On Sunday April 22, 2001, some practitioners from St. Catharines, Guelph and Waterloo, traveled to Niagara Falls to participate in a one-day health fair called "Higher Vibrations." One pregnant practitioner even sat in the car with her husband for an hour and a half in order to come because she knew that we needed help, and many others had to travel very far to come as well.
We had a corner booth, which was dressed with many bright picture boards and signs, including information and photos revealing the truth of what's happening in China. Everyone could hear the beautiful Falun Dafa exercise music as soon as they entered the fair. We had four practitioners continually demonstrate the exercise movements, while the others spoke with people and gave out information.
I went around to visit all of the other booths to give them each a Falun Dafa flier. Everyone happily accepted the flier except for one person, but when I walked by him for the second time he stepped out in front of me and asked me for a copy.
Many people that visited the booth were very excited about Falun Dafa. A lot of people liked to read the book about the personal health benefits of practitioners that was sitting on the table and others were eager to show their support for the practitioners in China by signing their name on our petition to the Canadian Government. One lady darted back to our booth after having wandered away. She was starring at her Dafa flier and excitedly asked if this was the group that was being persecuted in China. When we told her that it was, she immediately signed the petition and repeatedly said kind words to us, such as, "I support you 100%! What is happening to the people in China is so horrible!"
A couple of practitioners that came from St. Catharines to help were brand new to Dafa. They had only recently started to cultivate and had never participated in any Hong Fa activities before. It was wonderful to see how happy they were to be there to help out. One woman said that she felt that she was getting better and better at introducing Dafa to people as the day progressed. The new practitioners were not shy at all; they didn't let anyone visit our booth without receiving a flier or having their questions answered.
We were at the booth from 10:00am until 7:30pm, so it was a long day. At times there were not very many people around so some of us would take breaks. This provided us with a great opportunity to share our experiences with each other and to deepen our understanding. Since we were all from different areas, some of us didn't know each other very well (or had never met at all), so it was unique for us to be together. I personally felt that some of the conversations were so fruitful!
When the event was over one practitioner asked the group who would write up something to send to Minghui/Clearwisdom in order to share with others. I gladly said that I would do it. However, when I started to type this up nothing that I felt was worth sharing was coming to mind. I felt that I didn't have much to say about the event and that it was maybe not worth posting on Clearwisdom. When I realized that this mentality wasn't right and that every experience is very special no matter how big or small I may think it is, I found that all of a sudden I did have a lot to share and began to type very quickly. Also, I know that we should contribute to Clearwisdom as much as possible.
A Western Practitioner from St. Catharines, Canada
April 23, 2001
Category: Parades & Other Community Events
