By a practitioner from Germany

(Clearwisdom.net) The Cathedral in Cologne is one of the area's premier tourist attractions. Many tourist groups gather there every day, among which there are a lot of Chinese people.

At the beginning of August, a practitioner who used to persistently distribute leaflets here every day had to take care of some other matters and asked a number of us to take over for a period of time. After a day of flyer distribution we all felt that it was necessary to set up an information table. As we were short of hands, the table could only be set up on the weekend and we could only distribute leaflets from Monday to Thursday.

Although it takes all of us nearly four hours to travel to Cologne, after a group discussion we all agreed to go there to set up the information table from Monday to Thursday during the summer holiday. Now two weeks have passed, and some of the things that I have experienced moved me to tears. I would like to share a few of these experiences with everyone.

We are one body

Chinese people who passed the information table had various attitudes towards Falun Dafa. Those who traveled abroad frequently were less influenced by the propaganda from the Jiang regime. These kind of people listened to our view of the issues and offered their support. There were also a lot of people who stubbornly believed only the propaganda they were told in China before they were given permission to leave the country. These travelers were warned not to listen or talk to Falun Gong practitioners. Some would even swear at us.

We tried to find ways to talk to the Chinese people, asking where they were from or talking about their local culture. Once they were willing to have a discussion with us, an opportunity to let them know the facts about the persecution would appear and we then had a chance to clean out the propaganda from their minds. However, when groups of Chinese people passed by, one practitioner often needed to face questions from several people at once. We improved quickly. A new practitioner, who was reluctant to give out leaflets on the first day, managed to deal with a group of six to seven people calmly after two weeks. But under this circumstance it was still not easy to talk to people thoroughly and at length.

Another practitioner mentioned that the materials she had were distributed quickly when she worked with another practitioner as one of them would send forth righteous thoughts while the other handed out the leaflets. However, they would sometimes get into an argument over very small things. Her eyes were filled with tears when she told me that. I think this might be interference. But why did this happen? Does it not indicate the importance of cooperation?

With continuous communication we gradually formed a method of working together as a group in order to talk to tourists about Falun Gong. We made additional remarks about each other's instructions and sent righteous thoughts together. We were not satisfied with simply distributing leaflets to tourists anymore. Every time a tourist left the area, we exchanged views and let each other know where we spoke well and where we needed to improve. Everyone was thrilled about the change and it really made us feel like one body.

"Please let me donate some money to you!"

In the first week, I felt tired as I would dash to the exercise class at 5 am, and it was normally 9pm or 10pm when I arrived at home in the evening. One afternoon I fell asleep in the sunlight. A Chinese voice woke me up, "Please let me donate some money to you! It is hard work for you." A middle-aged gentleman told me that he had learned about the hardships confronting us and wished to do something for us. I told him that we would not accept his money but that it would be great if he could let more people know about the persecution.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200408/21526.html

Posting date: 8/23/2004
Original article date: 8/23/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/20/82177.html

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