While the Falun Gong practitioners in China face the escalating persecution, there are more and more people in the world paying attention to Falun Gong, getting to know Falun Gong, and wanting to practice Falun Gong.
We met such a lady in Sydney. Her name is Joy. The first time she got in touch with us was when she drove by the Chinese Embassy in Sydney one day. She saw the Falun Gong practitioners holding a candle light vigil to mourn the practitioners who had been persecuted to death. She stopped her car and wanted to know what had happened. A practitioner handed her a flyer.
Joy is the host of a community television station. Her program is about "a happier world". After reading the flyer at home, she was deeply attracted to the content.
She contacted the practitioners and invited us to introduce Falun Dafa on her weekly program. She invited us to appear five times on her program. Each time she had the practitioners demonstrate one exercise. Each time during videotaping the program, she interviewed the practitioners. She covered what Falun Dafa is, stressed Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and talked about the persecution in China.
One evening after we finished videotaping the second exercise, she tried to practice the "holding the wheel in front of the forehead" in the second exercise. Then she slept soundly for twelve hours. She had had sleeping problems for years. She always had to wake up every two to three hours at night. She finally experienced a peaceful night's sleep that night. Joy said, "I cannot believe this. This practice is extraordinary."
Joy has started to read the Falun Dafa books. On the day we videotaped the fourth exercise, she asked all the staff to learn the first exercise from us before we started the videotaping. She believed that Falun Gong can make one have inner peace, be able to work better, and that everybody should try it.
One day, a practitioner from Austria attended the videotaping. Joy featured her interview on the program. She said that it was great that there were people around the world practicing Falun Gong. She said, "If everybody followed Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, the world would be wonderful. I have started to read the books. Although I have not completely understood what the book says, I know this book is unusual. What it talks about is very interesting. If you want to understand Falun Gong, you must read the book as well."
Joy's weekly program was scheduled to air on December 2. Because another program that was planned couldn't finish in time, there was a half-hour open slot. Joy mentioned this to our practitioners. We suggested that she play "Falun Gong, the Real Story II". She agreed.
On November 30, Joy asked the practitioners to send the tape to the TV station before she reviewed it since she was on a tight schedule.
One December 1, Joy called the practitioner and said that the TV station felt that the content was too tragic and doesn't match the mood of her program, and that they didn't agree to play it.
Joy took the videotape home that day. The next day, early in the morning, Joy called the practitioner. She said, "I watched the program carefully at home. Indeed it is too tragic that people are beaten so badly, but we cannot hide the truth. We should let people know it. Although my program is about happiness it also needs to be truthful. The program was made well and talked about many aspects. I don't think there is any problem to play it in my program." Our practitioner agreed immediately. Joy called the TV station again before the scheduled airtime to make sure that they will play the tape.
Then, on Saturday December 2, a program made by Falun Dafa was aired for the first time in Australia. The Falun Dafa "real story" was aired to the viewing audience.
Joy said, "I will continue interviewing you. I am very interested in everything that you want to say and any programs you want to air."
Australia Practitioners
December 3, 2000