(Clearwisdom.net) I am 50 years old, and I used to work for the District Party Committee Personnel Department. I obtained the Fa in July 1998. I was not brave enough to step out to validate the Fa until October 2003, because I did not study the Fa diligently enough. I was forced to retire on May 1, 2004.
While I was sending forth righteous thoughts together with fellow practitioners on May 8, 2004, the thought came to me that I should do some work with the media. Master said:
"Just do things according to the resources you have available and your current setting and situation. Master doesn't force you to do anything and can't direct you that specifically. With validating the Fa, you are walking your own paths, and I can't sit here and say that you have to achieve certain things, for each situation is different. Do things based on your situation locally." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students")
I realized that under such special circumstances, although we cannot do media work like overseas practitioners, we can establish an environment to clarify the truth that is more integrated with society, to help reach our goal of saving sentient beings, leaving the best possible future for the world's people.
I shared my thoughts with fellow practitioners and, after careful consideration, I decided to open an ice cream and coffee shop.
The next day, several fellow practitioners helped me finished the interior design. During the renovations, we kept studying the Fa diligently, sent forth righteous thoughts, eliminated any interference, and made custom frames for Master's words, as well as lots of lotus flower artwork for each cubicle. Our shop's name is 'Kan Hao,' (which is the title of one of Master's poems,) shining like gold in neon lights. We painted the walls the same yellow and blue as found on Minghui Net. We copied Dafa music onto a CD, and played the music for customers and passersby all day long. Two of the waiters are Falun Dafa practitioners. There is a very peaceful atmosphere inside and outside my small shop, and my business is very good. Customers almost always return after the first visit.
I would like to share some details with my fellow practitioners.
When I sent Master's words and lotus flower artwork to be custom framed, the framer said, "These lotus flowers are so pretty. How come we never see them on the Internet? These phrases are also great. If everyone behaved according to these, we wouldn't need police in our society." Even though he liked them, the evil dark minions could not stand to see us doing such noble deeds. They kept interfering with us. The frames were not successful the first time; they had to redo the framing all over again. The shop owner finally delivered the finished frames personally and very carefully on his bike. When we tried to hang them up, we had no experience with hanging artwork on drywall. We had to ask our carpenter to come back, and he located the studs precisely based on his memory. When I sent forth righteous thoughts on opening day, I could not hold back my tears.
An individual expressed their concern: "Is it appropriate to hang up Master's scriptures in a coffee shop? Is it disrespectful to the Fa?"
"My coffee shop is different from others," I explained, "Here we have standards of civility that are noble and righteous."
Another person commented: "If someone asks who wrote these words, and if you dare not answer that they were written by Master, you should take them down."
I answered, "I am not afraid to tell them that these are written by Master Li Hongzhi. If someone dares to prevent me from hanging them up, I will close the shop. The purpose of opening this shop is to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, not to make money."
Someone said, "It's important to make careful considerations when it comes to hiring your waiters. For instance, this fellow over here is a practitioner who is a sensitive figure and is on the police's wanted list. If you employ him, you might put other practitioners, as well as your business, at risk."
I shared my understanding. "Whoever has fear is inviting the evil to arrest him. It has nothing to do with my shop, I will just hire the best employees I can find."
Someone asked me, "This music is so beautiful. Please make copies for fellow practitioners to use."
One lady said after visiting our new shop, "Even though this place is not equipped with a ceiling fan, it is more comfortable than all the others with air-conditioning."
A high ranking official in the military eyed the scriptures on the wall and told me, "I like this one the best." I told her these were my Master's scriptures. She was shocked, "These are scriptures? What Li Hongzhi wrote is so good and filled with wisdom. Do you have the Books? Can I borrow some to read?" I loaned her a copy of Essentials for Further Advancement, and a copy of Hong Yin II.
A returning customer commented to his friends, "Each cubicle has famous words posted."
Two high school students often come to have milkshakes. They told me, "We love to come to this place."
One day, two men came in drunk. One of them requested to have a girl sit with him. The other man raised his head, saw the scriptures and said, "Realms. You should attain a high realm (in your mind). This is a righteous place." Several customers brought notebooks and pens to copy down Master's words posted on the walls.
Fellow practitioners enlightened that whoever entered the door of this shop was predestined, and all of them could be saved, and have their hearts rectified, because their unrighteous elements would disintegrate before even nearing our powerful, pure energy field, and this is called the "Pure Land." We do not even give up on beggars. We always tell them to remember "Falun Dafa is Good. Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance is good." If they cannot remember these words, we write them down or give them a blessing card.
On August 8, 2004, we rented another location for a fast food restaurant. We also decorated our walls with four of Master's scriptures, and the calligraphy was done by another practitioner. Master said, "When you go home and write a few words, it doesn't matter how good or bad your handwriting is, they'll have energy! (Zhuan Falun) On the other wall we had practitioner's artwork. The two back rooms were already closed off, as two elderly people had lived there. Their bedrooms are the location for our group study. We hired a diligent Dafa practitioner as our main chef. Business has been excellent since the first day, and everyone feels that our environment is nice and clean, and the food is delicious.
Looking back on these past few months since the opening of our businesses, I went through large tribulations. My daughter was trying to find work, my shop was robbed, my brother died in a traffic accident, and my father started using a wheel chair as the result of a stroke. My mother could not bear this many adversities, and came to live with me in our hometown in the countryside. Just as I began to write this article, the dark minions made me fall, have diarrhea, as well as severe flu symptoms. I sent forth righteous thoughts constantly, found more time to read the Fa, and completely negated the old evil force's arrangements.
