January 2024/ Sharaf-Sulṭán 180 B.E.

Community Newsletter

Vol. 1 Issue 4

Past Editions Found At https://www.nibahai.org/newsletters


Activities IL-3

Lombard

Aurora

⋅ ComeUnity

Thursday Jan 11 at 7pm

Second Thursday of every month.

First Church of Lombard 220 S Main Street Lombard, IL 60148


⋅ Monthly Devotions

Saturday Jan 13 6-8 pm

Held at the Shahrokh residence. Please text (630) 805-1397 for the address.

Glen Ellyn 


⋅ Fireside

Thursday Jan 18 at 7 pm

Hosted by Mark and Mahshad Movagh

1N571 Main Street Glen Ellyn 

For more information, contact Jim Percic (630) 606-8018 or jim_percic@comcast.net

⋅The IL-3 Cluster reflections gathering will be held January 13th 2024 9:30am - 1pm. It will be hosted by Mark & Mashad Movagh 

Activities IL-19

Oak Park



⋅Meaningful Discussions

Join in on studying sections from the Baha'i writings to provide a spiritual perspective on challenges that are relevant to the community today.

Held Sunday mornings at 11AM at the Oak Park Baha'i Faith Community Center

124 Madison, Oak Park IL


⋅ Hour of Prayer

Held every Sunday at 10AM  at the Baha'i Faith Community Center

124 Madison, Oak Park and over Zoom. Go to this website for details and links for Zoom. https://opbahai.org/activities


Activities IL-18

Arlington Heights


⋅Men's Breakfast

Come and enjoy some flapjacks & Mancakes, wash it down with a gallon of hot steaming java, and top that off with an ice cold cup of OJ. Now that's a breakfast!

Saturday Jan 13

2nd Saturday @ 8am

Uptown Cafe 24 E Miner St,Arlington Heights, IL 60004



 

Zoom


⋅ Evening Devotional

Hosted by Cliff and Linda Luxion on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 9pm on zoom. 

Zoom Link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81902451023?pwd=TG43ZjRVbGRjZmJmaHJ2aUdZMkVlQT09

Meeting ID: 819 0245 1023
Passcode: 322109

⋅Zoom Devotional

Hosted by Jim Percic and held on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month at 11:30 am on Zoom.

Second Saturday:

Zoom Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82308104531?pwd=RGdreHlCdHRINURnUlpZRHJFeTBpUT09

Meeting ID: 823 0810 4531

Passcode: 083485

Fourth Saturday:

Zoom Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85942921538?pwd=dGRwSWJQOWRlVGEwUUhwMjQzTkR0QT09

Meeting ID: 859 4292 1538

Passcode: 775333

⋅Zoom Children's Classes

Hosted by Linda Luxion 9 am  every other Sunday. 

Zoom Link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82509805538?pwd=bDVSUU9BNklmNjIxOHd2WFF2cmcwZz09

Meeting ID:
825 0980 5538
Passcode: 738064

⋅Online Connecting and Prayers

Hosted by the Luxions and held 9:00 am every Sunday on Zoom.

Zoom Link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81902451023?pwd=TG43ZjRVbGRjZmJmaHJ2aUdZMkVlQT09

Meeting ID: 819 0245 1023
Passcode: 322109

Pizza & Social Justice



⋅First Tuesday Conversations

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Peoples Community Church, 650 Lambert Rd. Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

Zoom Link: 

https://zoom.us/j/664704223

⋅First Friday Conversations

Friday, Jan. 5, 6:30pm-8:30pm at the McKee residence. For the address contact Nancy McKee at:
Nancy@nibahai.org

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/326557993

⋅Third Monday Conversations

 Monday, Jan 15 6:30-8:30 

1st Congregational Church
535 Forest, Pilgrim Hall
Glen Ellyn, IL.
Zoom Link https://zoom.us/j/168998487.
Meeting ID 168 998 487

If you feel ready to engage in meaningful conversations about racism, what it looks like in the world and in ourselves, and what we must do to begin rooting it out, this is the place to come.

We will be serving pizza, followed by discussion on a topic related to Racism/Social Justice.
The doors open at 6:30 with the meeting starting at 7:00 pm. Zoom will be active at 6:45 for those who wish to stay home or are to far away to join us in person.

Our goal is building a stronger community through sharing and conversation.

Pizza Served at 6:30 pm Meeting Start time: 7:00 pm

Narratives

A Return Visit

On December 12, my friend and I did our Consolidation Phase follow-up home visit with a friend we visited the previous month. This time our devotions consisted of sharing a few of our all-time favorite prayers and passages from the Baha’i sacred scriptures. We talked about the November 28, 2023 UHJ letter that recaps the achievements of the first century of the Formative Age (1921-2021) and we studied another section of the December 30, 2021 UHJ letter which lays out the goals and objectives of the current Nine-Year Plan. We also shared updates of our individual Home Visit Plans and agreed to check-in on one another’s progress every 2-3 weeks during the remainder of this Consolidation Phase (Nov. 16-Jan. 13).

Christmas Community Service at Cantigny

On December 21, 2023, six Baha’is from our cluster joined 20 other volunteers as guides and greeters at Cantigny Park’s Christmas at Cantigny light exhibition. This group of 26 volunteers came together at the invitation of a local not-for-profit called A.A.L.R. (Asserting Achievement, Literacy & Resiliency) in support of its Ubuntu House initiative. Ubuntu House is AALR’s effort to foster healing from racial trauma in the society at large—especially in the United States (www.aalr4success.org/general-9 ). The McCormick Foundation which operates Cantigny Park, offered AALR and 22 other community organizations $5,000 each if they gathered at least 25 volunteers each night during Christmas at Cantigny, December 1-23.

Being Organic Yet Systematic

Recently, my friend and I have been focusing our efforts on learning about how we can be organic yet systematic in our own neighborhoods and putting into practice the Universal House of Justice’s statement that the friends “should come to view every task, every interaction, as an occasion to join hands in the pursuit of progress and to accompany one another in their efforts to serve the Cause”. This week when we met to reflect, I asked her if I could share her narrative with the community because it illustrated many successes that have occurred in just the 6 weeks we have been systematic in our efforts.

In November, we discussed her neighbors- which ones she knew and which ones she would like to know. Of the neighbors she already knew (a little bit) she invited them to her devotionals. One of the other neighbors is primarily Spanish speaking so she bought a Spanish prayer book to gift her and after a few interactions was even invited to come celebrate Christmas with her new friend’s family. For the others, she thoughtfully delivered cards that said “Happy Thanksgiving” and included a sweet note and her contact information.
One neighbor she had not met yet so she put a card in their mailbox which they promptly returned to her unopened. She was a little saddened when she saw it but the next time we came together to reflect she decided to hand-deliver it and explain that it was for them and apologize for the confusion. They were very gracious and she was able to have conversations with them that she will follow up on in the next few weeks. Now that she has introduced herself and had a few conversations this week we collaborated on invitations to her monthly neighborhood devotional that she will be delivering to her neighbors in the next week.

Prairie Clean Up

Ten of us volunteered (2 not pictured)on December 2nd at Springbrook Prairie. We helped remove invasive species as part of an ongoing effort to restore the prairie to its native ecosystem. This is the third year the Baha’is have helped with this.

Save The Date

Please send in any events, narratives, pictures, or arts that you would like shared! You can reach us at Newsletter Submissions

Northern Illinois Baha'is

2N500 Bernice Ave.
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
United States of America