Insights from Yap inspire East Multnomah County study group

by Robert Rozencranz

Our Ruhi study class was small but spiritually mighty. Ruhi Study is based on  consultation; we all studied together as opposed to top down management. Our study was the first Ruhi course, Reflections on the Life of the Spirit, which is about virtue, the Power of Prayer, praying daily and Life After Death. Simple subjects, I originally thought.  But after facilitating the course—not teaching it, not preaching it—I was enlightened.

One of our classmates is J_, who is from Yap, a set of islands in Micronesia, 500 miles southwest of Guam. J has some teeth missing.  But why? As the class proceeded, we learned that J had been robbed of his motorcycle and beaten in the attack so severely that part of his skull is still missing. The medication he takes for the seizures resulting from the beating has caused damage to his gums and robbed him of his front  teeth.

When our class discussed guidance sent by God through a human form, J shared his knowledge of the Navigator (translated from Yapese).  An eon ago, being an island person meant you were dependent on your neighbors and on catching fish. You needed a Navigator more than most anything else.  And so for those living in Yap, the Navigator was a reflection of God.

Of course others in the group shared their knowledge of Whom they accept as God or a reflection of God. J shared mostly the power of prayer. He had memorized many prayers in two languages, but now he reads the prayers as his mind no longer functions like it once did. His soul, however, functions like a shining star.

I can't promise that a character like J will be in the study class you take, should you take one. But you will learn something that tugs your heart strings through your classmates or the Writings you study.