(Minghui.org) Greetings, revered Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners.
My family moved from Shanghai to a beautiful Australian outback town in February 2012. This allowed me to set up a new practice site in the small town.
When I first came to town, I was unsure how to proceed as the only Dafa disciple around. In addition to participating in the translation of New Tang Dynasty Television scripts and the Epoch Times, I felt at a loss when it came to clarifying the facts to the locals. I then discovered there were many churches in town and attempted to break through in that area.
I visited the largest local Anglican church. After I told the priest how I was persecuted in China, he enthusiastically helped me make an appointment with the local senator. I then sent a statutory declaration outlining my persecution experience to the senator, and she forwarded it to the then foreign minister.
In June 2013, I received an official reply from the foreign minister. He said in the letter: “The Government considers that China's ban on Falun Gong and the treatment of its practitioners are in breach of international human rights standards.
“The Government takes a strong and consistent approach to engaging the Chinese Government on human rights and has consistently raised with China Australia’s concerns about the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners…”
Around May 2013, I was introduced to a Western practitioner who studied at a local university. We wanted to organize a screening for the Free China documentary. We called on the town's main Anglican, Catholic, and Uniting churches and obtained the support of the priests.
The Western practitioner was responsible for the screening, and I talked about my actual experiences of persecuted in China, providing authentic supporting evidence for the stories in the documentary. We cooperated well and the results were good.
Before the screening, the minister of the Uniting Church orchestrated a Sunday church prayer meeting to pray for an end to the persecution.
During the screening organized in the largest church in another nearby town, the local priest was very enthusiastic. He contacted the bishop responsible for the whole area, which allowed us to clarify the facts about Dafa and the persecution to the bishop.
An old "auntie" who cannot speak English and I continued to explain the facts about Falun Gong in the town's main shopping malls and collected signatures on a petition calling for an end to the persecution. We informed people about CCP’s organ harvesting from living Dafa disciples and other evil doings, and the local residents soon knew the truth about the persecution.
With the support of fellow practitioners from Melbourne, we organized a large-scale anti-persecution petition activity at the city center. It was a crowded Saturday, and many signatures were collected. Some people were even moved to tears when they heard how cruelly Falun Gong practitioners are being treated.
We collected several thousand signatures and informed many about the persecution of Dafa.
I encountered many xinxing tests, especially on the home front. When I undertook Dafa projects and participated in outdoor exercises, I ran into family tribulations. When I first came to Albury, our family had not yet gotten a permanent resident visa, so my wife was particularly worried about whether we would be permitted to stay in Australia permanently. Tribulations came very strongly and very suddenly.
Master Li clearly says in Zhuan Falun:
“Your spouse would not care if you were to do something else. Qigong practice should actually be a good thing, but she always finds fault with you. In fact, your wife is helping you eliminate karma, though she does not know it herself. She is not fighting with you only superficially and still good to you in her heart—it is not so. It is real anger from the bottom of her heart, because whoever has acquired the karma feels uncomfortable. It is guaranteed to be this way.”
I later realized that, in fact, these family tribulations were meant for me to improve. If I cannot improve my heart and mind, cannot upgrade my enlightenment of Dafa principles, and cannot deny the interference from the old forces, then my wife will be exploited and have to endure the pain of tribulations until I upgrade myself to a higher level.
In mid-July 2012 when my family went to Melbourne, the time coincided with the the Australia Fahui and the parade to protest the persecution. On the way there, I said I was going to participate in the parade. My wife was extremely opposed to the idea and got so worked up that she threatened to open the car door and jump out.
We were traveling at over 100 kilometers per hour, but I was unmoved. I sent forth righteous thoughts to clear the interference and kindly persuaded her. She calmed down. Eventually, all my family members willingly participated in the parade. She also had a very positive impression of Dafa.
In August 2013, we had the Free China film screening in a church in the evening. There was a Q&A session afterwards. The audience included a member of a human rights organization, and there was a very heated discussion.
My wife worked in a local restaurant, and I was scheduled to pick her up and take her home that evening. But I forgot, and her boss had to take her home.
When I got home, she was furious and went outside. It is very cold in August, and she only had on a restaurant uniform T-shirt. After about half an hour, I went out a few times to look for her but couldn't find her.
I eventually discovered that she was sitting on the doorstep, shivering uncontrollably and all but unconsciousness. I immediately put her to bed and turned on the electric blanket, but she was still shivering.
I realized that this was very serious interference. I firmly sought help from Master Li to eliminate it, and, within just a few seconds, she regained consciousness and acted as if nothing had happened. She made a full recovery.
Once she heard rumors that Dafa disciples who went to the Chinese consulate to clarify the facts got paid. I assured her that it wasn't true, that I knew some of the practitioners who went to the consulate, but she did not believe me.
I then told her: “You know the evil Communist Party has spent huge sums of money on oppressing us at home and abroad. If those practitioners who clarified the truth at the embassy were driven by money, then the evil Party would have paid them more, and there would no longer be any practitioners at the consulate." She finally understood and never mentioned the matter again.
Facing the persecution in China, my wife was very brave. When I was secretly detained by the National Security Agency for 10 months, my family never got any of my messages. She took our young daughter and searched for me in almost all the main detention centers in Shanghai.
Dead end after dead end made her desperate, but she did not give up and stayed with me through all those tribulations. She endured a lot and what she endured is amazing.
But sometimes when doing urgent Dafa tasks, I have ignored family matters and her feelings, which often makes her angry. I sometimes could not stand it, but afterwards I realized that I was not acting like a true practitioner. Later, I improved my Fa study and focused on improving my Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. As a result, the situation has slowly improved.
Shortly after arriving in the small town, I started an exercise site in the very center of the town square, and began to tell the local residents about Dafa. Some of them approached me to learn the exercises and study the Fa.
One weekend on the square, I was doing exercises when the editor of a local community newspaper asked if she could take some photos of me and interview me. I agreed.
A few weeks later, the editor and a photographer came to interview us. An article on our experiences and understandings of practicing Dafa was published in the local community newspaper for the first time. I also sent the editor my own account of being persecuted, and she published it in the next five issues of the newspaper, which successfully exposed the persecution of Dafa and introduced Dafa in a positive way.
Another time when I was doing the exercises in the square, a photographer with the largest local newspaper asked if he could take photos of me. I certainly welcomed such an opportunity to promote Dafa.
The day he came to take photos, two new people had just started learning the Dafa exercises. He recorded my answers to his questions and also the exercise music, videos, and photos of our exercises. He published a video file on Youtube.
When he showed the video to his boss at the newspaper, the boss decided to send a feature reporter to write an article on my experience, which was published in the newspaper. The article was instrumental in promoting Dafa, and more people came to learn the exercises.
Interestingly, since the photographer produced that video about my story, his life has undergone a positive change.
Due to my job and my daughter’s studies, my family left the small town earlier this year. The Western practitioner also finished his studies at the local university. Dafa activities in town have temporarily come to an end.
The above is an account of my personal cultivation in clarifying the facts of the persecution and promoting Dafa in a small town. If there is anything inappropriate, please correct me with the compassion.
Thank you, Master! Thank you to all my fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2014 Australia Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)