(Clearwisdom.net) In September, I traveled by train from a lively seashore city back to my hometown. My first stop was a countryside village in northeastern China, thousand of miles away. The living conditions there weren't very good. There was no industry, only farming. I went to a Fa-study group and participated in their group Fa-study.
Less than ten people were in the study group, but at least five or six practitioners attended every time. The youngest person was an over 50-year-old woman. Their Fa-study group has never ceased to meet. They study at least one lecture a night and send forth righteous thoughts at the top of the hour. No matter what the weather conditions or personal circumstances, their coordinator always delivers the "Minghui Weekly" on the same day (Friday) to practitioners' hands, particularly Master's new articles and special materials. Not a single moment is wasted; the coordinator always delivers them on time. When the materials arrive, practitioners first study the Fa and then hand out the materials to everybody else. Each practitioner is responsible for one area. Very soon, the materials are all distributed.
Each practitioner has a Dafa phrase posted in his or her room, and every family has Master's photo. Every Chinese New Year, all their rhyming couplets are about Dafa. On the streets, roads, and electric poles, one can see Dafa phrases and truth clarifying materials everywhere.
When I asked about the "three withdrawals," they told me with certainty that 80 percent of the locals have quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. They have also traveled to other areas to persuade people to quit. The number must be higher now, because I left that area nearly three months ago. Their goal is to have 100 percent of the people quit the CCP. Everyday people are all eager to read the materials. Not a single one is destroyed or thrown away. Some of them have begun to practice Dafa.
They have kept their copies of Minghui Weekly in brand new condition. They said, "Those are traded with practitioners' blood and life. They are meant to be left to future generations. The future generation will read them. They record the cultivation path of Dafa practitioners during the Fa-rectification period." I was very moved when I heard that.
One practitioner is over 60 years old. She was forced to become homeless more than six years ago. Originally, she had a job and a store. She could have sustained herself financially in her later life. However, when the persecution started, she lost her job and her store and firmly chose cultivating Dafa. As a result, she was forced to leave home to avoid persecution. Now her life is hard, lonely, and impoverished. In winter, her hands hurt from the cold, and her face swells from the freezing weather. She is unwilling to buy wood to burn. She saved money from her food allowance and daily expenses and used it for materials to validate Dafa and clarify the truth. In the freezing cold of northeastern China, at -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), she still went out to distribute materials, write phrases, and hang banners. Even now, you can still see the phrase she wrote on a wall "Falun Dafa Is Good." If there are no materials, she will write them herself (The contents are all copied from very good articles). How many letters has she written? How many packages of wax pencils has she used? She can't remember. She is silently doing all that a practitioner should do. She eats the vegetables she has preserved herself. In summer, she digs vegetables and hangs them to dry. In winter, she preserves them. She never wastes a penny. I asked her to write an experience sharing article. She said, "I am only doing what I should do. Compared to those who have cultivated well, I am far behind." At first, she was almost illiterate, but now she can read all the Dafa articles.
This is such a mountainous area. This place doesn't even have a gasoline powered car. They don't even have a motorcycle. People can only use an ox-drawn carriage or they personally carry shoulder bags. It has only been five years since this place has gotten electricity. Not many people live in the area, but Dafa practitioners are not few in number. In the past seven years since the persecution began, this place has been safe and sound. The team leader is a practitioner. Village officials all know that Dafa is good.
I am a regular visitor of one of the local practitioners. Her two sons are both college graduates, but her family lives in poverty. They have a three-room adobe house. During the summer of 2001, the older son came home. At night, a snake crept through the back window and slithered onto his body. He threw the snake out and continued the exercise. Another time he was doing the fifth exercise and felt a strong wind. He reached out an arm to close the window, but it wouldn't close. There was a snake blocking the window. He pushed the snake away and continued the exercise. The two boys have both been illegally arrested because they practice Dafa. The older son received a heavy sentence. When the second son was released, he left home to avoid persecution.
I remember that they sell a few vegetables, such as corn, beans, etc. No matter what they sell, they have to carry their produce to a far away town, climbing mountains and walking through valleys. Every time they go they might make several yuan or a dozen yuan. They eat cornflour pancakes and preserved vegetables and drink water. Once I saw her on the street carrying a basket of pears, calling out as she walked, " Pears for sale." The male practitioners in this family get up very early. They walk a very long distance to work for someone else. They don't have any spare time. They are busy till late at night. But no matter how busy they are, they never forget to do the three things. They get some rest but always send forth righteous thoughts promptly at the four designated times, never missing one. Fa-study and exercises are done at night. When they are not busy with farming, they study the Fa in a group. Otherwise, they will arrange their own time. Sometimes they walk to very far places to distribute materials. They may stay out all night to do that and come back home during the day time. They are doing everything that a true cultivator is supposed to do.
One day, it was already after 1 p. m. when I arrived at her home from far away. I was hungry and looked for something to eat. I only found cornflour pancakes, not even a bit of preserved vegetable. It turned out that their lunch was water and pancakes. I wanted to read the Fa, so I opened the drawer. There was a bundle of paper money. There were pennies, dimes, a quarter, and one yuan. Standing there I cried, my heart almost breaking. They were saving that money to use for truth-clarification! Every month, they give a little money to the material production site. They have also saved money for practitioners who are in prison, sending clothes to them.. They have offered living expenses to those who have become homeless to avoid persecution. Another thing that surprised me was that their home was originally a small material production site. In the past several years, the communication was one-way only. At night, they produced truth-clarification materials. Most of the expenses were covered by money they had saved. They walked through the mountains and valleys, carrying the materials. Once the truth clarifying materials were made, they took them out to other places. Now the situation has improved.
I have only listed only a few of the many things that they have done and are doing. They have done many things I don't know about. I look at fellow practitioners, and then look at myself. I can only strive forward diligently, eliminate all my demon-nature, and catch up with the Fa-rectification process.