(Minghui.org) Much like the Cultural Revolution, the persecution of Falun Gong has torn many families apart. Under the terror of the communist regime, many family members of practitioners have either tried to force them to give up their belief, sometimes using violence, or even disowned them in order to escape the persecution.
The following are stories shared by several Falun Gong practitioners who have fathers who have had the courage and good conscience to stand up against the persecution. Though none of them practice Falun Gong, they have supported these practitioners throughout these fourteen years of the persecution.
My father identifies with Dafa because of his own personal experience. One day, as soon as he stepped into the house from work, he said, “Amazing! Amazing!” “What's amazing?” my mother and I asked. He told us what happened.
My father works in a car factory. He has to pack the iron sand into a cart before transporting it to the oven for molding. The cart used for transporting the iron sand weighs a thousand pounds and together with the iron sand, the total weight is a few thousand pounds.
That day, a co-worker was pushing the cart and the cart suddenly ran over my father's left foot. The co-worker was horrified because pressing such a heavy thing on a foot will definitely fracture it. My father took off his shoe and saw that his foot was fine and he only felt slight pain. Both my mother and I said, “You should thank our Master! It is Master and Dafa that protected you.” He has personally witnessed the wonderfulness of Dafa.
When my father eats at the cafeteria, he's given two pieces of fruit with every meal. Ever since that incident happened, he won't eat the fruit, instead, he brings them home and set them out as an offering to show his gratitude to Master. I told him that he should press his hands together and bow when he is in front of Master's picture. To show his respect and gratitude he now offers fruit, burns incense and presses his hands together and bows before Master's photo every day.
Speaking about my father, he is truly amazing. In 1999, my mother was sent to a forced labor camp after she came back from Beijing. The police came to our house and wanted my father to hand over our Dafa books. He said, “No way! My wife still needs to read them when she comes back!”
Later, my mother was reported for clarifying the truth on the street and the police arrested her. They came to raid our house, but my father and I hid the Dafa materials. The police found our Dafa DVDs and tried to take them away, but my father snatched them back causing the police to shout angrily, “We'll arrest you next!” However, my father ignored them and protected quite a number of materials.
My father treats the materials with great care. He picks them up from the streets if he happens to see them while going and coming back from work. Once, he saw that a Dafa banner dropped to the ground so he picked it up and hung it back on the tree. He also asked my mother, “How many booklets do you have there? I'll help you pass them out.” He also took the booklets for his colleagues to read.
My father engages in electronic research and development and he used to make equipment for the police. Before 1999, he had many clients. However, when the persecution began, my mother was locked up and I was not allowed to attend school. Thus, my father took me with him. Gradually, he lost contact with those police friends and gradually he stopped working for them.
Later, I learned that before the persecution in the labor camp was exposed, my father already knew about it. His police friends found him and asked him to develop a machine, saying that it would be used to control prisoners. When he went to the prison to take a look, he found that all the “prisoners” were Falun Gong practitioners. He told the police, “I can't earn money this way!”
Since my father knew a lot about the persecution, the pressure on him was very great. Some friends advised him, “Get a divorce. How are you going to peacefully live your life with your wife always being arrested?” My father said, “I can't divorce! You don't realize what the CCP is doing. People who are locked in there are given a shot that will cause the person to seem crazy and stupid. I must take care of my wife if she is given such a shot... I can't throw this responsibility on my child.” Since then, nobody ever tried to persuade my father to get a divorce.
My father also told his police officer friends not to participate in persecuting Falun Gong. He has a friend whose son is a policeman. During a conversation, the son talked about how he arrests and beats Falun Gong practitioners. My father's friend said with his eyes wide open, “Do you know that during the Cultural Revolution, your grandfather was beaten this way by the Red Guards? And you are hitting others today?!” His son said that this was arranged by his superior.
My father explained to his friend's son, “Your experience is shallow. Those who caused others to die during the Cultural Revolution also died later. Avoid doing this, and maintain your innocence.” From then on, that officer no longer participated in these things.
My father told the secretary of my mother's company not to participate in the persecution and they should let my mother go to work. When the neighborhood committee tried to take my mother to a brainwashing class, my father told them, “Don't help the authorities commit this crime.”
In 1999, my mother was sent to a forced labor camp and my and father and I went to bring her some clothes. My father said to the police, “My wife is staying here for a few days, please help me take good care of her. If someone dares to touch her, you will see how I deal with him!” Those police nodded and bowed. Over the years, my mother has encountered the police numerous times but nobody really dares to harm her.
In 2005, my mother and her sister were both arrested at the same time. My father found some of his police friends whom he has not contacted for a long time. He treated them to a meal, hoping that they would release my mother. However, the police said during the meal, “Your daughter gave us trouble at the Public Security Bureau. She's still young, otherwise we would've arrested her too.” My father smiled, "Don't you dare arrest my daughter.”
One month later, the police station suddenly told us we had to sign something, saying that they are sending my mother to a labor camp. My father went and came out angrily with one hand holding my mother's bag and another hand crushing that piece of paper. I smoothed the paper and saw that he didn't sign on it. Next, I opened the bag and saw that all the truth-clarification materials and DVDs were intact.
That afternoon, the police station called us again and told us to go to the hospital to pick up my mother. The police told my mother that my father scolded them badly and nobody dared to stop him. After returning home, I asked my father about it. He said, “I told them, 'You don't arrest those corrupt officials and you don't dare arrest those who commit murder or arson, and yet you arrest innocent old women. What kind of upholding the law is this?”
Many people were there that day. My father walked up and down the corridor, going from room to room and scolded everyone. No one dared to say a word. When one policeman said, “Your wife is too stubborn.” My father responded, “That's not called stubborn. That's called upholding the truth!”
My mother was sent home, but my aunt was sent to a forced labor camp. Thus, my father went to her school. He said that when he entered the room, he saw that the secretary was about to write a report to persecute my aunt. When the secretary saw my father, he hid it immediately. My father also clarified the truth to each one, the principal, the secretary and the department head.
That year, after my mother came back from the labor camp, she asked my father for the materials he got back from the police. My father laughed as he opened the safe and brought out the box. He opened the box and took out Zhuan Falun from the most inner part [of the box]. I didn't even know that he hid the book so well.
When my mother and I began practicing Falun Dafa, my father also practiced with us for half a year. Previously, both of his legs have femoral head necrosis and he had to use crutches. After he practiced, he threw the crutches away and never took any medicine in over ten years. However, he does not study the Fa or cultivate. He only knows Dafa is good.
The CCP agents didn't know that my family practices Falun Gong thus we did not experience the suffering of those practitioners who were persecuted. However, there was no peace in my family in the past few years.
My father is a very righteous man but was repressed by the evil party at work. Thus, he's often angry and always drinks and he argues and curses when he drinks. He even hit my mother's head causing it to bleed, but my mother tolerated it. These two years, my father has drank less and he admires cultivators from the bottom of his heart and he identifies with Dafa.
My second uncle has bilateral femoral head necrosis and we often go to his house. My father asked my mother to bring truth-clarification materials because he wishes to read them.
My father used to worked in a printing industry before he retired. When he saw that we printed Dafa books on copy paper, he said that it wasn't right.
He suggested we use the best quality, light-colored paper to print Dafa books. However, no light-colored paper was available. So, my father went to find his old friend who sells wholesale paper and said, “These people are laid-off workers. They scraped their money together to print books, and they're doing a good thing. Please give them the lowest price.” When we used this high quality paper to print Dafa books, everybody commented on how nicely they turned out.
Two days ago, my mother did the DVD covers for Shen Yun 2013. She used scissors to cut out each cover. My father asked, “Why don't you use the paper cutter?” My mother replied, “I used it but it's misaligned.” My father found another paper cutter and he cut them for her.
Another time we needed to set up a Fa-study group at my home. My parents re-arranged the room and my father said very happily, “Welcome Falun Gong to my home!”
My father has just celebrated his 83rd birthday and he is very healthy. My father goes out every morning to take a walk and with every step he takes, he says, “Falun Dafa is good!”
Over the years, my parents were physically and mentally exhausted by the CCP's various movements, they suffered from various illnesses. In 1995, my mother found Dafa and Dafa wiped out her many years of pain. Both my sister and I also began practicing.
After the persecution started in July 20, 1999, my mother, sister, my husband and I went to Beijing to appeal and I left a long letter for my father. We were arrested in Beijing by the police and sent back to be locked up in three different locations.
At that time, my father was already 70 years old and he hurried between various detention centers. At that time, the pressure was especially great. It was reported that if even a few people in the area went to appeal, the governor would be taken down. Thus, our family became the focus of the persecution.
During that one month, my father thought every day about how to rescue us. At that time, he went between various departments. Many years later, I happened to see the letter that I wrote to him that time. He had hand-copied every single word without changing it. That letter contains my insights of the true meaning of life after cultivating and no turning back in upholding the truth. Under the tremendous pressure, he could not keep the original letter. Finally, he transcribed the letter without changing it and he treasured it.
Throughout these fourteen years, our home was raided many times. My mother was deceived into going to the police station, brainwashing center, detention center many times. My husband was sentenced to forced labor and I was threatened to be laid off by my company and was also arrested many times and taken to the police station, brainwashing center and detention center. Through all of this, my father has always been supportive of us, unlike many family members of practitioners who tried to force them to give up Dafa in order to avoid the persecution.
Once, my company threatened to dismiss me so as to force me to give up Dafa. I refused to cooperate. My father said, “Don't be intimidated. I still have retirement pension if you don't have money.”
When my mother was taken away by the police, they found a truth-clarification brochure that was not hidden in time when they raided our house. The police used this as an excuse and forced my mother to confess where she got the brochure from. My father waited by the police station gate.
When the interrogation was still going on at three to four in the afternoon, my father became angry and questioned those police, “Have you eaten?” They said they did. My father scolded them loudly, “You've had your lunch. How about an old woman in her seventies? Isn't she hungry? Do you still have human nature? The brochures are everywhere. I picked it up when I went out for my morning walk. What are you going to do to me then!” The police were shamed by my father's words, so they bought lunch for my mother.
At midnight, they still hadn't released my mother. My father scolded them loudly at the police station gate. At 2 a.m., the police released my mother.
We asked my father many times, “Practice together with us.” He said, “No. I can't practice now because you are all practicing. When the police come, there has to be someone in the family who can deal with them.”
As my mother was persecuted and imprisoned many times, she was under tremendous stress and her body could no longer withstand the abuse. She passed away a few months ago. Although my mother is gone, my father's righteous thoughts towards Dafa became more and more firm.
My father watches NTDTV every day and often tells others about the evil CCP's crimes during morning exercises. He says that everything in the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is true. Now, he is looking forward to the judgment day of the evil dictator Jiang.
My father is a leader of a national key enterprise who is in his forties and is the youngest father among all the practitioners' fathers in this article.
In 1999, the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong. My mother went to Beijing to appeal and was locked up. My father spent money asking people for help to get my mother out. However, more than one month passed and my mother was sentenced to three years in jail. My father was very depressed.
When my mother was imprisoned, my father brought me up alone until my mother was released. My father was praised by family, friends and colleagues. Everyone said that there are very few people like my father in this society. His company leaders also admire my father's character and feel that this kind of person is very trustworthy.
My father's business flourished. There are 400 to 500 workers in my father's company and there is a Dafa disciple who was persecuted badly and was not allowed to work. Later, when he was allowed to work, no department in the company dared to take him in as everyone knows about the CCP's implication policy. Later, my father took this practitioner to his department and let him work under him.
My father does not practice Falun Gong, but has done many good deeds in standing up for Dafa in these ten years. Unconsciously, he received more blessings. Due to high blood pressure, he had been taking antihypertensive drugs for many years. However, his blood pressure is completely normal now. When he was younger, he had psoriasis but he never took any medicine and it went away.
On May 13, 2012, the birthday of Falun Gong's founder, Master Li Hongzhi, and “World Falun Dafa Day,” my father wished to express his respect, and wrote, “Wishing Master a happy birthday! Falun Dafa is good! Zhen-Shen-Ren is good!”
Our fathers have walked with us through this catastrophe and supported us throughout the years.