Böcker av Earl Redman

'This is a Day for very great things.' - 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Howard Colby IvesHoward Colby Ives's book Portals to Freedom has been loved for over eight decades by its many readers who have been touched by its pen portraits of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. But not many know the story of his wife Mabel Rice-Wray Ives, whose dedication to the Bahá'í Faith made her a powerhouse in her own right, developing a method of public speaking that proved highly successful. Together, they formed a powerful team, giving up house and home for 20 years to travel across the United States and Canada in their desire to be of service to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. They taught the Bahá'í Faith in at least 74 communities in 26 states and three Canadian provinces, frequently sent to different areas by the National Teaching Committee, and although they missed each other terribly they never refused these requests. Most of this book is based on the over 900 letters sent by Howard and Mabel Ives or those received by them, including 17 Tablets from 'Abdu'l-Bahá and 28 letters from Shoghi Effendi, many published here for the first time. Their letters to one another are full of the details of their hopes and their struggles, the places they went and the people they met. When they were apart for any length of time - which was often - they would write almost daily to each other. What unfolds, apart from the details of their activities, is the deeply loving relationship between them, the encouragement and advice they offered one another, and their homey conversations about their living situations, money (always in short supply), and expressions of hope for the next time they would be together. Woven brightly throughout this personal correspondence between husband and wife is the humility of their service, their utter devotion to the Cause they strove to serve with every breath, and their commitment to continually growing spiritually along with daily examples of their constant sacrifices. They did, indeed, accomplish 'very great things'.

Shoghi Effendi Through the Pilgrim's Eye tells the story of the Guardian's ministry from 1922 when the young Shoghi Effendi, just 24 years old, was charged with guiding the affairs of a worldwide Faith. Rather than a biography, it draws on the diary entries and letters (many now published for the first time) of the many pilgrims and visitors to the Bahá'í Holy Places in Haifa and 'Akká, as well as the accounts of those who worked to assist the Guardian in his many extraordinary achievements.As in all such cases, these recollections must be taken in the spirit of pilgrim notes - interesting and thought-provoking highlights and observations, but not any part of the Bahá'í Sacred Text. They do, however, provide unique insights and inspiration.Volume I (1922-1952) covers the years when the Guardian was laying the foundations of the Bahá'í Administrative Order destined to culminate in the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, while at the same time planning and carrying out the extension and development of the Shrines of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, translating the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh as well as The Dawn-Breakers and writing his own major works, as well as facing challenges to his authority and responding to the confiscation of the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad and the persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran and Egypt. The volume ends just before the dramatic decade that was to begin in 1953 with the celebration of the Bahá'í Holy Year, the first intercontinental conferences and the launching of the ten-year worldwide spiritual plan to carry the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh to every place on the planet.Pilgrims include:Agnes AlexanderEffie BakerMúsá and Samíhíh Banání Victoria Bedekian Lady Blomfield Nancy BowditchTed Cardell Stanwood and Nayyan CobbAmelia Collins Genevieve Coy Ethel Dawe Alice DoolittleSabrí EliasJohn EsslemontNell French 'Alí-Akbar FurútanUgo Giachery Hermann, Anna & Elsa GrossmannPhilip HainsworthLarry Hautz James HeggieEmogene Hoagg Leroy IoasMarion JackDhikru'lláh KhádemAli-Kuli Khan and Florence Abu'l-Qásim KhurásáníRom LandauMay and Mary Maxwell Sutherland MaxwellMargery McCormickMuhammad MustafaNew Zealand Bahá'ísSadie and Bertha OglesbyMabel and Sylvia PaineAziz Panahi Keith Ransom-KehlerMason RemeyMartha RootEthel RosenbergEmeric SalaFred and Lorol Schopflocher May and Isabelle Stebbins Habíb Taherzadeh Juliet ThompsonGeorge Townshend Corinne TrueGladys and Ben WeedenAlbert Windust

Agnes Alexander was the only Hand of the Cause of God to be mentioned in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote of her: 'I declare by the Lord of Hosts that had this respected daughter founded an empire, that empire would not have been so great', and described her as 'the daughter of the Kingdom, the beloved maid-servant of the Blessed Perfection'. Her life spanned the closing epoch of the Apostolic Age of the Faith and the earliest epoch of the Formative Age, saw the erection of National Spiritual Assemblies in lands where she was once the lone Bahá'í, and also witnessed the birth of the long-promised era of the Universal House of Justice. Two things guided her. The first was the direction given both to her personally and to the Bahá'ís collectively by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi. The second was her constant belief that things happen 'if God wills' them to happen. She was an optimist, rarely acknowledging the negative side of things. She radiated love and kindliness everywhere she went and never spoke badly of others; consequently she was able to do many things others could not. During her 70 years of service to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, Agnes Alexander opened Hawaii, Japan and Korea to the Bahá'í Faith, travelled with Martha Root in China and served across the Pacific Ocean. At the age of 83, she served simultaneously on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Kyoto, the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the North East Asia and as a Hand of the Cause. A close friend wrote of her: 'she was Japan's real super-hero disguised as a little old lady'. This book is based on Agnes Alexander's own accounts of the establishment of the Bahá'í Faith in Hawaii and Japan, but more especially on the 40 years of research by Duane Troxel into her life - over 12,000 files of letters, photographs, audio and video interviews and a host of other previously unpublished materials. It was the task of author Earl Redman to distill these into this fascinating and readable story of an exceptional life.