(Clearwisdom.net) On the morning of December 17, 2001, I received a call from a friend of mine in China. He told me that personnel from the "610 Office" had arrested my mother while she was on her way to a police department to apply for her passport. ["610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.] Her whereabouts were not known. I felt like the sky was collapsing. It was a Saturday when I had to work overtime in my job. At the office, no matter how I sent forth righteous thoughts, I could not work normally. After I finished sending forth righteous thoughts as part of a group in front of the Chinese Consulate that afternoon, I discussed what to do with several practitioners. I didn't even know the names of most of the other practitioners at the time. Although some other Toronto practitioners' relatives were being illegally detained or had become homeless in order to avoid the persecution in China, and one practitioner's mother was in the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, no local practitioner was in charge of coordinating rescue work. We weren't sure how to go about it. We all realized, however, that we should use our personal experiences to clarify the truth to the world. My mother's arrest would be a powerful piece of evidence of the Jiang regime's cruel persecution of innocent practitioners. Individual practitioners had many different thoughts regarding this. When we decided to start by collecting signatures to present to the government to help release my mother, some practitioners kindly reminded us that we should not add more pressure to the practitioners in China.
Back then, I did not participate in many Fa-rectification activities, other than weekly group study and some large-scale practice activities. I didn't know the other practitioners well, but after learning of my mother's arrest, many gave me a hand. A practitioner from Taiwan immediately made two display boards with pictures and stories of my mother and I. Knowing that I would take the boards to often-rainy Europe, the practitioners laminated them and encouraged me over the phone. Once they knew where my mother was detained, some practitioners started to make phone calls to the police there to clarify the truth.
During the Spring Festival, large numbers of letters were sent to many government agencies, worker's unions, and non-governmental organizations. One of the non-governmental organizations in Ontario posted my mother's story on its website and called on readers to send letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking the government to rescue her. Practitioners in Taiwan also started collecting signatures and soon sent many of them. In May, Mr. Bill Graham, the Canadian Foreign Minister, wrote to me and stated that he had informed the Canadian Embassy in China so they could contact the Chinese government.
Things started to change. My friends in China told me that they had started to visit my mother in the labor camp and communicate with her by the means of simple notes. During this period of time, several Toronto practitioners' relatives were arrested in China and illegally sentenced. After the Falun Dafa conference in Boston, all practitioners realized the change in the cosmic climate. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston,"
"Every Dafa disciple is doing things proactively to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, and Master sees this. This is something that today's everyday people couldn't do. The students outside Mainland China are devoting themselves fully to this, and everybody is doing what they're supposed to do in this Fa-rectification period. Meanwhile, the students in China have their ways of doing things, while you, the students outside of Mainland China, have your ways of doing things. All of you are remarkable. It's not that everyone has to do the same things; every person is doing in his own environment what a Dafa disciple is supposed to do at this time. You're doing it from your heart, and each disciple is safeguarding the Fa and saving sentient beings really just like a particle of Dafa."
At this time, some practitioners spontaneously stepped forward and suggested the formation of the Rescue Our Family Members project.
We had previously often held discussions about the whole body of practitioners in Toronto. If one looks at us practitioners individually, extraordinary people seem to be rare. However, our strength is that once we have made a decision, everyone will devote themselves to it wholeheartedly regardless of any differing opinions individuals might have. This fully manifested again during the initiation of the Rescue Our Family Members effort.
Practitioners in charge of making display boards made one board for each family member who was persecuted in China. The elderly female practitioners who had been clarifying the truth in Chinatown hung the pictures of family members being rescued on their arms and walked to every corner of the city to collect signatures. The TV group made documentary films about the rescue project and uploaded them to the Internet so that our voice was spread all over the world. The media group held press conferences again and again so that the English and Chinese media were shocked by there being so many persecution cases in their area. Practitioners doing government work made many contacts in the provincial governments and the Parliament. The practitioners with relatives being persecuted in China spoke on Parliament Hill and exposed the bloody persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The mainstream media, including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and CBC, started to cover the stories often, and in a supportive way. Many MP's condemned the bloody persecution and asked the Canadian government to directly call upon the Chinese government to stop the persecution. Some practitioners designed postcards with the pictures of persecuted practitioners and distributed them to people. Soon, these signed postcards were sent to the Canadian Prime Minister and the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. All of these are sending a strong and clear voice, "Immediately stop the persecution and let our relatives come back home soon!"
At that time, I joined the volunteers at the radio station. In order to make a program that showed the magnificence of many practitioners safeguarding and validating Dafa with their lives in the face of brutal oppression over the past three years, some other practitioners and I interviewed many practitioners who had been illegally detained in prison and who had relatives being persecuted in China. Their selfless persistence in the truth while facing evil deeply moved my heart. During the process of making this program, my heart was purified and my cultivation level moved up. I have practiced Falun Gong for a year. Having not experienced the period of self-cultivation, I stumbled along the Fa-rectification process with the help of other fellow practitioners. Then I felt that the proud mission of every one of our practitioners during the Fa-rectification period is to truly position oneself in the tide of the Fa-rectification, to melt oneself into a Dafa particle, and, before the enormous Fa-rectification force comes, to realize the great vow that we made with Teacher. As I step deeper into the Fa-rectification process, I can put down more and more attachments that I had been tightly holding onto.
Since I began doing work for the radio station, I have not had much time to participate in the rescue project. Since I am a relative of a persecuted practitioner, I always felt uneasy. The practitioner in charge of the rescue told me, "We are a whole body in which everyone is manifesting the effect of a Dafa particle in his position. Media work is also an important part of the rescue project. Furthermore, there is no you and me in Dafa -- anyone's business is everyone's business." Feeling relieved, I could more easily devote myself to the media work.
In August, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Graham questioned the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Tang Jiaxuan about Falun Gong at the conference for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In September, at the suggestion of Canadian practitioners, the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners (GMRPFGP) was established. This marked the spreading of the rescue project from Canada to countries around the world and formed a powerful body calling for rescue by all practitioners around the world. The T-shirt with the picture of hands holding a loving heart can be seen everywhere. The rescue cases increased from 12 to today's 100 plus. Advancing from the principles of the Fa, more and more practitioners are able to put down their previous concerns, to step forward, and to clarify the truth with their personal experiences so that more kind people can wake up to the lies of the slandering media and evil is effectively stifled.
Practitioners in the telephone group make flyers about the cases of persecution and fax them to the relevant agencies in China. They also call the labor camps in China and tell them about heaven's law of retribution. All of these actions not only seriously strike at the evil, but they also greatly encourage the practitioners in China. My mother was detained at Beijing Female Forced Labor Camp. Every time Minghui.net reported the news it would cause a great impact there. The police guards were extremely scared and repeatedly asked my mother for more information. My mother later said that she found out about the overseas practitioners who were rescuing her from the police.
One of my relatives was very excited to hear the Voice of America interviewing me over the short wave radio. He called the labor camp and wanted to tell my mother about this news. The result is obvious. You can just imagine, in a prison that had blocked all information, what huge encouragement this kind of news would bring to the fellow practitioners. My mother told the police, "I am proud of my son and his friends!" A practitioner's mother was detained at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. The practitioners in her hometown saw the information about the overseas rescue and posted flyers on all the streets in the city. The treatment of many detained practitioners improved. Fearing further anger from the international community, the Beijing Female Forced Labor Camp started to register all the detained practitioners with higher education and who had relatives overseas. At this time, Wu Yanying, the sister of Toronto practitioner Wu Yanxia, was released from Tianjin. This was the first case of early release since we started the rescue project, which greatly encouraged all practitioners in Toronto and in the world. This proved that the truth can't be overcome and the evil is actually not a worthy foe regardless of how crazy it seems.
In October, practitioners Lin Shenli and Li Jinyu from Montreal and I went to Texas to assist with the rescue project for American practitioners. In a week's time we visited government and media in the important cities in Texas. We were excited to see the great outcomes from every press conference. We sighed, "The cosmic climate has indeed changed!" Soon enough, the "Rescue Our Family Members and Get Them Home" road trips started. Four groups of cars started from different cities in the United States and Canada traveling to Texas. This great action and the practitioners with persecuted family members became the focus of the media. Right before the cars started from Toronto, a practitioner's father and brother from Shandong Province were released. In the United States, the stories about Wang Zhiwen and Zhou Xuefei became well known. The Japanese practitioners who went to China with Yoko Kaneko came. Dai Zhizhen and Zhang Cuiying came from Australia. I interviewed Li Jinyu from Montreal, "This time last year, you were doing the SOS Walk in order to rescue your husband. Today, both of you are walking in this march calling for the rescue of the practitioners in China. What do you want to say to the audience?" She said, "This scene makes me feel that kindness and righteousness can't be overcome!"
More encouragingly, at this time, the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed a motion requesting the release of thirteen Canadian Falun Gong practitioners' family members, including my mother. In the meantime, the rescue action also started in countries outside North America. In Australia, Japan, and Europe, the voices that support us have become stronger and stronger as more and more practitioners join. We realize that this is not just a matter of a few family members. The persecution still continues: over 100,000 practitioners are still detained in China. A greater rescue plan is under consideration.
Several pieces of good news have come in succession. Before Christmas, adding to our New Year's happiness, Peng Tianxiong, the sister of Toronto practitioner Peng Tianying, was released early. On the fifth day of the Spring Festival in 2003, my mother, after 14 months of imprisonment, was finally home safely. When we were connected on the telephone, we did not know what to say. After a moment of silence, my mother said, "I knew that Minghui.net [1] was rescuing me. Please thank everyone for me!" At that moment, distance did not exist. I felt that mother was right beside me. Behind her, there were hundreds of thousands Falun Dafa practitioners in China. It was 1 in the morning, yet I clearly felt bright lights surrounding me! Looking back over the more than four hundred days and nights that had passed, it seemed like a split second. I saw myself growing up little by little in Dafa and in the whole body of Dafa practitioners as a family. Under the eyes of our benevolent Teacher, among the lines of footprints walking towards the new era, one of them is mine.
[1] Referring to the important information published by the Global Rescue Group on Minghui.net
