(Minghui.org) Editor’s note: The “Little Flower” that the Falun Dafa practitioner refers to in the title is a nickname for the family truth-clarification materials production sites that Falun Dafa practitioners in mainland China set up during the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution.
People running these materials production sites download various kinds of newspapers, journals, and even books from Minghui.org every week, print and bind them, and then provide them to other practitioners, who do not have the skills to circumvent China’s Internet firewall or produce materials for distribution.
Because the material production sites that practitioners set up at their own expense are like flowers blooming everywhere in the springtime, and spread their seeds despite the harsh wind, they are nicknamed “Little Flowers.”
Farmers who never touched a computer mouse learned to operate a computer; men and women in their 70s learned to operate computers from scratch; and young computer science major college graduates gave up their money-making jobs to provide technical support.
I’m 80 years old, and I began practicing Falun Dafa before the persecution began on July 20, 1999. Like most practitioners, I read the Fa, did the exercises, sent righteous thoughts, and told people about Falun Dafa and CCP’s persecution every day. I joined a truth clarification project to make phone calls when it became available. In 2014, my path of cultivation underwent a great change.
It all started with making truth-clarification phone calls. To make a phone call, I needed to enter phone numbers into my phone. However, I knew nothing about computers, so I often went to practitioner Aifang’s (alias) house and she helped me enter the numbers.
Aifang had a young son who was curious and liked to play with the computer. He thought it was a toy. He always ignored his mother’s warnings, messed things up, was spanked and cried. I thought to myself, “How many more spankings does this child have to take if I keep going to Aifang’s house? If only I could enter phone numbers myself!”
As soon as I got home, I took 3000 yuan to my brother’s home in another city and asked him to help me buy a computer. My brother bought me a laptop for 3,500 yuan, with 500 yuan out of his own pocket.
Looking at the brand-new computer, my mind went blank. I didn’t even know how to turn it on and off, let alone how to use it. I went to Aifang again, who told me the basic operations, and I finally knew how to enter phone numbers. Soon, practitioners started coming to my house to have phone numbers entered for them.
One day, my grandson saw me and said, “Grandma, why are you holding the mouse like that?” I asked, “Then how do you hold it?” My grandson taught me that my right hand should hover on the mouse with my thumb and ring finger touching the two dents on the mouse, my index finger should be placed on the left button and click.
I did what my grandson told me, and aha! it felt so much better. No wonder I felt awkward when I held the mouse—I had been holding it with the palm of my hand upright!
With the basic computer skills gained, something happened immediately. Baoling (Alias) was responsible for printing truth-clarifying pamphlets, Minghui Weekly and CDs. I usually picked them up at a certain time and distributed them to practitioners.
A New Cultivation Opportunity
One day, I went to pick up the materials as usual, but Baoling said she would not do it anymore. Empty-handed, I went to the coordinator’s house to discuss what to do. The decision was that Cheng (Alias) would print the pamphlets and weekly journals, and I would make the CDs. At that time, we needed a large number of Shen Yun CDs.
Before this incident Baoling wanted me to make CDs, so I once carefully watched how she did it and had some ideas.
When I brought the CD burner home, it didn’t work. I got the technical practitioner Feng (alias) to help me, but he worked on it until midnight and couldn’t figure it out. He is knowledgeable about software but never handled computer hardware. Baoling later helped me set up the burner.
I was responsible for printing all kinds of materials and journals, and I had all kinds of machines at my disposal. Ding (alias) patiently taught me how to print. He taught me step by step and told me to write the steps down in my notebook in case I forgot. He also told me to write down any questions in the notebook so I could ask him when he returned.
With Master’s help, I gradually learned to make various kinds of materials by myself, including journals, leaflets, self-adhesive posters, New Year’s calendars, Master’s lectures, The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, The Ultimate Goal of Communism, and so on. A lot of miraculous things happened during this time.
Once, I wanted to print the self-adhesive posters that read “The Communist Party Is the Biggest Cult,” but when I turned on my computer, I realized the folder containing the various poster designs disappeared, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I went to Minghui.org and couldn’t find it there either.
I could not give up, because practitioners needed them. I turned on my computer again and randomly clicked. I happened to click open the Administrative Tools, and then desktop, where I found the lost folder! Inside was the “The Communist Party Is the Biggest Cult” poster file, however the other lost files were not found.
What was even more surprising was that the folder was not even on my desktop. Master knew I needed it, and helped me. Thank you, Master!
Another time, one of the machines broke down, and I didn’t want to bother Feng, the technician practitioner, because I knew how busy he was. I wrapped the machine in a big piece of cloth and slowly carried it downstairs. I walked to the bus stop, went to a big shopping center, and had it fixed in a computer repair place.
On my way back, I walked upstairs carrying the machine. I walked up just two steps before somehow falling down. The machine weighed more than 33 lbs. If this happened to an everyday person my age, that person would have gotten badly hurt! I stood up and I was fine, so was the machine. I knew Master protected me once again.
At one point, a practitioner told me the CCP was rampant recently, and asked me to put the machines away and not to use it until later. My house is rather small, so it took me until midnight to finally hide them under the bed, in the chest, and any place I could think of.
After a week, I thought, “This isn’t right. I have responsibilities. I cannot keep the machines hidden away.” I moved them out one by one. However, I had put the heaviest one so deep in the chest, and I couldn’t get it out.
A few days later, Enping (Alias), a 50-year-old practitioner came to my house. She was strong, so I asked her to help me get the machine out. When she struggled to take it out, she said, “Auntie, how did you put such a heavy machine in there? This thing must weigh at least 55 pounds. It’s amazing.” An old lady in her 70s won’t have much strength. I knew it was because Master helped me.
The New Year’s calendars are a must-do every year. When the design was ready, I started printing them out. If I printed them with normal settings, it printed fast, but the pictures were dull and not bright. I adjusted the setting to maximum quality. It printed slowly, but the pictures were clear, bright, and beautiful. Fellow practitioners all praised the final product. I printed several thousand calendars each year.
A lot of CDs were distributed over the years and there were a lot of leftovers. It was a shame to throw them away. A practitioner learned from Minghui.org how to turn CDs into hanging art. I therefore had a new project - making CD stickers.
It was a bit challenging to print CD stickers, because the paper is not standardized, and does not match the size of the graphics design. I therefore had to carefully nudge the graphics and avoid any big moves which would otherwise ruin a sticker. I made a few hundred CD hanging art by connecting the CDs together and attaching tassels underneath, which was beautiful.
With my material site running for a long time, practitioners began to bring unused supplies from obsolete sites or their homes to me, such as toner, Dowling paper, wrinkled A4 paper, glossy paper ... I complained a little, but I thought, these things came to me, I must use them and not waste them.
I used an iron to smooth out the wrinkled A4 paper; I printed Master’s scriptures on the Dowling paper; and I used everything else to the best of my ability. I had very little waste.
Some practitioners asked me to make materials for them urgently. I met all of their requests. Once, I started to work after sending righteous thoughts at 6:00 a.m. and continued till 6:00 p.m. and later. I did not stop until it was time to send righteous thoughts, and I finally finished the task in time to meet the practitioner’s needs.
Some practitioners needed envelopes with printed addresses to mail truth-clarification letters with, but printing envelopes is hard on the printers. I still helped them by printing dozens of envelopes every week, because I knew we were all trying to save lives and it is everyone’s responsibility to help one another.
My little material site, under Master’s protection, and with the help of fellow practitioners, has made it smoothly for ten years. Today, this little flower is still blooming in this chaotic world.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Selected submission in celebration of World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)
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