ing ability, their readiness and capacity to lend their assistance
to less privileged sister communities struggling against heavy odds;
through their generous and sustained response to the enormous and
ever-increasing financial needs of a world-encompassing, decade-long and
admittedly strenuous enterprise, they must, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
vindicate their right to the leadership of this World Crusade.

Now is the time for the hope voiced by 'Abdu'l-Baha that from their
homeland "heavenly illumination" may "stream to all the peoples of the
world" to be realized. Now is the time for the truth of His remarkable
assertion that that same homeland is "equipped and empowered to accomplish
that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the
world and be blest in both the East and the West," to be strikingly and
unmistakably demonstrated. "Should success crown" their "enterprise," He,
moreover, has assured them, "the throne of the Kingdom of God will, in the
plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly established."

Would to God that this community, boasting already of so superb a record
of achievements both at home and overseas, and elevated to such dazzling
heights by the hopes cherished and the assurance given by the Center of
Baha'u'llah's Covenant, may prove itself capable of performing deeds of
such distinction, in the course of the opening, as well as the succeeding
phases of this World Spiritual Crusade, as will outshine the dedicated
acts which have already left their indelible mark on the Apostolic Age of
the Faith in the West; will excel the enduring, the historic achievements
associated, at a later period, with this community's memorable
contribution to the rise and establishment of the world Administrative
Order of Baha'u'llah; will surpass the magnificent accomplishments which,
subsequently, as the result of the operation of the first Seven Year Plan,
illuminated the annals of the Faith in both the North American continent
and throughout Latin America and will eclipse the even more dramatic
exploits which, during the opening years of the second epoch of the
Formative Age of the Faith, and in the course of the prosecution of the
Second Seven Year Plan, have exerted so lasting an influence on the
fortunes of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the Antilles, throughout the
republics of Central America, in each of the ten republics of South
America, in no less than ten sovereign states in the continen