August 2000

Dear friends, I am a Swedish practitioner. Here I would like to share with you my experience of making phone calls to China.

A couple of months ago, I noticed that the short news from China, posted on the Ming Hui Net, included phone numbers to different police stations and mental hospitals where practitioners were detained. At first I thought that it was because relatives and friends should be able to call and search for their dear ones. Later I thought that it was also possible for other Chinese practitioners to call and tell the police and others that Falun Dafa is righteous. At last I came to realize that, of course, it was also possible for me to call and tell them the truth about Falun Dafa.

Well, as I am a Westerner, I don't speak Chinese. And I know that not too many Chinese people speak English. But I can at least say that "Falun Dafa is righteous" in Chinese, plus a few more phrases.

I started thinking in my mind: Maybe it is not a good idea to call. Because the practitioners that are detained at the police stations that receive my call may be treated even worse just because of me calling and making the policemen upset. But maybe that's ordinary people's thinking. After speaking to a couple of practitioners, I realized that it's ordinary people's thinking. So I decided to make some calls.

As I was about to make the first call I noticed that my heart became bothered. I was nervous! A few seconds before I was rather calm. But now suddenly my heart was stirred. I realized that I was scared. I had fear about making a phone call! I felt very disappointed with myself because I didn't think that I would be scared over something like that. Maybe most of us have questioned ourselves if we could pass such difficult tribulations that our fellow practitioners are encountering in China. Well, I found out that it was difficult for me to pass the trial of a phone call.

I thought that if the practitioners in China are able to endure such tribulations, I should at least be able to do this. I even thought that "they can't harm me over the phone". So I made the first call. I said (in Chinese): "Hello, I'm Swedish. I'm a Falun Dafa practitioner. Falun Dafa is righteous". The following days I must have made nearly ten calls. The reaction was different. At police stations they usually became angry, would spit or shout. At mental hospitals they sounded interested. I think someone asked: "Are you from Sweden?" At a police station someone even repeated after me in saying "Falun Dafa is righteous". I also called an Army headquarters, and the operator there listened and we tried to talk with each other.

Maybe it can make someone who receives such a call think it over for a while. When even Westerners, who can't speak Chinese, make long-distance phone calls to tell them that Falun Dafa is righteous, maybe they will start thinking it over.

This has also made it possible for me to look inside myself and discover the fear that I was not aware of before. Afterwards I have realized that when the will to pass a trial becomes stronger than the fear of it, the trial will be passed.