(Clearwisdom.net) Wilmington is a small town on the east coast of the United States. For the past few years, practitioners have held a booth at the local Earth Day festival. The festival is held in the same park that the local Falun Dafa group practice is held, as well.
During the festival, so many people stopped to talk with practitioners. Many people said they had never heard of Falun Dafa before. Many people said they would soon show up to group practice. One practitioner printed out a map with the time and location, as well as contact info, for local group practice. We quickly ran out of these and one practitioner had to write this info on flyers for people. One practitioner made about 10 lotus flowers before festival, the flowers were gone in the first 30 minutes.
One thing unique about this festival was how many people the practitioners ran into that they already knew from daily life. One practitioner had many people come by the booth that he knew from work and delivering English Epoch Times (EET) newspapers. One of the grocery stores that he delivers EET to also had a booth at the festival. He stopped by to say hi to the store owner. Although he had been delivering EET, flyers and other materials to that store, he was surprised that the owner actually did not know too much about the persecution. It was a great opportunity for further truth clarification. A young man that this practitioner also often ran into while delivering EET took the time to learn the exercises at the festival.
A lot of mothers with their children stopped by the booth, and knew one of the practitioners from the children's school and community. It was a great opportunity to clarify the truth to those who we meet in our daily life and always wanted to clarify the truth to. Those who already understood from past efforts offered support by giving practitioners info on other events in community practitioners could try to attend. One practitioner at the booth makes items to sell in a store that also had a booth at the festival. She went to give a flyer to the store owner, who said, "Oh! How come you never gave us flyers to put in our store? Please bring flyers for our store."
Practitioners offered exercise teachings, and many people of all ages joined in the exercises. One lady stayed at the booth for a long time, listening to everything the practitioner said of the persecution. When the practitioner gave the group practice time, the lady said that although she currently was not interested in practicing, she wanted to do something about the persecution and asked what she could do. She took a lot of informational materials and was very interested in the Nine Commentaries. She said that she could write letters to her congressman. Practitioners told her that anything she could do, do it and it will make a difference. The local practitioners came to understand that if we do a really good job to thoroughly expose the evil and the persecution, people will naturally want to stand up and oppose the persecution.
One young boy, 11 years old, stopped by the booth, He stood for a while, pointed at a poster re-enacting the torture, and said firmly, "That should not be allowed! I thought we got rid of that, that should not still be happening. How could we let this happen!" This young boy was so firm in his words, and he signed the petition and took information for his parents. Practitioner told him that we can stop this, and we can tell everyone what is happening.
Another lady and her daughter stopped by the booth, and they happened to be neighbors with one of the practitioners. In the past, the practitioner had shown the daughter how to make lotus flowers and the story of the Petals of Peace, and briefly shared this with the mother. This time at the festival, the mother learned a lot more. She stood for a while staring at the Law Wheel in Zhuan Falun and reading “Lunyu”. She told her friend that Zhuan Falun is so great. She put her bags at the practitioners' booth and spent the rest of her time at the practitioners' booth.
Mother and daughter enjoy paper lotus flowers
Another practitioner (also a father) had to watch the young children at the festival. Although he was busy taking care of the young children, he wore a yellow t-shirt with the words “Falun Dafa” and “Stop the Persecution” on it. One man asked him about the shirt and many people at festival must have noticed it.
The next day, a man and his wife attended local group exercises in the park and received the book Falun Gong. He had received information about the practice at the fair.
Category: Parades & Other Community Events
