(Minghui.org) I’m 79 years old this year. I began practicing Falun Dafa on May 8, 1996, at the age of 51. At that time, because I was in poor health, my family members all supported me in practicing qigong to improve my health.
One day, I saw a poster about Falun Dafa on the side of a building, and learned that a voluntary assistant was living in the same residential community as me. I went to see her and she told me a lot about the practice. I was very excited and decided to take up the practice that very day.
I went to the practice site in Forest Park every day and my heart was filled with happiness. I became very healthy without me even noticing the change. I felt like a joyful young girl again!
With more and more people joining the practice site, new sites were established, and we also set up one. Every morning, I took a tape recorder, a banner, and Dafa introduction leaflets with me to the practice site. It was such a happy time.
In the winter of 1996, the first large-scale exercise practice and Dafa-promotion activity in our area was held in an open-air stadium. The local TV station conducted on-site interviews and broadcast them on air.
Even people who didn’t practice Dafa and were present on site witnessed the miracles of Dafa – they saw Falun falling on practitioners as well as onlookers, like snowflakes, and strings of Falun spinning in the sky. The magnificent scenes were also shown on TV that evening.
No words are sufficient to describe the immense compassion of our Master and the boundless power of Dafa!
We also held a large-scale group exercise event to promote Dafa at the major practice site in 1997, with the participation of practitioners across the city.
There was also a “Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference” held in Forest Park in the summer between 1997 and 1998 (I cannot remember the exact date), which was attended by nearly 400 practitioners.
At the conference, a senior-aged practitioner shared about her miraculous experience of becoming literate and healthy after practicing Falun Dafa. Another practitioner’s sharing also left a deep impression on me. He had fought during the war. He brought a jar with him, which contained the nasal cancer mass that passed out through his nostrils a few days earlier. His face still looked a bit deformed caused by the tumor at the time. He emotionally expressed his infinite gratitude to Master and Dafa.
Forest Park was a very ordinary hill. With people coming to do morning exercises there, a brick path was built over time. The place was truly blessed after we set up the practice site, and the area was gradually developed into a great place with more facilities for leisure and fitness activities.
In the autumn of 1998, we held a big group exercise activity outside the gymnasium. About two hundred practitioners attended the event.
In January 1999, another experience sharing conference was held inside the gymnasium. More than 5,000 practitioners from nearby farms, districts, and counties attended the conference. It was also the last large-scale conference in our area before the persecution was launched by the Chinese Communist Party in July the same year.
As there were not enough seats to accommodate so many people, many practitioners gave up their own seats to others and sat on the floor. The aisles were also filled with practitioners. It was such a sacred and peaceful scene!
Going to Beijing to Safeguard the Fa
Darkness spread all over China on July 20, 1999. We were the first few in the local area to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Dafa. We took a taxi, but were stopped by police before we even reached a neighboring city, and were sent to the police department there. Later, we were brought back to a local detention center in our city.
At that time, practitioners from all over the country went to Beijing one after another, but many were intercepted by police and failed to arrive.
The second time I went to Beijing with a fellow practitioner, we managed to get there. I went to Beijing the third time in 2000 with my sister-in-law. Near the spot where the police raise the national flag in Tiananmen Square every morning, my sister-in-law and I unfurled a banner and shouted loudly as we ran around, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Our Master is innocent!”
A police car rushed towards us like a mad wolf. The police grabbed our arms and pulled them behind our backs. We had no fear. When I saw my bag drop on the ground, I shouted to the police, “My bag is on the ground!” To my surprise, he picked it up before thrusting me and the bag onto a bus.
Because my sister-in-law and I refused to give the police our names and addresses, we were taken to a far-away place, at the border with Inner-Mongolia. There were so many practitioners coming to Beijing to appeal that there was a convoy of ten buses heading to the same place. Each practitioner was watched by a police officer. We kept telling the police the benefits we had gained from practicing Falun Dafa and why we went to Beijing to appeal for justice for the practice.
On the way, whenever we saw people passing by, we would open the window and shout loudly: “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Our Master is innocent!”
Even though we didn’t know what was awaiting us ahead, we had no fear. Instead, we felt very happy and proud to do the right thing – speaking up for our faith!
I hid the little money I had under my insoles and my armpits. The police didn’t find it when searching me.
My sister-in-law and I were held in different detention centers. I was detained with a woman and her daughter-in-law. They were from the local province, and all their money was confiscated by the police, so I shared my money with them. During that darkest period of time, the warmth and kindness among practitioners always inspired me to keep going.
Clarifying the Facts to People
After 2000, the environment became very tense. Three fellow practitioners in our local area set up a truth-clarification materials production site. I also joined them and did whatever I could to help them. I purchased supplies and equipment. I also bought boxes of printing paper, hired a driver to transport them to a place near the materials production site, and then move them to the site at a convenient time. Sometimes I was questioned by the driver as to why I purchased so much printing paper, and each time I was able to deal with the situation wisely.
The practitioner working at the materials production site became homeless due to the persecution. The printing machine was very noisy, so we had to close all the windows to keep the noise down, and the room got very hot in summer. The practitioner was soaked in sweat even though he was only wearing a pair of shorts. The printed materials were taken away as soon as they were done to make sure there was always enough supply for practitioners to use.
When the persecution was very ferocious, there were often plainclothes police hiding near my house. Once, I went out with a female practitioner, and we noticed that a car was following us. We walked into the back door of a hospital and came out through the front door. That was how we got away from the tailing car.
I also formed a truth-clarification group with fellow practitioners in recent years, and we distribute materials from time to time. I also go out every day to clarify the truth to people face to face. I do the three things required of all Dafa disciples every day, and practice the second set of the exercises, “Falun Standing Stance,” for an hour and the fifth set, “Strengthening Divine Powers,” for two hours.
Twenty-eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. Under the protection of Master, I am walking steadily on the path of Fa-rectification cultivation. I am sharing these historical scenes I have witnessed on the occasion of World Falun Dafa Day.
Thank you, Master for your compassionate salvation!
Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Selected submission to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on Minghui.org)
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