Three girls and a tall boy with wild curly hair gather around a bright green table and repeat a reading as a way to start the class:

O son of spirit, my first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

Prompted by the confused looks on the kids faces, Alemash Asfew, 37, explains with a smile.

“Prayer is our way of talking to God,” said Asfew, “so the readings are his answer, they tell us about what God wants us to do: God wants us to have a pure heart by being aware of our virtues. What’s this week’s virtue?”

Val, 11, and her sister Vim, 12, raise their arms and wave their hands in the air, until Val answers, “we had to think about assertiveness, we had to say and do what we think is important.”

Next week’s virtue is commitment. “Does any one know what commitment means?” asks Asfew.

“When people get married they commit to staying married,” answered 10 year-old Samantha while trying to wrestle a pencil away from her brother, 12 year-old Rafael.

“But what about in our lives?” said Asfaw, “can we have a commitment to finish our homework, be on time or eat an orange a day? Is that commitment also?”

“Yes!” shout the children at once.

Asfaw is Baha’Ì who came from Ethiopia to live to live in New York ten years ago.

She works as a counselor in a hospital and has been teaching Sunday school at the Manhattan Baha’i Center located on 53 East 11th Street in Manhattan for the past year.

“Bah’ullah, the founder of our faith, says in the readings the community is responsible for its children,” said Asfaw , “we are responsible of providing an education, and a safe environment, so this is my way to contribute to that principle.”

At the Manhattan Baha’i Center, Sunday school focuses on the development of awareness of one self by practicing the virtues that are reflections of the qualities of god, and understanding both readings, called hidden words, and prayer.

Asfaw teaches the class along with Winsome Linton, 40. Linton is an office clerk who started to teach Sunday School along with Asfaw just a few months ago.

Together they split the class between age groups. “We usually have around 12 to 15 children” said Linton, “but this weekend a lot of them didn’t come.”

For the past few weeks, the class has been studying the life of Bab, also known as “the gate,” the last prophet send to pave the way of the Bah’ulla.

Each child has been making a book about the life of Bab. The books are made with construction paper, glitter, ribbons, and crayons. Today they are finishing a crossword puzzle.

“11 across.” Reads Samantha “, the Bảb was a….of god.”

Rafael starts writing the word messenger on his crossword, as Val and Vim follow. But Samantha is thinking hard and looking at the blank spaces….
“It’s not messenger, its longer…” said Samantha looking at Asfew, “Manifestation?”

Asfew coulnd’t be more pleased as she shakes her head in agreement.

“Manifestation!” screams Samantha, as his brother and the girls correct their puzzles.

“That’s an awful long word, we say it all the time, but how do you spell that?”

As Asfew finishes spelling the word manifestation, Linton comes in to tell everyone lunch is ready and kids storm out to eat macaroni and cheese, grapes and orange juice.