In July 2002, Canadian Falun Dafa practitioners launched the campaign of "Urgently Rescue Our Family Members Being Persecuted in China." After coming together based on understandings of the Fa, Dafa practitioners in Toronto actively worked on this campaign. Some worked with government and media, some collected signatures, some made calls to China and so on. The rescue efforts started in many aspects. We shared the same vision and worked cohesively. My sister Yanying Wu, who was imprisoned in the Jianxin Forced Labor Camp in Tianjin, became the first beneficiary of this campaign. She was released in September 2002 before her original term ended. Upon hearing the news, practitioners outside of China were happier than my family members and me. The fellow practitioners in China were more excited than my sister. We are truly one body.
As one of the rescue ream members and a practitioner who has family members persecuted in China, over the course of the rescue campaign, I deeply realized that the effort was not only for rescuing our family members, but also for clarifying the truth of the persecution in China to the public. It was an especially important and very good lead for clarifying the truth to Chinese people outside of China. I am going to share some experiences during the rescue campaign. The purpose is so that we can improve our understandings of the Fa principles together and do even better on this campaign.
1. The rescue campaign has convinced many Chinese people that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China is true
During the year I've been in Toronto, I have met many new immigrants. They have seen Falun Gong exhibition boards and posters in front of the Chinese Consulate and in Chinatown. Some have read our truth-clarification materials. But many of them doubted the facts presented in our materials. One of the reasons was that they were heavily affected by the vicious, deceptive Chinese propaganda. The CCTV news programs broadcasted the speech of the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Li Shaoxing in the UN conference. In this speech, Li claimed that based on the official investigation of the Chinese government, none of the tortured to death cases disclosed by Falun Gong practitioners were true and all of it was fabricated. Another reason was that some of them just came out from China and had never heard of such persecutions and death cases. They couldn't understand how we could know so many persecution cases in China and sometimes even including details such as victims' names, addresses and workplaces here in Canada, which was so far from China? It was really inconceivable for them. Since the inception of the rescue campaign, many of them read the series of reports published in newspapers. These reports revealed the torture cases of Falun Gong practitioners who are family members of Toronto residents. So in this way the Chinese people in Canada immediately felt closer to Falun Gong and felt that the persecution happened in their neighborhood. They started to show interest in Falun Gong and their concerns on this issue.
One day, one of the new immigrants living in my building said to me, "Ms. Wu, is this newspaper publishing a report of your brother's and sister's situations in prison?" "Yes," I replied. She asked more, "Are those cases published in each issue of this newspaper real?" She showed more interest and continued asking, "I read about a person with the surname of Yang. Do you know her? Her mother is a nationally recognized expert and is also incarcerated. There was another one called Zhang Li. Her husband is a senior engineer and he was also sentenced to prison. Do you know them?" "Yes, I know all of them. We meet at least once every week," I replied. She was surprised and exclaimed, "Oh, all these are really true stories. Frankly speaking, I never believed what the Party said. Very few people tell the truth nowadays." I told her that Falun Gong always told the truth. If we don't speak the truth, we cannot be Falun Gong practitioners. If we did not speak the truth, we would not have been persecuted. If our family members hadn't spoken the truth, they wouldn't have been incarcerated. After hearing this, she said, "Oh, you are magnificent, really magnificent." "It is not because we are magnificent, but because the Fa is magnificent and our Master is magnificent," I said. At the end of our conversation, she said, "It seems that I really need to study Falun Gong." Later on, I received some feedback indicating that she had relayed our conversations to many of her friends, including her family members in China.
On another occasion, a Chinese person suddenly called my name on the bus. I wondered and thought about how she knew my name. We always met each other only on the bus and greeted each other only when waiting for the bus. She had been in Toronto for four years and once asked me about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. I told her, "All my family members practice Falun Gong, and my sister and brother were incarcerated because they refused to give up their practice." But I never told her my name. She took out the Epoch Times newspaper from her bag, asking, "Is this your name? I know it must be you. Look at the photo of your sister. She looks like you. Yesterday, in front of City Hall, I saw that Falun Gong practitioners with posters showing the pictures of family members persecuted in China. They were collecting signatures. I was really touched. I signed my name. I also told my colleagues to sign if they ever came across signature collection by Falun Gong practitioners. I told them I knew the sister of these two on newspaper, and we were friends." I was really happy that she came to know the truth and relayed the truth to her friends. This was the compassion of the Buddha Fa and power of all our practitioners as one entity.
2. The rescue campaign directly exposes the lies
One day, one of my colleagues waiting for the bus emotionally told me that he used to believe the media reports in China, which claimed that overseas Falun Gong organization obtained funding from western "anti-Chinese forces." After arriving in Canada, he had to work for survival, and knew that work was paid by the hour here. He believed that those Falun Gong practitioners appealing in front of the Chinese consulate and distributing materials in Chinatown must be financially compensated. Otherwise, nobody would be so foolish to stand there all the time, even in harsh weather. Since the rescue campaign started, he could see the Falun Gong practitioners holding posters, showing the pictures of their family members persecuted in China and collecting signatures everywhere. He said that he was really moved by the scene. He believed that the Chinese media was telling lies. He knew that I was a new immigrant without any roots in Canada and had no money to hire any people to collect signatures for rescuing my sister and brother. In the campaign, he not only met many kind people but experienced the compassion shown by our practitioners. He knew that the heart could never be purchased with any monetary amount. Finally, he told me, "Nowadays, it is hard to find people willing to sacrifice for others, including those government officials who always claim to serve the people wholeheartedly. Your people are really willing to make sacrifices for others. You are really magnificent! Now I gradually understand why so many people in China are willing to give up everything and risk their lives to go to Beijing to appeal. This is because they know the true meaning of life!"
It is our rescue efforts that enabled him to know the truth, and treat Dafa and Dafa practitioners with a totally different attitude.
3. The rescue campaign also strongly supports our fellow practitioners in China
When fellow practitioners in China received the materials I sent to them, the news spread rapidly. They experienced the power of joint effort of Dafa practitioners and also realized the progress of Fa-ratification. They were greatly encouraged. In a phone call, a fellow practitioner told me, "More than ten of us read the article 'Offer Your Hand and Rescue Our Family Members' together. After reading the article, we discussed for a long time and some of us immediately realized the fundamental meaning behind this article. They realized the significance of the rescue effort. Although the superficial meaning of the campaign is to broadcast the news of our family members being persecuted in China to society, it is actually to disclose the truth of the persecution in China. Although the superficial objective of campaign is to call on society to lend their support to rescue our family members, it is actually to appeal to them to rescue all the Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China." When some practitioners visited their family members in labor camps, they delivered the news of our rescue campaign and its impact to their detained family members. This has strengthened the determination of fellow practitioners in China and their truth-clarification efforts.
4. The campaign has changed the notions of non-practitioners
When I sent materials about the rescue campaign back to China, many of our relatives, friends and colleagues were really astonished. In the past, some of our family members and friends didn't understand us. They knew that Falun Dafa was good and also knew that my whole family benefited from practicing Falun Gong. But with many years of experience in political struggles in China, they intended to have it both ways because they knew the power of the ruling regime, who can easily persecute anyone in the country. They thought that both my sister and brother had elders and children to take care of, and that they should write a guarantee letter in order to take responsibility for their families and shouldn't confront the authorities when forced. Some family members even thought that by using my prestige in the family to persuade them, they would certainly listen to me. Others thought that by using my social relations in China, I should be able to bail them out. I didn't go that way. These family members found it difficult to understand me. When they saw the appeal letter to rescue my sister and brother from the newspaper I sent back, they were really astonished. They were astonished not by me but by the entire Falun Gong group. They realized the solemnity and magnificence of Falun Gong as a group. They knew that in China it was impossible for an ordinary person without connections and money to get a personal story like that published in the newspaper. They knew that I was new to Canada and had no connections or money. This group could rush about to rescue my family members with selflessness and really showed its kindness and magnificence. Especially when they knew that family members to be rescued included the distinguished national expert, senior engineer, model teacher and military personnel, they immediately broke the shell of everyday people and looked at Falun Gong from a higher level. My family members were proud of my sister and brother for having the same belief as this group of people. Other family members were proud of them for willing to sacrifice everything for adhering to their belief. They not only understood my sister and brother better but also understood me better. More importantly, they understood Falun Dafa better.
When my sister was released, news spread among my family members, friends and colleagues quickly. They talked about the magnificence of Falun Gong practitioners. They helped to clarify the truth, expose the lies and eliminate the evil. The effects have been exceptionally good.
The above are some stories that have happened to me since the beginning of our rescue campaign. Please correct me if anything is inappropriate. Our rescue efforts are still ongoing. We will continue making great efforts and do our job well.
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