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SPIRITUAL PURSUIT - some unsolicited testimonials
received by e-mail after the first edition in 1998:
From England:
I played The Warwick Bookshop's Spiritual Pursuit board game for the first time at the
feast of Baha last Friday and think it's absolutely brilliant. I can't tell you how much we
enjoyed it and how late it was when people tore themselves away - anxious wives
awaiting their return home. It didn't seem like half that late at all.
It combines questions at all levels of difficulty covering 10 areas of the Faith from the
central figures to the writings and calendar, with well thought-out and beautifully styled
board-play a little reminiscent of the Trivial Pursuit board (without the frustration).
Playing pieces collect tokens (rings in this case) as you answer questions correctly, and
triangular segments show when you have completed a section).
Did you know that all temples are based on a three level design? Or that truthfulness is
the foundation of all human virtues? What is the name of the third day of the Baha'i
week? In which country are there over 1 million Baha'is? What do the two
five-pointed stars on the ringstone symbol represent? If you want to find out buy
Spiritual Pursuit for the children, family or community.
A big thanks to Paddy and Ann and many others for all their hard work and sacrifice in
bringing us this brilliant game. In our community we are talking about making a regular
games night, it is such fun.
From Wales:
We had a great game with the Baha'is of Carmarthenshire at the last Feast. This really is
a great deepening tool. The next youth meeting will also involve Spiritual Pursuit.
Many many thanks for all those who worked so hard to devise and see through to
production such a great game.
From Australia:
Well, Saturday night, under the stars, the warm, scented tropical breezes gently stirring
the trees, four of us inaugurated "Spiritual Pursuit". And what fun it was too. The game
is played on a board divided into ten sections covering aspects of the Faith -
"Baha'u'llah", "The Calendar" etc. Each section requires you to roll a dice and answer
a question ("Beginners", "Easy", "Hard") the correct answer earning you one, two
or
three tokens. Amongst these themed questions are also general questions (facts and
figures, history, Hidden Words) so you cover enormous territory. Once you gain six,
you can proceed to the next section after receiving a token to show that you have
successfully passed that section. It was difficult to stop playing because we we were
enjoying ourselves so much. But we had an institute meeting to run... Not much more
involved than that really. The questions are universal without stretching to fill the card.
Good questions, and lots of them, simple to play, good fun. It would be possible to
create another set of questions for children, and of course to supplement the
questions....We learned a lot (some of which was put to use the next day at the institute
meeting..)..We got it as a resource for the regional institute. Money well invested,
which goes to support the innovative and imaginative Local Spiritual Assembly in the
UK.
From Scotland:
A BIG thank you to Paddy Vickers and Co. for producing this amazing game with
even more amazing questions! Our little community had a go at it on Friday after our
Naw Ruz Feast. We played it in teams and tried the questions for beginners (as we had
lots of children at the Feast, some not Baha'is). The sense of humour in some of the
questions is just wonderful. We had a great time and there was a lot of laughter and
quite a bit of head scratching, as we heard questions such as: 'What is the Arabic name
for the month of Beauty?', and 'Which Queen was prevented from visiting Shoghi
Effendi?'. Some questions got some of us older Baha'is thinking, but also there were
questions which our young not-yet-Baha'i friends were able and delighted to answer.
We enjoyed this game so much that it was suggested and agreed to arrange a
community games night specially to play Spiritual Pursuit. A real MUST for all
communities.
Thanks again to all involved in producing the game.
From Malta:
Stuart and I , on our recent trip to Malta, took with us our copy of 'Spiritual Pursuit'.
As I was going in order to take the children's classes at the Malta Spring School, I had
planned as part of their programme to play the game with them. It was a great success.
When one kind young lady, called Lodan, offered to take a session for me she
particularly asked to "play the game with them." ... Its success is evident, as the
Children's Class Committee asked about the game and where they could get it.
From France:
I showed the game to a lot of delegates to the International Convention in Haifa who
were stopping in Paris before and after the convention. Most of them came from far
away countries like New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Madagascar and a lot of countries from
all over Africa. They were all very impressed by the game and thought it was a
wonderful way for them to deepen the friends. As you might know, the process of
entry by troops has started in a few of these countries and they have lots of declarations
every day. Their main difficulty is to deepen the friends as they usually don't have
books, etc.. Some delegates expected the NSA of UK to talk about it at the convention
and regretted they didn't do so. Lots of them asked me to copy the cards, the game,
etc.. Knowing these people, it is exactly what they need - they love to play and it will
really encourage them to deepen themselves. I played with some friends from Vanuatu.
One of them had never left his country, never taken a plane, never seen a big city in his
life, etc.. - he was so shy - but when we started to play, life poured out of him, his eyes
were brilliant with life and I was so impressed to see how much he knew with no books,
etc.. It brought tears to my eyes.
From England:
I bought Spiritual Pursuit several months ago and have played it twice so far - not that I
wouldn’t have loved to play it more often but haven’t had the opportunity. I and the
people I played it with (7 in all), who mostly believe ourselves to be fairly
knowledgeable
Baha’is, were amazed to discover how much we didn’t know!, thought it was great fun,
and are eager to play again..... I recommend it highly to everyone - worth every penny.
From Singapore:
I have played it with my family a few times, my parents played it with one of our family
friends, and I even brought it to Bahai Sunday School to play it with the class
I am teaching. Everybody is having great fun with it and learning a lot too!
From Finland:
The game has been a real fun experience. Thanks.
From Australia:
I received the game, and I love its professional quality.....
From New Zealand:
We loved it.........it’s fantastic. Even to sit down with the cards alone and go through
them one card each evening would be fun. It would give you heaps of information
about the Faith. However, we found it more fun to realise just how little we know
about the Faith we adore.
From South Africa:
The game is good and we will use it lots....
People pay a fortune for Trivial Pursuit and have great fun, why not get Spiritual
Pursuit, have fun and learn something. We have had a whole social evening in our
community playing the game - adults and children - and have also played it with just
two and just three. Terrific fun..... it is so flexible. I recommend it to all Baha’is!
From England:
You can have our community’s testimonial... Slough community’s Friday deepenings
have been rejuvenated by it and my kids play almost daily with it - it’s a great source of
deepening and we are finding how much we don’t know!!
From The Netherlands:
I paid indeed a lot of money for Spiritual Pursuit, but so far I didn’t regret it for one
second. I seldom spend a penny on any game, they are mostly trivial and boring. This
one isn’t. Are other games cheaper? I am not sure, but I don’t think so. What then is
the problem? People aren’t scared to spend their money on something related to the
Faith, are they?
I bought one extra and I had immediately three people who wanted to buy one
from me. Immediately. Probably more, but people knew they were too late. It is a lot of
money, but it is NOT expensive.
Besides, it gave us all a lot of fun at Feast.
From England:
The main thing that is good about Spiritual Pursuit is that it is fun to play.... The biggest
plus, and I think the most valuable thing it does (certainly with the youth I have seen
play it) is to increase the sense of Baha’i Identity. Creating a sense of Baha’i Identity is
an extremely important part of Baha’i Education which we sometimes forget.
From the U.S.A.:
We played Spiritual Pursuit at the last Feast. Such fun. Thank you.
From Oman:
Many thanks, your game has won the admiration
of many of our friends here in Oman.
More of the friends now would like to own a copy of the game.......
From Australia:
Thank you so much for “Spiritual Pursuit”. We love it. It arrived just in time for
Christmas, the first Christmas gift the kids have had for years - and the best....
We were very impressed with your promptness. I really didn’t expect to get it
without paying for it first!!
From the U.S.A.
The game arrived Thursday and my husband and I had a great time playing it
for the first time tonight. It took about an hour and ten minutes for the two of us
to both get around..... Great game! Thanks!
From Lithuania:
I wish you could have been here on the occasions when we played the game. It’s a
good job we don’t gamble. It was a huge success. We were in the process of a 4
weekend intensive study programme, as intensive as we can get here, and the highlight
was that after this Saturday evening study we made popcorn and played “THE GAME”
as it has now been called. The amount of learning that was achieved by playing “the
game” was unbelievable. The noise, the laughter, the excitement was just beautiful.
From Grenada:
Thought you would like to know, that a friend brought us Spiritual Pursuit as an
Ayyam-i-Ha gift, and we use it for teaching all the time. In fact, we have almost
worn out the cards! Thanks for so many hours of pleasure and learning....
My wife is ABM here, and I have the privilege of being the National Secretary this year
for the N.S.A. .........
From the U.S.A.:
Thank you so much for the game. It has been a big hit with the Youth here in my
community....
From Canada:
We are enjoying your game and recommending it to our friends....
From Finland:
Just to let you know we think your game is great! I have been playing with the idea to
give a game to the Youth Committee of Finland.... Anyway, I think it is fun to
play the game - it is a good equalizer, when the hard questions for old believers,
and easy questions for the youth, level the chances of winning. For this reason, our
family’s kids like the game!
From Canada:
I know you must be really busy with all of this, and with all the responses you’ve been
getting from people around the world. Thank you so much for this service, and as I’m
sure you know, many of us really love this game -- I sure do. =)
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