(Clearwisdom.net) Saturday, September 23, 2006 marked the sixth year that Falun Dafa practitioners in Spokane Washington have participated in the annual "Valleyfest" celebration in the Spokane Valley area. This year's small contingent included only three practitioners, but although the group was small, there were a large number of booth visitors during the day-long event.
Hundreds of children stood patiently in line throughout the day to obtain a coveted paper lotus flower, or to learn to fold one themselves. During the afternoon, supplies of pre-assembled flower pieces dwindled, so flowers were then produced one-by-one by two of the practitioners. Nonetheless the children and adults patiently waited, sometimes for over fifteen minutes, for those ahead of them to get their freshly-made flower, and for the practitioners to make a flower especially for them, using their favorite colors.
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A third practitioner distributed fliers, clarified the truth to passersby, and demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises. During discussions with passersby, almost all the people understood or learned of the brutal nature of the persecution that has continued for the past seven years in China.
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Practitioners felt sad for some passersby who saw the long lines and didn't stop, and those who seemed disinterested or didn't want to take a flier. One gentleman discussed with a practitioner as to why practitioners would still cultivate in such an oppressive environment. In the end the gentleman was pleased that we had literature about the organ harvesting, and left with the materials in hand.
On their way home from the event, practitioners recalled a quote made by our Teacher,
"...it would be pretty good if you could save half of the people in China. The same goes for other areas--is it possible to save all people? I can tell you that it's not possible. You can have that wish and do it with compassion for all beings, but you can't stop working on it or slack off just because there are those who are impossible to save. That would definitely be unacceptable." ("Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles")
Practitioners were overall pleased with the popularity and power of the paper lotus flowers, and their ability to help clarify the truth and save sentient beings. They look forward to clarifying the truth to more people in the northwest again soon.
