Pioneers and Pioneering:
Pioneers and Pioneering:
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…it should be the main concern of the teaching bodies in charge of the Central and South American teaching campaign to provide all such prospective pioneers with the fullest opportunity not only to acquire a perfect mastery of Spanish, but in addition to familiarize themselves, as thoroughly as possible, with the history, customs, and the social and religious background and traditions of the people in these Latin[pg 41] American countries. The Summer School, one of whose chief aims is to train and prepare the believers to become well-qualified and competent teachers, offers indeed good prospects of developing into a training ground for all prospective Central and South American Bahá’í pioneers, and it would be therefore most opportune if the Committees in charge of our three Summer Schools decide to start classes for the teaching of Spanish, and of any such subjects as would be helpful for teaching in Spanish-speaking countries.
From a letter 29 July 1939 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer
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He was pleased to hear that you were able to attend the Summer School at Geyserville this year, as these institutions are of the greatest help to the friends and inspire them to carry on their often lonely pioneer work with renewed zeal.
From a letter 22 November 1941 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer
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Nor should any occasion be neglected by the pioneers of attending, if their personal circumstances permit, either the British or German Bahá’í summer schools, and of forging such links with these institutions as will not only assist them in the discharge of their duties, but enable them to initiate, when the time is ripe, an institution of a similar character, under the auspices of the European Teaching Committee — an institution which will be the forerunner of the summer schools that will have to be founded separately by the future Assemblies in their respective countries….
From a letter 5 June 1947 written by Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’ís of the West