7. Such a "Family"
An integrated copy machine was moved into a storehouse, which had been fastidiously renovated. Every single inch of space in the storehouse was fully utilized. For a long time, no one had lived in the storehouse. This winter a family of four (practitioners) moved in there.
A couple with a child guards the storehouse. An acting "nanny" goes out to get grocery and cooks for everyone. Everyday there are people coming and leaving, exchanging goods.
A steady routine is established in the storehouse. Lao Xiao and Xiao Xiao[names have been changed for protection] work in tandem and methodically. When one is in the bedroom resting or practicing the movements, the other sits with crossed legs in front of the machine studying the Fa, or opening the wrapped paper, loading the paper, or taking off the printed sheets and packaging them. Sometimes they pack the sheets together and have a discussion. Occasionally, baby Xiaoxiao crawls out of the bedroom, pats the paper and strokes the machine for a while before crawling back.
Lao Xiao said, only those people with the purest heart are qualified to do the most righteous things. He meticulously does everything at each stage, be it editing, loading paper, or positioning the paper, all without any errors. The appearance of the printed sheets is remarkably neat. Then, he re-packs the sheets in such a way that the packages look like they have never been opened. In his proofreading, there is not a single error that can escape his eyes. During this period of time, Lao Xiao often sheds tears. He sheds tears whenever he sees Dafa disciples' magnificent feats, or sees any practitioner sitting down and falling asleep because of tiredness; especially when reading Dafa disciple's writing, "My whole life has been condensed into a single sentence -- Falun Dafa is good," he could not stop his tears running down. That is truly the manifestation of his compassion!
As a high school teacher, Lao Xiao originally had a smooth and uneventful life. After the "7.20" incident in 1999 seeing Dafa being slandered, he was quite restless and went to Beijing together with fellow practitioners. For three months, he was going from place to place, living on the streets, bracing the wind, and waking up in the dew. (Sometimes they went to a practitioner's home for a shower and left immediately afterwards so as not to cause the Beijing practitioners any trouble). His wife (also a teacher) was illegally put in jail for her part in appealing for Dafa. He was forced to take early retirement and left his work unit. But the severance pay for his early retirement, one hundred thousand Yuan in total, was illegally confiscated by the police. He could not maintain a normal life due to the police's harassment and interference. He had to leave home, leaving his elderly mother and his young son, a pupil, unattended. Once Lao Xiao called one of his relatives, it so happened that his son picked up the phone but he didn't recognize his father's voice and gave the receiver to his relative. Lao Xiao felt awful.
Everyday Lao Xiao carries cases of paper upstairs through a very narrow stairway. Each case of paper weighs 25 kilograms (more than 50 pounds). He can only move it up little by little since he suffers from back pain; it is an effort. But he will not allow Xiao Xiao to do it for him. He says this is what he has to do. He once said this was his family and this meant everything to him. When he is asked to take a rest and have a shower, he immediately returns to work as soon as he finishes his shower. In 22 days he has carried 150 boxes up and even more boxes down (printed sheets are packed into smaller boxes).
Xiao Xiao is also a teacher. All of her family practices Falun Gong. She went to Beijing to appeal many times, and was illegally detained. Then, she was dismissed from her employment. When she first came here she worked for nine consecutive days without leaving the house. She told Lao Xiao that two hours each day for her to practice would be all she needed. She regards coming here the same as going to Tiananmen to validate Fa, and has no plan to go home. All she can think of is how to print more sheets within the limited time frame. At its busiest, 13 boxes (5000 sheets in each box) have been printed in one day and night, and yet she is able to read three lectures of Zhuan Falun everyday. She cherishes every minute, even every second and what she does also demonstrates the mighty power of Dafa. Every time I come here, I am able to feel the serene and compassionate field.
Everything here is the most righteous and most beautiful, nobody wants to leave.
This family cannot get together until meal time, twice a day. The rest of the time they have instant noodles if they are hungry. When it starts to snow, a coal-oven is set up in the kitchen, and on the flue of the oven are hung the laundered clothes and diapers for the baby. Water vapor rises over the roof. Their meals are very simple. Sister He bought a large bag of Chinese cabbages, carrots, and spinach at wholesale price; the money saved is used for printing more Dafa materials. For the same reason, the electric heating upstairs is not used often for it consumes too much electricity. Sister He is a frank and straightforward person. She said she really wanted to carry baby Xiaoxiao on her back and go out to distribute Dafa materials, and hand out several hundreds of copies each day; but now she must take care of the baby and cook for the family everyday, it takes getting used to. "I can not help printing the materials while leaving the baby unattended, this is getting me down; but I had better do what I am supposed to do."
Xiao Xiao said, "It is really teamwork in this family of ours, and it would not work without anyone of us."
8. Another Group of Dafa Disciples
Material printing restarted, and another group of Dafa disciples has arrived.
Lao Hu is an advertisement designer. He has logged on to Dafa Web sites to download materials, helping Dafa disciples from different areas. He designed an edition of truth-clarifying materials using adhesive paper sheets, and a bag, which is suitable and convenient for distributing truth-clarifying materials in public rest areas or inside elevators. When his wife was pregnant and near term, he and his wife went to Tiananmen to validate Dafa. He held up high a banner which read, "Falun Dafa is good," and called out loudly the words. His powerful righteous thoughts restrained the evil force and he returned with dignity.
Xiao Jin comes from the rural area. She had been doing odd jobs in Beijing and obtained Dafa after "7.20" in 1999. She contracted a small shop attached to a factory. The factory was unable to pay its workers' salary for half a year so she sold articles of everyday use to the workers on credit. She had put in quite a lot of her own money. Then, she entrusted the small shop to a partner and went to Tiananmen for Fa-rectification with a banner. She was escorted back to her local government and was illegally detained. After about ten thousand Yuan had been extorted from her family, she was released. She came to Beijing as soon as she got out of jail and decided to stay here for the truth-clarifying activities.
A girl from Northeast China came to rectify the Fa together with her whole family. Her parents were arrested. She said, "How can I go back and stay at home without doing anything for Dafa?" She wanted to stay here for truth-clarifying activities.
Aunt Bai just got out of jail and had endured various tortures, such as force-feeding with hot-pepper solution, and mustard paste, etc.
Xiao Feng is from Beijing. His family is being illegally detained. He comes to help with the binding of the materials; there is another one, who is a university teacher from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Printed materials will be sent to a place for binding. There was one time, all the people came here to bind the truth-clarifying pamphlets. All three rooms were utilized. It was not easy for so many people to get together, sharing practice experiences in Dafa as they worked. It was very harmonious. After a busy day, all pamphlets were bound and instantly taken away by Li Yi and Li Na.
A Dafa disciple with a profession in art, together with a professor, made a new truth-clarifying edition.
After getting out of the police station, Li Jie could not go home. He takes on the task of sending materials to practitioners outside of Beijing.
A middle-aged person from the suburbs of Beijing drove his car here. He left his car for people to distribute Dafa materials, and he himself went to Tiananmen to rectify the Fa.
A young man living in Beijing started with printing Dafa materials on adhesive sheets and then he went to Tiananmen to rectify the Fa; he was brutally beaten by the police but he walked out of the police station by sending forth righteous thoughts.
9. Going all over the City of Beijing
Xiao Chu has to travel a long distance to purchase printing paper every two or three days. He then sends the printed materials to a storehouse.
Li Yi and Li Na send the Dafa materials from the storehouse out to each of the major districts of Beijing. Li Yi works in a private company. She mainly utilizes her after- hours and weekends or holidays to distribute Dafa materials, and often gets home only after midnight. The manager of her company knows that Dafa is good, and supports her, telling her that she need not show up to work if there is nothing pending. She also lets her use the company car at will, and gives suggestions on the selection of truth-clarifying materials.
Usually every other day, twenty to thirty boxes of materials will be sent out. Two women go through the city in their car going all over the places one after another regardless of distance or the number of boxes or bags each place needs. In the dark of the night and amidst the twinkle of city lights, the car runs the length and breadth of the whole capital city, bringing a beautiful future to the common people.
Later a college student and his partner also help with the dispatch of the materials. Before this, the student himself printed Dafa materials. Once there was something wrong with his printing machine and he said to the machine, "Do you know how lucky you are to print Dafa materials!?" Everything has life. The machine instantly functioned normally again.
A couple from the suburbs of Beijing has a business outside their front door. The wife locks herself in a storehouse to print Dafa materials. Her husband is not a practitioner but strongly supports her. Whenever police come to disturb them, he would intervene to shield off any possible troubles. Once the couple drove a farm passenger-cargo pickup to distribute a full load of materials, but still said that their printed materials fell short of demand and that the load would be dispatched to several places in the suburbs within one night.
Being together with Li Yi, I felt the harmonizing power of compassion. The last time she called, she told me that the materials (more than 40 boxes) would be sent out that very night and asked me not to worry.
(To be continued)
Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/12/26/17168.html
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