Great turnout for today's gathering!

After so much fuss and preparations we were totally delighted with the turnout at our special get-together today. Our favorite speaker, Richard Mirkovich, came all the way out from the Island of Chira (about an 8 hr trip for him) to keep the whole crowd completely entranced with what he had to say.
The theme was about the unfolding of civilizations--always being under the guidance of Spiritual Teachers. Richard is a person who has integrated the Baha'i Teachings very well in his life, so he's a wonderfully natural speaker and educator. It's truly entrancing to listen to the wonderful ideas he presents, like the latest studies he's been doing on the Indigenous cultures who inhabited this area thousands of years in the past. But his talks are full of practical daily applications of the principal of service to humanity. He has little kids, their parents, local policeman--anybody who is interested---attend his English classes on the island. They flock to him and really keep him busy. (The idea of teaching locals English stems from his idea that this will assist them to deal with the huge influx of international tourists to the area and improve their economic situation. However, he has them converse about spiritual and scientific matters while they are learning the language. If they don't understand a particular idea he'll give them a translation.) Anyway, the students are flocking to his place in a steady stream. (There's no charge, of course, and they know that the benefits are long-lasting.)
Here's Richard expounding the theme:
We were very happy that a number of guests who are interested the the Faith showed up.
Plus a bunch of our Baha'i Youth and their friends came:
Margie blew everyone away with her elegant attire! (She was going to her boss's wedding after this event.)
And the kids played a bunch of hoops on David's new set before we called everyone in for eats and cake and coffee. We always know how successful an event is by how long they hang out afterwards. (Note the sunset.)