(Clearwisdom.net) Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina. On Saturday, June 12, 2004, the annual "Charlotte WorldFest International Festival" was held at the Wachovia Plaza Center, which attracted many local residents. Falun Gong practitioners from North Carolina once again participated in this activity to display the beauty of Dafa to the public. Practitioners also exposed the ongoing persecution in China, and collected signatures condemning the persecution.
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Despite the hot weather, local practitioners set up a TV set and DVD player, and some brought many display boards and different kinds of truth-clarifying materials. Practitioners from nearby cities drove more than two hours to support the event. Practitioners cooperated with each other and mutually supplemented, which allowed the entire activity to go very smoothly.
Practitioners continuously played the Falun Dafa introductory videotape and took turns demonstrating the five sets of exercises. Dafa books and videotapes were neatly displayed at the booth. Exquisite paper lotus flowers and colorful pinwheels also conveyed young practitioners' good wishes to people. On the other side of the booth, practitioners displayed paintings, posters and the English versions of human rights reports to show people the brutal persecution encountered by practitioners in China. They also displayed petition forms condemning the persecution.
There were many touching stories during the activity.
When practitioners had just finished setting up the booth and put out the Dafa books and other materials, a police officer came by and asked, "Will Master Li come here today?" He immediately went and bought a copy of the English version of Zhuan Falun.
While practitioners set up the booth, a big Chinese family came over and said hello with smiles. The grandma liked the paper lotus flowers very much and said to her daughter, "It seems that it is folded by hand." Her daughter then asked us, "Did you make these yourselves?" Practitioners smiled and said, "Yes! Please take one if you like it." The grandma was a little shy and waved her hand. The daughter said to her mom, "Mom, there are some bookmarks. You could select one." A practitioner kindly handed over a stack of bookmarks. "Thank you, thank you!" The grandma accepted one.
In collecting signatures condemning the persecution, practitioners did not expend too much effort. They simply put the forms on the table. Some people signed the forms without any hesitation after viewing the display boards depicting the persecution and tortures. The form was to call upon the U.S. Members of Congress to condemn and help stop the ruthless persecution.
When the activity was about to conclude, an African American lady came over. She talked with a practitioner for quite some time. The practitioner then read with her from the book Zhuan Falun. After reading two paragraphs, the two of them were so touched that tears streamed down their faces. That lady said that she was a Tai Chi instructor and she was very tired of teaching it everyday. She anxiously hoped that she could be a student and listen to the teachings quietly. She had gone to churches, but they did not touch her heart. Nonetheless today, every sentence the practitioner said to her deeply touched her heart. She said that Falun Gong is what she has been looking for. She tightly held in her hands the book Zhuan Falun that the practitioner gave her as a present, and said, "This is my spiritual food. No matter where I go, I'll bring this book with me and read this book." She was so excited and told people she met about her fortuitous encounter today.
