High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska

Letters to Individuals, 1939–1943. These were written prior to the formation of the first Local Spiritual Assembly and reflect the early development of the Faith in Alaska. 2 3

(1) March 12, 1939

Dear Bahá’í Friend,

The Guardian has received your most welcome and inspiring message of the 19th February, and is inexpressibly delighted to know that you have spontaneously offered your services for pioneer teaching in Alaska. 2 He can well imagine the feelings of immeasurable satisfaction and unbounded gratitude with which both the N.S.A. and the National Teaching Committee must have welcomed your determination to teach and establish the Faith in that far-off and hitherto unexplored territory, and he wishes me to express also his own appreciation and gratitude for this remarkable step which you have, notwithstanding the well-nigh insuperable obstacles in your way, been inspired to take to carry the Message to that distant land. The spirit of heroic self-sacrifice, and of unflinching resolve that has prompted you to undertake so noble and sacred a mission, and make such a warm and immediate response to his recent teaching call addressed to the American believers cannot but fill all hearts with admiration and praise, and evoke the memory of those acts of unrivalled heroism, of selfless and unstinted devotion that have characterized the lives of the immortal heroes of the Apostolic age of our beloved Faith.

Though labouring in an age and under circumstances wholly different from those in which those early pioneers of the Cause have been privileged to labour, yet it is that selfsame spirit of entire self-forgetfulness, of whole-hearted and unwavering loyalty, and of absolute consecration that is now, in this Formative period, inspiring you, and all our dear American Bahá’í pioneers, to forsake their all and undergo such privations and suffering in order to speed up and ensure the triumph of the Cause of God. 4

Rest assured that the Guardian will incessantly and most fervently supplicate on your behalf, that the invisible hosts of the Kingdom may continually reinforce and guide your efforts, and enable you to attain this assuredly high and noble goal you have set yourself to attain in service to Bahá’u’lláh and His Cause.

In the hope that this letter will find you well, happy and well on the way of the realization of your plans, and with most cordial greetings,

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and prized co-worker:

I am thrilled by the news you give me. How proud I feel of the spirit that so powerfully animates you. My prayers will, I assure you, accompany you on your great and historic adventure. Persevere no matter how great the obstacles in your way. Future generations will glorify your deed and emulate your example. The Concourse on high acclaims your resolve and will richly bless your endeavours. Be happy and confident.