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You are looking at posts that were written in the month of April in the year 2007.
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Posted on April 29th, 2007 by JonathanLIVE.
Categories: Faith, Stories.
The Republic of Kiribati is situated on the Equator in the Western Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Guinea. It used to be known as the Gilbert Islands and it is remembered for the epic battle that took place at Tarawa atoll in World War II. More recently, Kiribati made television news when it became the first nation to welcome the dawn of the year 2000. For Bahá’ís, Tarawa remains forever tied to the memory of Samuel and Lynde Tranter, their complete devotion to Bahá’u’lláh, and their great compassion for their fellow men.
It was the future Hand of the Cause John Robarts, who was so impressed by Sam’s unfailing courtesy and trustworthiness at his service station in downtown Toronto, that he persuaded Sam to switch careers and to join his group of insurance consultants. Next, he urged Sam to study the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, and then he invited him to join the Bahá’í Community.
Sam and his wife Lynde soon became pillars of the Ontario home front, frequently to the point of exhaustion. When Sam “retired”, they decided to pioneer to the Pacific and live among islanders who seemed forgotten by the rest of the planet. Plagued by a severe lack of education and surrounded by poverty and decay, these people clung to a meager and often precarious existence on barren atolls that surrounded shallow lagoons.
Lynde settled in as a schoolteacher and Sam went to work with practical help, while both prayed for the region’s progress. We have all seen places where wrecked cars are simply dumped and left to rust. But here it was not at all unusual to discover dead persons who had been abandoned without funeral. Sam was regarded with high esteem, almost with awe, when he made it his business to gently collect the dead and give them a decent burial in the hard coral.
Amid such conditions, disease could be of epidemic proportions. Sam once caught a terrible virus while on a visit to a neighboring island. His life was saved when a priest who traveled on the same boat happened to carry with him the only medicine that could have helped.
After struggling and praying for five long years, Sam and Lynde began at last to notice promising change. They had firmly made up their minds to live out their lives in Kiribati to help her people until their energies were spent. Just one more year and they would be given permanent residency status. But God had willed otherwise. Their permit to stay that crucial extra year was denied and they eventually returned to Ontario’s Haliburton. There, in quiet moments, they would converse in Gilbertese as their prayers took them back to their beloved islands.
Samuel Tranter passed to the Abhá Kingdom on November 15, 1999 in Lindsay, Ontario, not far from where he was born 82 years earlier almost to the day. Sam and his cheerful, stalwart, and ever-loving companion Lynde, shall always be remembered for having belonged to that small band of truly great Canadians who had set out to conquer the world with the love of Bahá’u’lláh.
- Harry Liedtke, Central Okanagan G, January 6, 2000
Posted on April 28th, 2007 by JonathanLIVE.
Categories: Personal News.
I have been doing a lot of spring cleaning lately. While at it I came across pictures from my past travels and everything else. I decided to get all this stuff digitized. Inbetween my work I managed to get these photos rescanned. I am happy to see the scanning restored the quality of the images a great deal. I have uploaded them all and have added a number of new categories to my galleries. Also sorted out what I had there so it makes more sense. 
Posted on April 14th, 2007 by JonathanLIVE.
Categories: Stories.
While doing all this cleanup around my office, I happened across some fortune cookie fortunes that I had kept. I cannot recall exactly when I got these, but I think it must have been in the last year or so, since the mess I was cleaning up pretty much took formation around that time… hahaha :)… My fortunes read as follows:
Your present plans are going to succeed.
Happiness is around the next corner, wealth down the street.
If you have a cool fortune cookie fortune to share, feel free to comment on it below.
Posted on April 11th, 2007 by JonathanLIVE.
Categories: Faith.
Often times it is easy to look around the world and see all the bad things people do. I know I have done my fair share of pointing the finger. When we do, we focus on the degradation and low state that man can sink into. It can be quite discouraging, and sometimes can make some wonder what is the point of even trying when everyone else is just so bad. We are given a choice as to what we will focus on. It is of course one of many tests in life that enables your soul to either require more refinement or worthy of more blessings.
Baha’u'llah counsels us to not pay attention to those less than desirable aspects of humanity, and to be constant in our vision and actions to look to the power of His Name. When I decided to print out this quote at the time, I was thinking of those who try to stop me from succeeding in business. Sounds strange, but the hecklers of success do their best to bring you down to their lives of mediocrity. For many, they are destroyed by these characters whose words of discouragement are only manifestations of their own cowardice. For the few, they disregard them and reduce their words to meaningless fluff that with a mere brush of the hand falls to the ground and exercises no influence.
FaithTake heed lest the deeds wrought by the embodiments of idle fancy sadden you or the acts committed by every wayward oppressor grieve you. Seize ye the chalice of constancy through the power of His Name, quaff then therefrom by virtue of the sovereignty of God, the Powerful, the Omnipotent. Thus hath the Day-Star of My tender compassion and loving-kindness shone forth above the horizon of this Tablet that ye may render thanks unto your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.
(Baha’u'llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 246)
Posted on April 10th, 2007 by JonathanLIVE.
Categories: Faith.
This is another quote I had posted on my wall. I am beginning to wonder how I came across these various quotes and what prompted me to put them all together and print them out so I could see them often. I know it was several years ago I printed these. Reading this one reminds me of when I went travel teaching when I was 17.
Covenant of God FaithArise with every power to assist the Covenant of God and serve in His vineyard. Be confident that a confirmation will be granted unto you and a success on His part is given unto you. Verily, He shall support you by the angels of His holiness and reinforce you with the breaths of the Spirit that ye may mount the Ark of Safety, set forth the evident signs, impart the spirit of life, declare the essence of His commands and precepts, guide the sheep who are straying from the fold in all directions, and give the blessings. Ye have to use every effort in your power and strive earnestly and wisely in this new century. By God, verily the Lord of Hosts is your support, the angels of heaven your assistance, the Holy Spirit your companion and the Center of the Covenant your helper. Be not idle, but active and fear not. Look unto those who have been in the former ages — how they have resisted all nations and suffered all persecutions and afflictions, and how their stars shone, their attacks proved successful, their teachings established, their regions expanded, their hearts gladdened, their ideas cleared and their motives effective. Ye are now in a great station and noble rank and ye shall find yourselves in evident success and prosperity, the like of which the eye of existence never saw in former ages.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith - Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 362)
