Messages to Canada | Page 8

abundantly, and enable you to win great and memorable victories in His service.
Your true brother, SHOGHI.

Letter of March 1, 1951
Haifa, Israel, March 1, 1951.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bah��'��s of Canada.
Your letters ... with enclosures, have been received; and our beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer you on his behalf...
Although he is finding it so difficult to keep up with his correspondence, owing to the increase of work here at the International Centre, he follows with interest the progress being made by the believers in Canada; and is delighted to see how your Assembly is growing in maturity and capacity to handle the problems which invariably arise in connection with administering the affairs of the Faith in such a vast area as the Dominion of Canada.
He was very happy to know that the work in connection with the Indians and the Eskimos is receiving special attention; and he would like your Assembly to please express to Miss Nan Brandle(11) his deep appreciation of the unique service she is rendering the Cause, and of the exemplary spirit which is animating her. He hopes other believers will follow in her footsteps, and arise to do work in this very important field of Bah��'�� activity.
He was also pleased to see that your Assembly had increased the annual budget, as this expresses the determination of the Canadian believers to expand their activities and carry on their work on a larger scale than ever before.
CONTACT WITH ARCTIC ESKIMOS
He was also very pleased to see that Mr. Bond(12) had gone north and had been able to contact the Arctic Eskimos. He hopes that the way will open for this devoted believer to establish a more permanent contact in that area in some field of government work.
He considers the policy of your Assembly of helping delegates from distant points to attend the Convention, an excellent one, as the attendance of these delegates enables them to carry back a very real awareness of the work in hand and the needs of the hour, to their local communities.
STIRRING EXAMPLE OF BRITISH PIONEERS
The Guardian feels that, although the Canadian Bah��'��s are making excellent progress in consolidating their National Assembly and its subsidiary committees, in holding Conferences and Summer Schools, in sending forth travelling teachers, and in contacting the important minority groups, the Eskimos and Indians, that they are not making sufficient progress in the all-important field of pioneer activity. If they are to succeed in accomplishing their plan, a far greater number of Canadian Bah��'��s will have to arise and go into the pioneer field. He feels sure that they can do this, as they have already had the stirring example of how much was done in the British Isles by a community of about their size. In comparing the problem which faced the British Bah��'��s under their Six Year Plan, and that which faces the Canadian Bah��'��s under their Five Year Plan, the friends should bear in mind that they were spared the severest ordeals of the war, the extreme restrictions and rationing which the British believers had to put up with. If the British Bah��'��s, with all their handicaps and suffering real physical and nervous exhaustion from the long war years, could accomplish so much, then surely the Canadian Bah��'��s, who were spared these conditions, are in a much better state to carry on and prosecute their tasks. What was done at the very breaking point in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales could be done--must be done--by the Canadian believers, with much less effort. Although sacrifice is required, he feels sure that the friends are ready and willing to make the necessary sacrifice, and arise to insure that the very first Plan, the very first organized work undertaken by them as an independent National Bah��'�� Community, will be carried forward and victory insured by the appointed time.
He assures all the members of your Assembly, and through you, the community that you serve and represent, that your work is very dear to his heart, and that you are often remembered in his prayers. He is waiting to receive the good news that many more objectives have been achieved during this coming Bah��'�� year.
With warmest Bah��'�� love, R. RABBANI.
Dear and Valued Co-workers:
The energy, fidelity and courage, with which the Canadian Bah��'�� Community has, in the course of this past year, faced its problems, discharged its duties and expanded the scope of its teaching and administrative activities merit the highest praise, and have greatly raised my hopes for the eventual consummation of the Plan which its members are so steadfastly prosecuting. Though unable, owing to a chain of circumstances beyond my control, to address them more frequently and convey to them my feelings of gratitude and admiration for their recent achievements, I have followed closely the course of their manifold