and thirty members of the various Baha’i Institutions and friends were present during the two days meeting. Also present at the meeting were Counsellor George Soraya, seven members of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Sarawak, Board members Dr. Shehab Phung, Kalong Katiik, Mail Ingkai and Mdm Tan Ing Kheng.

The Bahá’ís of Kg. Mujat in the Tebakang region of Serian had a grand opening ceremony for the completion of their Institute building. The guest of honour was the Hon. Datuk Richard Riot, Member of Parliament for that area. He was accompanied by Temenggong Datuk Michael Ben from Serian.

The reception committee comprised of members from all branches of the village administration, religious leaders, and those in charge of the community affairs, financial matters, school affairs, etc.

Datuk Richard cut the ribbon before entering the building. The Mujat friends had put up pictures of various proclamation matters, e.g. Bahá’ís visiting His Excellency the Governor of Sarawak, the Commissioner of Police, etc. The background of the main hall carried a large display of Abdul Baha’s words: “The best way to thank God is to love one another.

National Children and Junior Youth Education Coordinator Miss Geriti Katik our
resource person Mr Lee Yih Ven will be visiting advance clusters May-July to
train our newly appointed Children’s Class and Junior Youth Cluster
Coordinators; organize Children’s Class teachers gathering, get the statistic,
access SBI programs for Junior Youths animator and Children’s Class teachers and
train animators for Junior Youth Empowerment Programs. Their tentative visiting
schedule is below. We hope individuals, institutions and communities will give
them and your cluster coordinators

We are very pleased to share with you that according to reports received by SBI in October, 47 groups had completed their study circles and 148 friends had graduated from Book 1 to Book 7. We are also happy to note that many clusters are focused to move their participants up the sequence of courses. This is one way to ensure human resources for our own communities.

Kg. Sg. Pedada, Meludam:- Commencing 11 December a total of 23 believers from the host community and Kg. Sg. Meranti attended the institute campaign. 2 persons attended Book 1 with Sulang as tutor, two groups of Book 2, 6 participants with Mr. Ragai and 5 with Ms. Jamory. 10 persons attended the evening-only session study circle on Book 1 with Mr. Terrence Tinggi. On the evening of their arrival, the tutors were warmly welcomed by the community.

Clusters at the next level of development, characterized in the 9 January message as having “a few isolated localities and groups,” often encompass a broad spectrum of Bahá’í activity, depending on the country, the history of growth in the cluster, and whether the area is rural or urban.

Two different conditions have predominated in this category. There are a number of clusters that experienced large-scale growth in the past but had no functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies and very few active believes. Also prevalent are clusters that had, in addition to isolated localities and groups, functioning Local Assemblies, some with only basic capacity and others with longstanding experience and active communities, but with minimal or no institute activity. The general approach in both these types of clusters has been to strengthen the institute process, but the means and pace have differed according to their particular circumstances.