Texas: Practitioners Participate in the Houston Community College International Festival (Photos)

By a Falun Gong Practitioner in Houston

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioners accepted an invitation to participate in the International Festival on the central campus of Houston Community College on April 7, 2004. They introduced Falun Gong and told people about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. They also gave a demonstration of the five Falun Gong exercises on a stage. Many students learned facts about Falun Gong. Some even learned how to do the exercises.

The organizer of this event happened to meet the practitioners as they were appealing in front of the Houston Chinese Consulate. Practitioner Ms. Zhu said that she, her husband and a few others have continuously gone to do exercises and clarify the truth about Falun Gong in front of the Chinese Consulate. The organizer of the International Festival happened to go to run an errand in the Chinese Consulate one day and talked with the practitioners, who told her how Falun Gong has spread to more than sixty countries in the world and how it is persecuted in China. She immediately invited them to the International Festival and made arrangements for them to demonstrate the exercises on a stage.

The International Festival was held in a large grassy area on the central campus of Houston Community College. Falun Gong practitioners decorated their booth with truth-clarification display boards and a yellow banner reading, "Falun Dafa is Great" in red. Because booths were pretty close to each other, the banner extended to the next booth, which belonged to a Vietnamese woman from Amnesty International. She gladly let us extend our banner to her booth.

As more and more people came to the festival, Falun Gong practitioners distributed Falun Gong flyers . Many people were interested and went to read the display boards after reading the flyers. Some watched our exercise teaching video. Some wanted to learn Falun Gong after talking to us. When Falun Gong practitioners gave them exercise-teaching videotapes, they repeatedly said "Thank you!"

After learning from one girl that she had suffered from insomnia, a Falun Gong practitioner told her that he had had insomnia for twenty years, but it was gone after he started practicing Falun Gong. She was very happy to hear it and wanted to keep in touch to Falun Gong practitioners. She said that her family and friends should practice Falun Dafa too. She came back again right before we were ready to leave to ask for more introduction materials.

Practitioners demonstrated the five sets of exercises on a stage. The meadow was quiet and filled with a captivated audience. Some of them went to ask for introduction materials after watching the demonstration. A Falun Gong practitioner sang two songs on the stage, "Between Heaven and Earth" and "Ode to the Lotus", both written by practitioners. The beautiful songs won warm applause. Some Falun Gong practitioners went to clarify truth about Falun Gong to Asian students at different booths. Some even went to distribute flyers at crossings.

Falun Gong practitioners were pleased after the five-hour activity, because more people had learned the goodness of Falun Dafa.

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