Growth cycles

This post is for some imaginary friends

I'm trying to practice three month growth cycles. This cycle I'm experimenting with an expansion phase of three weeks, with intensive efforts to expand my circle of friends, followed by ten weeks of consolidation. I do have a few new friends now, that I met during those three weeks.

Part of my consolidation efforts will be to work on helping to improve the quality of institute training. Another part, which overlaps with that, will be trying to learn to be a better friend to friends of mine who are learning to follow Baha'u'llah. Two of my friends and I have studied Ruhi Book 6 together, with me as the tutor, but sometimes we go for months without meeting. One of my goals is to practice and promote mentoring as a way of training, apart from study circles.

I've been reviewing Book 6, considering what it's designed to teach us to do. I'll study the book and practice, trying to learn to do those things, and invite my two friends to do the same, and to work with me in helping each other learn. The next step I have in mind is to start trying to learn to design and implement a personal teaching plan.

I've been reading about how some people here in China have been learning to follow Baha'u'llah. I want to study that some more, and practice doing what some Chinese people have been doing, as a way of learning to be a better friend to friends who are learning to follow Baha'u'llah. I want to ask one of my Book 6 study circle friends to help me with that by letting me talk to him sometimes about what I'm doing, and maybe helping me practice.

Some of the next things I'm dreaming of doing on the Internet are:
- Learning from stories about what kinds of online interpersonal experiences have helped open people's hearts to God, and attract them to His Kingdom.
- Finding ways to project the framework for action into Internet neighborhoods.
- Helping to develop online training for people who are learning to make better use of the Internet for God's purposes, starting with studying and practicing materials on the Web site of the Baha'i Internet Agency.