"O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of "Ya Bahá'u'l-Abhá" in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it." - Abdu'l-Bahá

Abdu'l-Bahá's historic journey to North America in 1912 "endowed the United States and Canada, nay the entire continent, with potentialities such as it had never known in its history."..."He, through that visit, had bequeathed a priceless heritage - a heritage which carried with it the sacred and primary obligation to arise and carry on in that fertile field the work He had so gloriously initiated."

No sooner had His long and arduous journey ended, the world became embroiled in a global conflict whilst "...He, repairing to the quiet solitude of His residence in the close neighborhood of Bahá'u'lláh's hallowed shrine, continued to communicate His thoughts and wishes to those whom He had left behind..." "In the immortal Tablets.... He unfolded to their eyes His conception of their spiritual destiny, His Plan for the mission He wished them to undertake. The seeds His hands had sown He was now watering with that same care, that same love and patience, which had characterized His previous endeavors whilst He was laboring in their midst." (Quotes from Shoghi Effendi - God Passes By)