Dearly loved
friends,
Sixty years ago
'Abdu'l-Bahá summoned the valiant North American believers to open the remote
and inhospitable regions which form the climatic frontiers of the Arctic and
the sub-Arctic. The full implementation of His wish had to be postponed for
some years, until, under the leadership of His beloved grandson, well-grounded
administrative bases were established from which Bahá'í crusaders could set out
in conquest of these prized and virgin lands.
As early as 1915,
however, we see a first wave of itinerant teachers and short-time settlers
directing their steps towards Alaska in an attempt to open it to the light of
Bahá'u'lláh. This was followed by a second wave of determined pioneers and
spiritual conquerors who, ever since the first Seven Year Plan, demonstrated
their exemplary enthusiasm and caused "the breezes ... of the love of
God" to "Perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants" of that
"vast country." In Canada, in response to the Master's call, a
succession of home-front pioneers settled and opened the length and breadth of
their land, so rich in promise "whether from a material or a spiritual
standpoint," and whose destiny is to "become the object of the glance
of Providence." To the fringes of Greenland North American and European
pioneers brought the light of God's Faith, and provided the means for the fire
of His love to be kindled in that land, in anticipation of the day when it will
become "a divine rose garden and a heavenly paradise." Iceland,
specifically mentioned by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, was
opened and consolidated, and has, through the warm response of its inhabitants
to the Call of God, undoubtedly become one of the shining beacons of the
"lights of the Most Great Guidance" in the North.
