(Minghui.org) My sister runs a hotel at a tourist area in the mountains. Winter is the peak tourist season, especially around Chinese New Year. Just before the New Year this year, she asked me to help her out for a few days.
Two days after Chinese New Year’s Day, staff from the local administration department visited each hotel looking for tourists from Wuhan. This is how I heard about the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan City.
I realized that the epidemic must be very serious. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, my mission is to save people so I hurriedly left the mountain and returned home. The tourist attractions closed the day I left.
I got home four days after Chinese New Year. A local practitioner came to my house to discuss how we should go about saving people in this changing situation. I looked at the Minghui website and was happy to see some articles on the topic.
My home is a distribution site for truth-clarifying materials. I downloaded two articles from the Minghui website and printed them as leaflets. We went out to distribute them, but few people were on the streets and everyone was walking quickly, which made it difficult to talk to anyone. I thus began sending righteous thoughts to help us distribute the materials and save people.
We distributed about 60 flyers on the first day. There were even fewer people on the streets the following day. As more people succumbed to the virus, everyone was terrified, and hid in their homes.
We went to the shopping center and visited shops that we had never been to before, and talked with the staff. We advised them to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. Although the number of people who withdrew from the CCP was less than usual, we were pleased and felt encouraged.
Working Together to Save People
As the epidemic intensified and spread rapidly throughout China, many cities and regions were being locked down. I knew our area would be next so we had to act quickly. Our residential community is very large and has many entrances; it would take time to barricade it. So we local practitioners decided to use this time to go out and save more people.
We shared our thoughts and decided to start by putting up posters. I printed posters with the words, “How To Survive The Plague: Remember Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” I prepared paste by mixing flour with water and a little salt.
Two people worked together, with one applying the paste and the other putting up the posters. We put them on the streets, lanes, market gates, residential buildings, and even went to nearby villages. After we finished putting them up, we distributed flyers to the houses where the medical staff and their families live.
We divided the tasks to save time. Five practitioners worked in the same area, with each team covering one building per day. The epidemic spread so quickly that we didn’t have enough materials. After distributing flyers to the buildings where hospital staff lived, we ran out. Then, our residential community was locked down.
When we thought that two infected people from our building were sent to quarantine, another practitioner and I immediately went there and distributed leaflets. Afterwards we sent righteous thoughts for half an hour. That night I dreamed that a group of people came to the practitioner’s home, and they were singing and dancing. I realized that Master was encouraging us by telling us that these people had been saved.
Our Hearts to Save People Cannot be Locked Down
Our residential community was locked down, so how could we save people? I called practitioners and asked them to collect the phone numbers of local community leaders and staff. We sent these numbers to the Minghui website so practitioners outside of China could phone them.
This epidemic came on so suddenly and unexpectedly that it changed the way we usually saved people. We had to adapt and find other ways to reach them. Above all, we could not wait.
Once the lockdown was in place, only one person per household was allowed to go out for two hours to do shopping. As long as we had the heart to save them, Master sent people to us every time we went out. I was always able to meet people and help them withdraw from the CCP.
One morning, my downstairs neighbor had a sewer problem and I couldn't use my toilet. I asked the two guards at the gate if I could use the public restroom just outside the community. When I came back, I gave the guards a little keepsake with a positive message about Dafa. They happily accepted. When they read the words they smiled, and one of the guards shouted, “Falun Dafa is good.” They also agreed to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. The people around us are really hoping that we'll save them!
Our community is very large with more than fifty high-rise apartment buildings. Many residents are farmers from the countryside, and they only live here in the winter. When the community was first locked down, few people came out since it was very cold. As the weather warmed up, and there were no infected people in our area, many people started to come out in the evenings.
A practitioner and I decided to clarify the truth face to face to these people who were out in the evenings. At first, the effect was not ideal and we could talk to only a few people each day.
We shared our thoughts and realized that once the lockdown was lifted, many of the farmers would return to the countryside and lose the opportunity to be saved by us. We focused on studying the Fa, and sent forth righteous thoughts at the top of each hour before we went out in the evening. More and more people happily accepted our advice and withdrew from the CCP.
The staff in charge of the community lockdown go home for dinner at 5:00 p.m. every day. Local practitioners use the time from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to clarify the truth. I really feel that these minutes are as precious as gold.
One older practitioner who is very diligent hasn’t been stopped by this epidemic. He doesn't live in our residential community, and although his area is also locked down, he’s able to enter our community and deliver lists of the people he’s helped to withdraw from the CCP every week.
Treasuring the Opportunity to Cultivate
Our local practitioners and I have never stopped our efforts to save people. Master said:
“Right now every minute and every second is crucial. If you miss out during this period of time, you miss out on everything. History won't recur. The history of the cosmos and the Three Realms have gone through so many, long, long years--what have all the beings been waiting for? What are they all here for? For exactly these few years!” (“Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IV)
“So many beings are waiting to be saved, how is it acceptable to not clarify the truth?! Even I am helping you do it! Saving everyday people was originally your business. I save you and you save everyday people. Now even I am helping you do it. Are you still a Dafa disciple if you don’t do it?” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference” Team Blue Translation)
This sudden pandemic underscores the fact that time is extremely precious. As long as we believe in Master and the Fa, and cultivate ourselves solidly, we’ll be able to save more people.
The extended time that Master has given us through his tremendous suffering is for us to save people. Let us treasure our opportunities, fulfill our missions, and honor our sacred vows.
