My Mom is Home Front Pioneering

Meet my mom. Her name is Gloria. She is home-front pioneering in a small town called San Juan Tepezontes in El Salvador. This is her with some of the kids from her children’s class and a goat:

Photo by Karen Rosel.

Home-front pioneering might not mean much to you so let me explain. First, pioneering was best explained by my dad in one of his autobiographical episodic accounts:

It is similar to what some other organizations do in that its followers are encouraged, but not required, to travel to other lands to spread the Word. Unlike many who do this from other faiths, a Bahá’í is not a missionary who is sponsored or supported financially by a home base. This means a Bahá’í “pioneer” must find a job in his or her new home, become an integral part of his or her new culture, hopefully speaking the language, etc.

Now, home-front means that she traveled to a different land within her same home country. Even though she was born and raised in a very small town called Dulce Nombre de Maria (Sweet Name of Mary), my family lived in the capital city, San Salvador since I was born in ’83. Thus, she essentially pioneered from the capital to a very rural town about one and a half hours away. She lives there in a Baha’i-owned, little house. These are some of the things she does on a day to day basis:

• Teaches classes of moral education for children.
• Animates groups of junior youth (ages 12 to 14) to learn about spiritual topics and to do service in the community.
• Facilitates the study of courses from the Ruhi Institute with youth and adults.
• Organizes devotional gatherings for the whole San Juan Tepezontes community.

She loves being there (as you can tell) and I am very happy for her.