Then one day, a friend went to our house in Nigeria, and saw a piece of furniture in our living room. She loved it so much and told my Dad she wanted to buy it. My Dad said no, it's not for sale, but she kept insisting! So my Dad gave a price and without a word she quickly paid for it and took it home. My Dad immediately called me and said "You can book our tickets now". He calls this answered prayers :)
Before booking our tickets,
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'is of the Philippines shared an e-mail, saying that the Philippines is allotted only 15 delegates to attend the inauguration - 14 would come from 7 regions and one would be an NSA member. Each of the 7 Regional Bahá'i Council was tasked with identifying those friends from specific clusters, who would represent the Philippines by attending the two-day conference, and return to their communities to share their learnings and insights. So I learnt that we wouldn't be able to attend the inauguration because the two-day conference was strictly by invitation - for delegates from 12 countries and the local Bahá'is of Cambodia. I thought it would be a good idea then to schedule our travel such that we would be in Battambang the day right after the Conferences, because we might be lucky enough to catch some friends who stay behind. And that is exactly what happened.
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'is of the Philippines shared an e-mail, saying that the Philippines is allotted only 15 delegates to attend the inauguration - 14 would come from 7 regions and one would be an NSA member. Each of the 7 Regional Bahá'i Council was tasked with identifying those friends from specific clusters, who would represent the Philippines by attending the two-day conference, and return to their communities to share their learnings and insights. So I learnt that we wouldn't be able to attend the inauguration because the two-day conference was strictly by invitation - for delegates from 12 countries and the local Bahá'is of Cambodia. I thought it would be a good idea then to schedule our travel such that we would be in Battambang the day right after the Conferences, because we might be lucky enough to catch some friends who stay behind. And that is exactly what happened.
When we got to Battambang early one morning, we dropped our bags at our hotel and got a tuk-tuk to the Temple. At first, the driver asked me if we wanted to go to the old Bahá'i Temple or the new one? I was not sure what he meant by old, so I said new and showed a picture I found on google. He knew where it was. It was quite a ride away from the city center, but there were yellow arrows pointing to the direction. Then we got to one road and I could see it on the right side. A little colorful temple in the middle of a field. I said little because it looked small compared to the huge, endless fields surrounding it, and I said colorful because the beige walls and red roofs stood out in the middle of the verdantly green fields! It was quite a sight to behold.
We walked towards the Temple, took our shoes off, and followed the roll of red carpet to the entrance on the left side. We went in and said some prayers. After a few minutes of meditation, we went to the building connected to the Temple, and sat on the benches. We met some of the Philippine Bahá'i delegates, and I also saw old friends of mine from India, Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia. After a few hours of catching up, we went back to the hotel and returned later in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, all the chairs in the prayer hall were taken out. They were replaced with little pillows/cushions on the floor. I was told that the chairs were placed there just for the inauguration, but for the rest of the time, people will have to sit on the ground because that is typically how Temples in Cambodia are. That way, non-Bahá'is would feel comfortable, and at home, when they come in to pray. It made me think that if we are ever to have a House of Worship somewhere in the Middle East, the floor would probably be covered in Persian carpet, and we would also have to sit on the ground. We stayed there until the sun set.
The next day I told our hotel receptionists, our tuk-tuk driver and our Phnom Sampov (killings cave) tour guide to visit the Bahá'i House of Worship because it is now open to the public! They said they have heard about the Bahá'i faith, and even have Bahá'i friends, and one of them said she's been seeing her Bahá'i friends post photos over the last few months of the building's development. It was very beautiful being in a place where everyone I spoke to knew about the Baha'i Faith, and seeing how smiles swept across their faces when I showed them photos. The luckiest people were those who attended the two day conference - the Filipino delegates said that they got to visit the local communities around the Temple, observe how youths conduct activities, and they even had the chance to teach the Faith (with sign language!)
I remember when we went to the Killings Cave one morning, our tour guide told us tragic stories of how tens of thousands of men, women and children! were tortured and killed there in Battambang, by the cruel Khmer Rouge regime - and how several of the young adults today (including himself) are people who have lots their parents and relatives due to atrocities cause by the Khmer Rouge as recently as the 1970s! He told us that Battambang only started to be at "peace" in the last 20 years. I couldn't help but imagine how sad, lost and hopeless some people of Battambang must feel.
But then I thought - despite these hardships, the Bahá'is and their friends have continued to work day and night, to spread the teachings of the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Religion, the Oneness of Mankind throughout the province of Battambang. Despite losing family members, they've continued to gather children in neighborhoods and teach them the virtues of love and forgiveness; they've continued to empower junior youths to channel their energies and talents towards deeds that would promote the betterment of their communities. Their perseverance, positive outlook, humility and hard working nature is why they were very blessed to be the city where the first Local Bahá'i House of Worship was built. With the spirit of prayer and service, the local youths and adults raised up a House of Worship, to unite people of diverse backgrounds under one common cause.
In Arabic, we call the Local House of Worship "Mashriqu'l-Adhkár" which directly translates to the "Dawning Place of the Mention of God". According to the Universal House of Justice, a Bahá'i House of Worship is a "collective centre of society to promote cordial affection" and "stands as a universal place of worship open to all the inhabitants of a locality irrespective of their religious affiliation, background, ethnicity, or gender and a haven for the deepest contemplation on spiritual reality and foundational questions of life, including individual and collective responsibility for the betterment of society."
"The House of Worship is a gift
of the Bahá'is to the world..."
of the Bahá'is to the world..."
