Introduction

In the wake of the regional conference in Atlanta (one of 41 world-wide conferences called for by the Universal House of Justice), I have become excited, awed and overwhelmed all at the same time. As I am surely not alone, I decided to start this blog as a way to verbalize the learning taking place here in Southwest Florida as well as clusters all around the world. 

Generally speaking, I envision that this blog will be read mostly by Baha'is. This means that while I will explain acronyms and other Baha'i-speak, I will not be explaining the larger concepts of the Faith. If you come across this blog and want to know more about the Baha'i Faith, please go to www.bahai.org.

As a Cluster Development Facilitator (CDF), I face many challenges but they are not unique in any way. The only thing that makes this designation daunting is that it comes with some necessary accountability (i.e. Someone... namely an Auxiliary Board member... will be asking me how it is going). Otherwise, my tasks are only formal manifestations of the work every Baha'i should be shouldering at this point in history.

I hope that this blog will be a place where some real interaction will occur and where we can share the learning taking place. Comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged. I am hoping people will send me information via email (oeabel@comcast.net) so that I can include it as a blog entry. While not a true 'forum' per se, it can still be a very useful way to spread information.

So... After having attended one of the conferences to "celebrate achievements" and "deliberate on current exigencies" (see Universal House of Justice letter dated Oct 20, 2008), what did you learn?