And so it began…

A word from Ed’s wife, Ellen:

The writing of this book began, as best as I can recall, back in 2007. Ed and I are both dedicated Baha’is and the Baha’i Faith is the dominating influence of our lives. I’m so grateful for that!

L to R — Ellen’s mom (Alice), Ellen, Alyssa, and Ed on pilgrimage to the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, Israel. April 2007

We went on pilgrimage in Spring 2007 to the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, Israel and the resting place of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah, in nearby Akka, Israel. Ed was praying that God allow him to render some service to humanity — something important.

I work in the national communications office for the Baha’is of the U.S. and Ed and I frequently discuss the need to learn how to share the teachings of the Baha’i Faith — especially the principle of “progressive revelation“.

As we talked and talked and talked (and talked!)… the idea of writing a book on the subject of the Mission of Baha’u’llah began to take shape. When we went on pilgrimage, Ed had an opportunity to share his idea with others whom we respected who were very encouraging. Soon afterwards, we decided that he should work on the book full time. We suspected it would take maybe 1, 2 or 3 years — at the most. Well, seven years later, and as the project nears completion, the book has grown into a much deeper endeavor than either of us could have imagined! (And a LOT more pages than we ever imagined it would be! It’s going to be six volumes! Ed will explain more about the structure of the book later.)

There have been many times when we were frustrated that it was taking so long but, I believe in Ed and I believe in the book and I genuinely believe it is an important piece of research and writing that will be of service to humanity.

I hope readers find the book as insightful, ground-breaking, interesting, educational, clever, thought-provoking, inspiring, and surprising as I have!