European Falun Gong staged a Photo Exhibition for the members of the European Parliament on August 11-13. This was a most rewarding and educational experience. The practitioners in Europe have not been promoting Falun Dafa to Governments and Parliaments as effectively as North American practitioners. Learning that some MP's (Members of Parliament) had never heard of Falun Gong made us realize that promoting Falun Dafa requires a long-term commitment, great patience, and unremitting effort.

Due to lack of experience, we also made some mistakes during the event. For example, before the exhibition, Ms. Cecilia sent out invitations to all members of the European Parliament. However, we failed to provide them with a detailed schedule of the first day of the event. We later found that government officials and MP's are used to having a carefully scheduled list of events for each working day. So on the evening of August12^th we prepared a detailed schedule for the next two days of the event. On the early morning of August 13^th, we put the schedule, along with Falun Gong introductory materials, in every MP's mailbox. We have learnt from the experience that we have to plan a Dafa promotional event down to the last detail if we want the best possible results.

In the meantime, the Western practitioners in Europe played a very important role in spreading Falun Dafa. They got in touch with the MP's in their home countries to introduce Falun Gong to them and told them the current situation of the crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners in China. We realized that Western practitioners, because of their experience of spreading Dafa in Europe over recent years, know how to efficiently and effectively relate to the western public, especially to government officials and MP's. (After all, it is their native land and they know better about their own culture and tradition.) In one instance, the practitioners in France prepared Falun Gong literature for all the members of both Houses of Parliament in France. Two Chinese practitioners went to deliver the material. However, the guard refused to take it and insisted that we should send it by mail. When these practitioners came back and told us their story, we looked within ourselves for the crux of the problem. Later, we prepared more material for the MP's and this time we sent Western practitioners to deliver it. The guard took the material without hesitation and also gave them some good advice. The case tells us that we should lay emphasis on the role of Western practitioners in spreading Falun Dafa.

French-Chinese Falun Dafa practitioners

September 19, 2000