My brother and I are practitioners from San Diego; we have been practitioners for a year. Our mother had planned a family vacation cruise to the Hawaiian Islands. From October 4 - 19, we would tour the islands in a large cruise ship Ms. Statendam. We were a little uneasy about leaving on a vacation, while other practitioners are clarifying the truth about what is happening in China. The past several weeks of Law promotion in San Diego had gone well, we had shared the truth with thousands of people in various community events, parks, and beaches. We didn't want to leave at such an important time in the validation of the Great Law. In fact my brother had made his decision to go less than 24 hours before departure. My mother worked very hard making numerous phone calls for 4 hours to get him a last minute ticket. I understood that this would be an opportunity to share the truth with those on the ship and people on the islands.
We prepared by bringing a CD player, exercise music, and an 18 minute demonstration music of exercises 1-5, several hundred flyers "In America the policemen who did this would be arrested: In China, they get a promotion " on the other side of the flyer was "Falun Gong a powerful ancient discipline, now practiced in over forty countries worldwide ." We also brought several clean Falun Gong T-shirts that said: "China stop persecuting Falun Gong ," and "Falun Gong- Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance ." The first day of the cruise we wore our Falun Gong T-shirts and performed the exercises on the pool area in the back of the ship, where 20-30 people were sun bathing and relaxing. We set out several flyers for people to pick up. No one picked up a flyer but everyone saw our T-shirts and us practicing. It is a private ship, so I didn't want to give a flyer unless someone asked for one or asked a question about us. I would make sure that everyone saw our T-shirts and our practice.
I had some disease karma come out in the form of motion sickness. My mom and family encouraged me to take seasick pills, the patch behind the ear and even the accupressure wristband. I had to explain that I would rather endure this period of uncomfortable without any assistance. My family was a little surprised that I wouldn't take a pill so I could feel better but they respected my decision.
We were surrounded by a gambling casino, alcohol, tasty food, shopping, entertainment, movies and people living the good life. My family was pleased that we did not smoke or drink and even boasted it at times to the bartenders and waitresses. They could not understand why we did not gamble while they were having so much fun. They asked me to play the Bingo with a jackpot of over $4500, I declined and they asked why? I really didn't know what to say. I had never thought about the issue of gambling before. After a few seconds of silence I said, what if someone really needed the money and I won it. I won't take what I don't work for. They didn't say much after that.
Many of the passengers were people more than 60 years old. I noticed many diseases, physical disabilities and fatigue in the elderly people as they walked by. It was easy to show a practitioner's kindness with so many people needing help with elevators, wheelchairs, sitting down, directions and so on. We continued to read the Great Law and practice in-between attending family and social activities.
The first stop was on the big island of Hawaii in the city of Hilo, which has about fifty thousand people. We went with our family sight seeing and snorkeling for several hours, returning to the ship we had two hours before the ship left. Wearing our bright yellow Falun Dafa T-shirts, we stopped at the local shopping center and spread flyers on all the cars under the windshield wipers. We distributed over one hundred flyers in just a short time. The security guard asked my brother to stop because it is a private parking lot. This is when I started to feel uneasy about passing flyers on private parking lots of shopping centers and such. One lady was very happy that we were distributing flyers and said that she supports Falun Gong in her heart.
The Next Island was in the city of Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Fear of criticism caused me to develop an attachment to being apprehensive about distributing flyers in a non-public place such as a parking lot or shopping center. My mother is a non-practitioner, she fed my attachment by saying that Hawaiians are very religious and they wouldn't like us passing flyers around. My brother was unaffected and went to the Chinese community in Honolulu and passed out one hundred flyers on the street.
Maui was our next stop, after a long day of sightseeing we stopped to eat lunch at a local restaurant. My brother went outside to distribute flyers in the parking lot; in a short time, about 15 minutes, he distributed about one hundred flyers. When my family came out, my stepfather smiled and said, "look at all the cars, he got every one of them." My stepsister said, "Are you on a mission?" She happily put her arm around my brother and read a flyer for herself.
On the Island of Kauai again my brother passed out flyers at a local shopping center parking lot. I still felt uneasy about passing out flyers on a private parking lot. I sat outside Borders Bookstore and drank coffee, watching my brother pass them out and seeing how the people read them when they got into their car. Most people read the flyer before driving away and all of them brought it into the car and took it home. I realized that this is a very effective way of distributing flyers, my apprehension turned into joy as I saw the effectiveness of this approach, if we had more time I would like to get permission.
The last stop was back on the big island of Hawaii in the city of Kona. We were there the day before the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. Many athletes and news media from around the world were attending and walking around the streets next to the beach. Wearing our bright yellow Falun Dafa T-shirts, we found a spot next to the beach across the street from several restaurants. There were many people and athletes walking and riding bicycles. We performed the 18-minute exercise demonstration music, which shows all the exercises. One would pass out flyers and the other would show the exercises. We passed out well over one hundred flyers and talked to many people about Falun Dafa. We stood in the hot sun for 3-4 hours sometimes during the sitting exercise the waves from the ocean would crash up over the wall and splash me with cool ocean water. People liked how we maintained tranquillity even while being splashed with water. My mother walked by and said she was proud of us for spreading the truth about Falun Dafa and took several pictures of us. My mother said that she could see our bright yellow T-shirts on the beach all the way from the ship that was anchored almost 3/4 mile offshore.
One person who lived on the island taught English in China during October 1, and was present during the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. He said that the police were very brutal to the practitioners hitting them with sticks and kicking them with boots, then taking them to jail. He also said that while in class discussions some people would vehemently say that practitioners were disturbing social order by appealing, but in private conversations they would say that practitioners are not a problem. This English teacher told me that some people feel that they will be looked down upon by others or the government may persecute them if they openly say Falun Dafa is not a threat to China.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to validate the Great Law far away from the comfort of my community. I understand why Master sent my brother along. He was very solid and did well distributing flyers under any opportunity or circumstance. Also my family was able to see the benefits of Falun Dafa and witness and support the rectification and its course.
A San Diego Practitioner
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Category: Parades & Other Community Events
