Can you speak to your experience of serving with people who have come from all over the world?
Its very thrilling to have this kind of diversity. We are united at a fundamental level of belief, but wonderfully diverse in style. We are developing close bonds of friendship with people from all over the world. We feel we can travel to their countries and visit them in the future.
What has been the most surprising emotion you have felt and how has it helped you come to a better understanding of the work you are doing there?
There is another couple we knew from many years ago that we had lost touch with (no email or Facebook). It's been a joy to reconnect with them and have that continuity in our friendship. We miss our family and friends from home. We also miss conveniences, like a car! Sometimes we are not sure that what we are doing here is making a difference to the betterment of the world, but the quote below helps to bring focus to the work we are doing.
“If only the friends could realize it, the glory of our Faith is not that people with unique abilities do the work of the Cause, but that it is done by the sacrifice of loving and devoted souls who arise selflessly to undertake work they feel themselves incompetent, sometimes, to achieve. God works through them and endows them with gifts they did not dream they could ever possess “. (Shoghi Effendi)
How could you have prepared yourselves better for the experience of serving at the World Centre?
The work that Bevan is doing entails lots of walking, climbing stairs and ladders, so he could have been in better physical shape! He has much more stamina now and has dropped some weight, which is good. That's the benefit of climbing a mountain on a daily basis! We don't know how we could have prepared for the heat. It hasn’t been easy. The temperatures are cooler now, about 28, but all summer long the temperatures were around 34-39 degrees and we have had no rain since we arrived in May.
When you think of the 4 months you have been at the World Centre, what are the highlights so far?
One highlight is the fact that we are able to visit the Baha’i Shrines when ever we like. We are fortunate to be in such close proximity of the Holy Places. Bevan has been painting the walls or glazing the historic windows of some of our most Holy Places. Another highlight is to be working and building bonds of friendship with people from all around the world. We have tried to take advantage of our time here to explore areas of Israel we have not seen before and we get to do this with new friends! We have been to a couple of national parks with underground caves dug out 300 years BC. We have been to a number of Christian Holy Places and ruins. We don’t have transportation, so we go by sherut/taxi, which holds 16 people, or sometimes we go with friends who have cars. We brought electric bikes to get around with, however the traffic can be more intimidating than Salt Spring! A nice perk of living in Haifa is the beach walk with many restaurants, play areas, and skate parks for families. People don’t have big yards for children to play in, so public space is well used.
What is it like interacting with the community outside the Baha’i World Centre?
There is no resident Baha’i community here, everyone is a volunteer for a limited time. When we have conversations with the local people, we answer their direct questions and the most common one is; “why are you here?" We tell them that we're volunteering at the Baha’i World centre and they respond “Ah ha... at the Baha’i World Centre!“. We have made very nice connections with our local bus driver who we see almost daily. He teaches us basic Hebrew and we share stories about each other’s families. It feels very safe from crime here. It feels safe walking alone at night, for instance. The drivers are typically aggressive with lots of horns honking. Bevan tries to get the people in his department, mostly young guys, to not fall into this same type of behaviour, but instead, to show more courtesy. One example: when a young mother was waiting to cross a busy intersection with her stroller, Bevan calmly waited and waved her across. He could see by her big smile that she was very grateful. We hope we are teaching more by example rather than by words.