(Minghui.org) Early on the morning of July 20, 1999, the day when the persecution of Falun Dafa was launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), all of the local volunteer coordinators and active practitioners were arrested, including the one who could connect with Minghui.
The situation was urgent and complicated. Every day, many practitioners went to the National Appeals Office and Tiananmen Square to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa, and every day we heard news of practitioners being arrested and tortured. Meanwhile, fake articles claiming to be from Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) were circulated by CCP agents among practitioners. Our dearest wish was to get onto the Minghui website. Facing such overwhelming tribulations like rolling waves, we hoped to get some guidance on what to do from Minghui.
Everyone was thinking and evaluating the situation. We know that Minghui is under close supervision by Master and we yearned to hear something from Minghui. Meanwhile, it was also important for us to access real articles by Master through Minghui, as well as send over information about the persecution to the platform that connects all practitioners in China and around the world during the rapid development of the Fa-rectification. Minghui gives us the utmost sense of security. What should we do without contact with it?
Two fellow practitioners, Lei and Jing, found me and brought me to a small apartment they were renting near the suburbs. The only purpose for renting the place was to find ways to access Minghui!
The apartment was entirely empty, except for a few pieces of cardboard that were on the floor, and an old computer that the two practitioners brought, risking their lives. For a few days, we stayed there to work on the computer, trying to establish a connection with Minghui. We didn’t eat anything, except drinking water. When we became tired, we took naps on the cardboard. Strangely enough, we didn’t feel hungry or bitter about the situation.
Only practitioner Peng, who was arrested, knew how to contact Minghui. We didn’t have the tool to break through the Internet censorship. We tried everything we could think of but to no avail. In the end, we found Hao, who was close to Peng, and asked her if Peng told her anything about his contact with Minghui. She thought hard and remembered that he told her a string of letters, without elaborating what they were for.
With the letters, Jing tried using them as the password to log into a possible email account used to contact Minghui, but it didn’t work. Just as we were feeling desperate about the situation, Jing had the idea of capitalizing all the letters. The next moment, she successfully logged into the email account! We were so excited! With lowered voices, we exclaimed, “This is fantastic! We did it!” We also appreciated Peng’s wisdom in hinting to Hao about the password.
In the following days, we began frequent communication with Minghui. We downloaded the most recent persecution news, updates, and sharing articles by practitioners. With brief editing, we printed them, wrapped them in newspaper, and distributed them to the coordinating practitioners in different areas, who then passed them out to those who still persisted in cultivation. Through this network of distributing information from Minghui, we formed one body in the early stages.
But within only a week, the apartment was found by the police. Before the police came, we transferred the computer to another location. Jing and I walked out of the subdivision in front of the police car.
Later, we frequently changed locations where we kept the computer we used to contact Minghui. We stayed in practitioners’ homes in the countryside and city, as well as homes of our relatives. We often slept on the floor and endured other hardships, but we have never since stopped contacting Minghui.
I remember one night after we finished the work, under the bright moonlight, we wondered what clothing we should wear when Master comes back to China, but we never expected the parting would last for more than two decades!
In the years that followed, we witnessed how the Minghui articles have helped the entire Dafa practitioner group to mature, and motivated them to step forward. With practitioners’ persistent efforts in printing and distributing the materials, more and more people now know the facts of Falun Dafa and have woken up.