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ENROLLMENTS IN VIRGIN TERRITORIES- Nor can I refrain from emphasizing in this rapid survey the highly significant fact that in over sixty territories, constituting more than a half of the total number of virgin territories opened to the Faith, since the inauguration of the World Spiritual Crusade, the number of those who have espoused the Cause of Baha'u'llah and enlisted under His banner has surpassed the number originally anticipated and regarded as a minimum for the opening of these territories; that in a considerable proportion of them the Baha'i membership has far exceeded the number required for the formation of local Assemblies; that in Gambia as many as three hundred, and in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as many as five hundred, have been and are being enrolled beneath His standard;, and that in Uganda alone, which holds the palm of victory, the number of registered believers has exceeded one thousand. (98:1) NEXT PHASE OF WORLD CRUSADE- Such heart-warming, soul-stirring examples of Baha'i initiative and enterprise; such splendid testimonies to Baha'i solidarity, perseverance, courage, fortitude, and self-sacrifice, displayed in rapid succession, and over so immense an area of the globe's surface, and in the face of mounting opposition on the part of those who envy the ever widening glory of the Faith or fear the influence of its all-pervasive power, have shed on the opening chapter of this Crusade a luster which the passing of time can never tarnish. The third phase of this momentous enterprise - the opening of which is, at this hour, being signalized by the emergence of no less than three additional Regional Baha'i Assemblies in the African Continent - must cast on the annals of this prodigious Crusade an illumination of such brilliancy as will eclipse the splendor of this luster.
(98:2)
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