Falun Gong Receives Warm Welcome on Sweden Cruise Liner

Contributed by Swedish Practitioners

In Sweden there is a Me-Too Society with many members. It was a society for singles to socialize. The person in charge of the society had seen us when we demonstrated Falun Gong exercises during Culture Night in Norrkoping several months ago. The society has been very supportive in our campaign against the persecution in China and they all knew about the event in Tiananmen Square where about ten Swedish practitioners went and demonstrated against the brutal, inhuman persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

The society holds various activities regularly. This time they chartered a cruise ship, the Viking Line, from Stockholm to the Aland Islands of Finland. Several hundreds of members participated in various activities aboard the ship. The trip lasted for 24 hours. The person in charge found Dafa exercises to be beautiful and harmonious, and thus thought that Falun Gong would fit perfectly on the ship. There were also other exhibitions on the ship with the theme of body, mind and spirit.

At the invitation of the Me-Too Society, some Falun Gong practitioners joined the trip for free and the organizer even set aside an exhibition hall for us for a whole day. The practitioners boarded the ship in the evening of November 25 and started the activities of Hongfa and clarifying the truth. When we were introduced onto the stage of the meeting hall, we were warmly welcomed. When we explained the meaning of the message "SOS! Urgent Rescue Practitioners Persecuted in China" on our T-shirts, once again loud applause was raised in the meeting hall. Through the sincere applause, we heard their strong support for justice and compassion.

On the morning of November 26 we stopped at Mariehamn in Aland and we did Hongfa in the central part of the city (see separate report at: http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/11/29/16326.html)

On the ship, the Dafa Truth Exhibition formally started at 10 am. People continuously came to learn the exercises. While they were watching the teaching videotape, they started following the exercises. Many people purchased videotapes and Dafa books. Since we were invited by the society, the members knew what Falun Gong was, which we felt very good about because no one seemed to ask questions about what Falun Gong was and why it was persecuted in China. We handed out a lot of Dafa materials on the ship and many people were interested in contacting Falun Gong group in their hometowns to try out more of the exercises, and in deepening the understanding of the teaching. Lots of people had harmonious feelings while doing the exercise.

It was really interesting and exciting and also unique to show Falun Gong on a cruise ship. The interest was big among the travelers and we will probably do more hongfa in this way if more opportunities come up.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/11/29/20577.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version