(Minghui.org) Greetings, compassionate great Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
For the 15th China Fahui on Minghui, I would like to share some experiences that local practitioners and I had as we raised awareness about Dafa in our county.
There are 25 townships in our county and over 20 villages in each township. Within just a year and a half, we went to every village to introduce Dafa and raise awareness of its persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Going Door to Door
Our county is located in a mountainous area, and almost everyone lives in a village. Some of the villages are over 30 miles from the county town, and the roads are poor.
For over ten years we distributed informational materials and hung banners in the rural areas, but we never clarified the truth to people face-to-face.
We thought about going to the remote areas and speaking to people in person about Dafa. We then thought it would be great if we had a car. At that time, a business owner who understood Falun Dafa said he would help buy us a car. He also said he would take the car back if we didn't need it anymore. This was very helpful.
Master said,
“Given how time is so extremely pressing, have you thought about what’s going to become of those who haven’t cultivated well? Some people still have a chance, but some no longer do. For some there is still time left, and for some their only hope is to sprint.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)
From studying Master's teachings, everyone felt the urgency to raise awareness about Dafa, especially since most of the older folks did not come to the town. Six of us practitioners each carried a big backpack of Dafa materials, including magazines, calendars, and posters on our way to the villages. It was October 10, 2017, the day we started going out to the villages to clarify the facts in person.
The Cold Did Not Faze Us
It is very cold with freezing wind in northern China in the wintertime. After breakfast, we headed out in groups of two or three.
Initially, there were people who did not understand Falun Dafa. They called the police or tried to intimidate us. We left villages like that to send righteous thoughts and ask Master for help.
At one place, every door remained shut. One man asked what we were doing and threatened to escort us to a police station.
“We are all Chinese people,” I said. “Who does not want our country to be good? You know about the air pollution and water contamination. Many people commit wrongdoing to earn money. How will our future generations live in such a country? Falun Dafa teaches people to be good and improves their moral character.”
I also told him that senior CCP officials, including Zhou Yongkang and Li Dongsheng, had received karmic retribution for participating in the persecution and had been sentenced to prison.
The man smiled and said, “Give me some of your information.” I gave him a poster, a calendar, and a few other things. I asked him to quit the CCP and its youth organizations. He nodded and left.
A fellow practitioner and I wanted to visit a particular home. A woman told us that the man who lived there was in charge of the Falun Dafa “issue” in that village.
The wind started to pick up, and it snowed in the afternoon, so I asked the driver to head for home. On the way, we stopped in another village to pick up other practitioners.
From a distance, I saw them talking with some people in front of a house. Some distributed Dafa materials, and some were talking with the villagers. A practitioner said, “Please take a look at the information. Understanding Falun Dafa and renouncing the CCP is beneficial for everyone.”
Ice and snow collected on their hair as they stood there and told people about the persecution. We did this all winter long.
Hoping Not to Miss Anyone
Farmers start to work their fields in the spring, so we visited people working in the fields and those who were taking care of sheep and donkeys in the mountains.
During the summer, some of us needed to prepare lunch for our families, so we left home after sending righteous thoughts at noon. It was hot by then, and some people took naps at that time. We did not want to disturb them by knocking on their doors, so we talked to the people who were outside their homes, including the old folks who were sitting in the shade and children next to a river.
We advised the children to quit their memberships in the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers. Not all of them agreed to because they had been misled by the CCP propaganda. Some of their parents got angry and threatened to report us to the police, while others said they would sic their dogs on us.
In one village, I thought that it would be great if all the senior CCP members would be gathered together. We did see a group of 11 seniors sitting in front of one house.
They all agreed to quit the CCP.
No Road Too Difficult
One fall day, we decided to visit a village on a mountain over 30 miles away. There were also several villages on the other side of the mountain. So that we wouldn't miss any of those villagers, the driver drove us to the mountaintop so some of us could visit those villages.
The mountain road was full of stones, and thorn bushes on both sides brushed against the car. If the driver hadn't been careful, we could have slid right down the mountain. We sent righteous thoughts. It took about two hours to reach the top of the mountain.
In those villages, we went from house to house and discovered that the people there only knew about what happened on July 20, 1999, when Dafa was banned by the Communist Party. They only knew what the media had said about Dafa. I regretted that we had not visited them earlier.
We clarified the truth door to door, as well as to a group of people chatting in front of a house. We patiently answered their questions and told them that people in over 100 countries now practice Falun Dafa.
We told them that the Tiananmen self-immolation incident was staged by the CCP to justify the persecution. We also let them know about the state-sanctioned harvesting of organs from living Dafa practitioners.
When we told them that more than 200,000 people had filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the CCP who initiated the persecution, one elderly woman said, “Jiang Zemin, that evil old man, has never done one good thing. He is so bad. Do you have the petition? I also want to sign it to support the lawsuit.”
A man said, “The CCP radio station claims that the central government allocated us lots of money, but we have yet to see any of it. The CCP says that its help has made us rich, but we are so poor.
“If you petition the government, you get arrested. The police incarcerate Falun Dafa practitioners to fill quotas. I often go to the county town and have seen much.”
When we visited another village, a man greeted us warmly, saying, “I have waited for you for several days. I thought that you would skip our village.”
He had seen Falun Dafa practitioners clarifying the truth door to door in another village, so he wanted us to come to his.
Improving as One Body
As we continued to clarify the truth to the departments and officers in charge of persecuting Falun Dafa, things started to improve.
There were reports on the Minghui website that some practitioners were persecuted for suing Jiang Zemin. That left some practitioners fearful, and they did not dare participate in our efforts to raise awareness face-to-face.
After we shared our experiences with these practitioners one by one, they joined us and did very well.
To help practitioners fulfill their prehistoric vow, we also visited practitioners in the villages and shared our experiences with them in the evenings. We asked them to join us in our efforts. Later, they rode their own tricycles to clarify the truth to people in person. They did very well, too.
Our driver gave us rides every day even though he also has fields to tend. He skipped his meals so he could help. He drove us over mountainous roads and slippery roads in the winter. He never complained.
The senior practitioner in charge of coordinating the truth-clarification effort kept us abreast of what was happening and when we had to send righteous thoughts.
Practitioners who could not walk very far helped pack informational materials. We formed an indestructible body. As a result, there was little interference when we went door to door to clarify the truth.
Using Every Opportunity to Clarify the Truth
When the 19th CCP Congress convened in 2017, we were visiting villages we had not been to before. CCP agents began to harass us in May. They also carried out surveillance in the villages. Being mindful of safety, we stopped going door to door for some time.
We visited all the villages in our county within the past year and a half. We also visited villages in areas that border four other counties.
During all that time, we were reported to the police just three times. Two of those times, the practitioners who were taken to the police substation were released that same day.
The head of one village called the police multiple times over several hours, but they never showed up. Someone once kicked a practitioner several times and cursed him. The practitioner, who did not fight or talk back, said, “You don't know the truth and have been misled by the CCP. I don't blame you.”
I want to end my sharing article with Master's Fa,
“So before the Fa-rectification is over you should seize the time that's left and solidly do well in every single thing that a Dafa disciple should do. That's how you should proceed on this path toward the future and toward what's the most magnificent; you can't miss any single opportunity, or go awry with any step.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003” from Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. II)
(From the 15th China Fahui on Minghui)
