The following intervie is continued from the pages of the Arise 'zine for junior youth where our roving junior youth reporters Neda and May were last seen interviewing Dr. Billy Roberts, Treasurer for the National Spiritual Assembly.

Neda and May:  Do you have any exciting news for junior youth?

Dr. Roberts:  I have a wish.  
 
Dr. Roberts:  I have a wish.  
  

Neda and May:  What's your wish?

Dr. Roberts:  I wish that junior youth all over the United States would come up with ideas to help raise money for the Chilean Temple.  Now the reason I wish this is because of something that happened a couple of months ago.   We have these special visits where people who have contributed to the Kingdom Project are invited to come and visit during a Holy Day.

And there was one man, his name was Mr. Jiveh.  Mr. Jiveh is in his eighties now.  I think he was invited for the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh. He was so excited about visiting the Temple, and even as he walked up the stairs he walked with such care and such reverence. When he reached the top of the stairs at the Temple--you know the pylons that go up before you go into the door?.  He touched each one and just rubbed his hands on them, and then he bowed his head as he went into the Temple.  Later when I saw him I was so touched by what he was doing.  It was very special, and I said to him, "you seem to like you are really enjoying being here".  His English wasn't so good but his wife was with him and said, "yes, he's very happy to be here," and I said, "we're happy to have him." She said "no, you don't understand.  When he was a little boy in Iran he would contribute his allowance to help build the Temple, and now he's here and he actually sees it, and he's so overcome with excitement because finally he's able to see the Temple that he helped to build as a little child."

It reminds me now that we are building the last of the continental Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs in the world.  It's going to be in Chile.  So I want those of you that are junior youth to be able to say to your children and to your grandchildren when they ask you, "did you help to build the Temple in Chile?" to be able to say yes. And if they say to you "what did you do," you can tell them I did this project, or I did that project or I sacrificed to help build that Temple so that when you go and visit it you'll have the same feeling that this man had, because it not only makes you feel blessed but also your children and your grandchildren and their grandchild will be able to say "My Grandmother…" or "My Grandfather contributed to help build this Temple". So that is what I want to say to junior youth.

So this summer when school's out and you are wondering sometimes what do with yourselves maybe you have little projects--lemonade stands, put on plays, make crafts. Do something to contribute to building the Chile Temple because it's a precious opportunity that I don't want you to miss.

Neda and May:  Were you born a Bahá'í

Dr. Roberts:  No I wasn't. I became a Bahá'í when I was a youth.  I heard about the Faith when I was in high school and then investigated it a couple years later when I was in university.  I had some really good friends there who decided that they wanted to teach as many people as they could about the Faith and they introduced me to the Faith very carefully.  I think they decided that maybe I should know about Bahá'u'lláh, so they told me about Him.

Neda and May:  Before you were treasurer, did you have a job?

Dr. Roberts:  Yes, I was a psychologist.  Shocking huh?  I had a clinical practice and a consulting practice, and that is what I used to do for many, many years until the National Assembly asked me if I would come and serve as Treasurer full-time.

Neda and May:  What is the hardest part about being the National Treasurer?

Dr. Roberts:  Well, I was elected Treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly in 1999, a year after being elected to the National Assembly.  The toughest part of being Treasurer was to accept the fact that there was enough trust in me to take care of that responsibility, because you know, trustworthiness is such an important aspect of being treasurer.  If you are not trusted, people will not contribute their Funds.  And so, really I was overwhelmed by the fact that there was trust, and I really pray all the time that that trust continues,  that I am worthy of that trust.  Beyond that, it was hard work so I had to learn how to do it and how to serve.  I still worry about that and I'm still trying to learn how to serve.

Neda and May:  What do you exactly do every day in the office?

Dr. Roberts:  Well, I come to the office in the morning and I always say my prayers before I start my day.  I often am meeting with members of the staff.  I write lots of letters and respond to lots of questions and telephone calls and consult with other members of the Assembly that serve here at the National Center, and basically try to help the Bahá'í community to fulfill the responsibility to ensure that the material means that are necessary to the advancement of the Faith are available.

Neda and May:  We noticed you have a lot of turtle figurines in your office.

Dr. Roberts:  A long time ago someone sent me a card that said, "Behold the turtle, he only makes progress when he sticks his neck out". And I got that card and I thought I really like that. So, since then every time I'd see one that I thought was neat and unusual I would get it because they usually aren't that expensive, and I started collecting them.  And then people started finding out that I liked turtles, and when they found them they would even give them to me, so I ended up with turtles, turtles, turtles all over the place…

Let me ask you this-how old are you two?

Neda and May:  "13"

Dr. Roberts:  At the end of the five year plan you'll be 18.  You'll be youth beginning to go to college and beginning of young adulthood and you'll be in a completely different position so that's why its so important now that you really discover Bahá'u'lláh for yourselves and study and understand.  We have a series of books now in the Ruhi process specifically for junior youth that you'll be able to relate to-that are not just sitting and reading all of the time.  It's actually getting out and doing things because you guys like to move. And so I will look forward to hear from you to tell me how that's going.  Pay attention to the Five Year Plan it's really important.

And find out your roll in it.  It's really important to find out for yourself what you can do in the Five Year Plan.