YOUNG AT HEART
Bahá'í Newsletter
January 2002



Mission Statement

To facilitate seasoned Bahá'ís to utilize their life and professional experiences, talents 
and resources, knowledge and skills in continued service to Bahá'u'lláh.

Announcements

The Young At Heart meeting scheduled for Bosch Bahá'í School this coming May, 2002, 
has been cancelled. We received an e-mail from Jack McCants in December that he 
would not be able to attend due to a prior commitment. Due to that and other challenges, 
we decided to cancel this meeting and possibly reschedule it for some time in 2003. Stay 
tuned.

For those of you who have a change of snail-mail or e-mail address, please notify us so 
that we can continue sending you the Young At Heart newsletter. Thank you.

The Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute has a new e-mail address. It is: drbi@cgmailbox.com. 
Tobey Hampson of the Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute also has a new address. It is: 
ruthtobeyhampson@aol.com.

News

Besides conferences, there are other ways in which those of us who are involved with 
Young At Heart can participate in the Bahá'í world and the world at large. As we are all 
aware, the Universal House of Justice has placed a strong emphasis on children and youth 
and also on devotional meetings and study circles. If each of us would pick an area of 
interest and then proceed to involve ourselves, then much can be accomplished for 
ourselves, for Young At Heart, and for our beloved Faith. Action can mean so much and 
yet take so little effort. 

Recently I received a mailing from Juana Conrad about Women for International Peace 
and Arbitration (WIPA). The Peacemaker newsletter talks about Juana's recent trip to 
Asia. The newsletter also covered the NGO conference held last September in New York 
City which was to highlight the International Year of Volunteers. The date of the opening 
session was September 10, 2001. The newsletter went on to tell of the experience of the 
UN representative of WIPA for this meeting. WIPA has been around for over 15 years 
and its purpose is to motivate women and men in activities toward the settlement of 
international disputes by means of consultation, mediation and arbitration and thereby 
enhancing the opportunity for global peace. It is an international organization and 
represents members from the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia and other countries. 
There are ongoing service projects in Asia and Africa. WIPA has also participated in 
United Nations Conferences. For further information visit their web site at: 
www.wipa.org or write to: WIPA, PO Box 186, Wilmette, IL 60091. 

Do any of you live in a college town?  A note from Sara who lives near Bloomington, 
Indiana, where the University of Indiana is located, tells me of an organization where 
faculty and members of the Bloomington community mentor incoming freshmen. They 
see to it that these freshmen get lots of support so that they will stay in school. Many of 
those mentored are of a minority and really need all the help and encouragement they can 
get. What can you do in your town?

For those of you in AARP, in the December 2001 issue there was a large article about 
volunteering both within that organization and without. Virginia, one of our editors, has 
for a number of years taken part in the AARP 55 Alive Driver Safety Program. They 
have several programs available to include the AARP National Retired Teachers 
Association that works with our youth. I'm sure that there are also several opportunities 
for us to work with our Bahá'í youth in our own communities. The Red Cross needs 
seniors to train to be available to go anywhere to help with emergencies. Then there is 
Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, Meals on Wheels, and 
many more too numerous to mention. If you wish to find opportunities to volunteer, your 
local library might be a place to go for resources. Volunteerism is a very strong American 
ethic that is not really found world wide. It is part of the strength of America.

Horace Holley gave a talk at the Los Angeles Bahá'í Center on October 23, 1948. Some 
of the words he said then are very much applicable today. "Abdu'l-Baha came to this 
very city in pursuance of His sacred mission to create the soul and mind of man, and you 
who are here are the servants of the Divine Covenant. When Abdu'l-Baha left this earth 
He laid upon the Bahá'ís the mission of fulfilling His promise to God, and He did not 
charge us with anything beyond the capacity of faith. He charged us with something that 
is impossible without faith; something that could not be attained, or something if 
attempted could not be carried out by division and fear, but gave to us the capacity to 
fulfill the promise He made to Bahá'u'lláh, and He told us the way to enter in this 
capacity to serve. He said: "I charge to you to serve – to be active." And with every step 
you take on the path to the Covenant, the qualities you need will be given to you. We are 
qualified to serve if we serve, but that no matter what remarkable human qualities we 
may have, if we do not serve, we will lose them, one by one. 'Abdu'l-Bahá has pledged 
to serve us if we serve Him.

There are days when this editor feels like throwing everything up and saying to heck with 
it. Then comes along a letter from one of you that brings much joy to my life and is so 
uplifting. Things like that really give me the gas to keep going. Let us hear from you and 
tell us what you are doing in the line of service so that we can tell others about it.

Warmest Bahá'í love to all of you!
Judith Griffin                                                  Virginia Harden
P.O. Box 553                                                   605 Fifth Street
Dysart, IA 52224                                             St. Paul, KS 66771
319-476-3522	620-449-8955  
judith95@netins.net                                      vharden@mail.rlrnews.com