(Clearwisdom.net) Columbia is a small city in central Missouri, where the University of Missouri is located. October 25 was the Homecoming festival of the university and the annual Homecoming parade is part of the celebration. Because there is a football game in the afternoon, usually there will be thousands of visitors that day. So the Homecoming parade is a good opportunity to display the beauty of Falun Dafa to local Missourians and alumini from all over. As in previous years, the practitioners from St. Louis and Kansas came to help the local practitioners. The practitioners worked together to decorate the float.
The weather was not ideal, but the people were still excited about the parade. In the downtown area, the audience crowded the streets. When the Falun Gong float drove by, the audience gave them applause and smiles to show support. Some people pressed their hands together in "Heshi" to show their respect and many visitors took pictures of the float. A lot of Chinese students also came out to watch the parade. When they saw the Falun Gong float, they smiled and waved their hands to practitioners. Some of them took photos with our float as the background.
After the parade, a western young man found us and said he was on a business trip that happened to be in Columbia. He was very interested in Falun Gong and had read Zhuan Falun already. He was very excited to see the Falun Gong procession. That afternoon, he studied the Fa with the practitioners.
A western practitioner's parents who live in Columbia also watched the parade. On the phone, the father told her that the Falun Gong procession was beautiful, peaceful and serene, and was very effective in displaying the goodness of Falun Dafa. He said the English words "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance" on the banner impressed him very much. Seeing Falun Gong in the parade increased his desire to learn Falun Gong.