Australia: City of Toowoomba Falun Dafa Week Opening Ceremony

At 10 a.m. of January 7, Practitioners from Lisbon, Golden Coast, Lissome and Toowoomba celebrated the Falun Dafa Week of the City of Toowoomba at the Jacaranda Conference Room in the biggest shopping center in Toowoomba.

The deputy mayor of Toowoomba was present at the celebration and gave a speech on behalf of Mayor Diana Throley. He said he was representing the mayor who had been called away due to an emergency. He apologized that the mayor herself could not attend the opening ceremony and conveyed her best wishes to Falun Dafa Week. He said that Falun Dafa is a Chinese traditional cultivation way with Truth-Compassion-Tolerance as its principle. Falun Gong is practiced in over 50 countries with more than 100 million practitioners worldwide. This demonstrates that Falun Dafa is worldwide and popular. He continued sternly, "On behalf of the mayor of Toowoomba, it is my great honor to declare January 7 to 11 to be 'Falun Dafa Week' of the City of Toowoomba."

During the opening ceremony, eight practitioners from an 11-year-old to 60-year-olds shared their experiences, which won warm applauses from the audience.

A local resident, Chris, attending the ceremony was deeply touched by practitioners' experience sharing. He walked to the podium and gave an impromptu speech. He said, "I had heard that Falun Dafa was persecuted in China. From your speech and behavior I see more clearly that such persecution is groundless. Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, how wonderful! If the people of the world all act according to Truth-Compassion-Tolerance, this world would become peaceful and beautiful."