(Clearwisdom.net) This story is a sweet memory. When the several practitioners who were there at the time review those days, our hearts fill with joy, and we are grateful to Master for offering salvation to us.
In late 1998, in order to spread the Fa, practitioners from Wuchang City left at six o'clock in the morning, heading towards Qichun County, the hometown of Li Shizhen (one of the most famous pharmacologists in Chinese history). Actually, we were going further, to a remote village in the mountain area that was subordinate to Qichun County. After we got off the bus, we took a local motor tricycle and then walked along the only road, a narrow mountain path, for about fifteen minutes. By the time we arrived at a local practitioner's house, it was already late afternoon.
From the point we began riding the motor tricycle, every dozen meters or so along the roadside were small groups of practitioners standing to welcome us. They had the open and simple smiles of people from the mountain areas, and they greeted to us with heshi.
The practitioner's house we went to was the best and was the only three-story house in that area. When we arrived there, there were already many practitioners standing outside waiting for us. Although we didn't know each other, it felt like we were family members who hadn't seen each other for a long time. After we entered the house, the first thing we saw was Master's photo hanging on the wall, with incense burning next to it. I couldn't help crying. Master's infinite grace reaches every corner of the country.
Local practitioners kept arriving. Most came after they finished with their farm work and they had to walk about five kilometers (three miles) through the mountains to get there, so by the time they arrived it was already dark. A practitioner who was an assistant came from another village 10 kilometers (about six miles) away. Standing at the door, you could see their flashlights in the dark. They were constantly coming from every direction. After everyone arrived, dozens of practitioners sat in the same room and talked about their joy and experiences after they obtained the Fa. Among all the sharing of experiences, what touched me most were two miracles that happened--handicapped persons returning to normal health.
There was a man who was forty or fifty years old. He used to be so hunchbacked that he couldn't straighten his back or stand upright. He could only sit on the ground with his chest almost against his thighs. He had lived in this posture for over twenty years, while dealing with his many other diseases. He couldn't do anything, and supported himself by weaving bamboo dustpans. One night after he had studied the Fa for about a month, he suddenly had extreme pain throughout his body, and he experienced this pain for the entire night. Before dawn came, he threw up a lot of black blood clots. Then suddenly he stood upright, his humpback had disappeared, and he also completely recovered from all the other illnesses he had for so long.
There was another woman who was forty years old. From childhood she suffered from a condition where both of her knees were twisted outward, and her toes were pointed towards the back of her body, so she had to walk sideways like a crab. After she finished watching Master's Fa-teaching videos however, on the tenth day when she was washing her feet, she suddenly felt there was someone turning her knees inward, and simultaneously both of her legs returned to normal.
The male practitioner could now go to fields to do farm work, and the female practitioner could walk lightly. When they talked about the miracles that happened to them, they spoke in a dialect I couldn't fully understand, but I could tell both of them had eyes brimming with tears. These simple villagers didn't have a sophisticated vocabulary to express themselves, but they kept saying, "Thank you Master! Thank you Falun Dafa!"
Their miracles shook the whole village, and after that many villagers began practicing Falun Dafa.
On the second day, the eight of us divided into several groups to visit practitioners separately. Not until we went to their houses did we realize how impoverished their lives were. More than ninety percent of the villagers lived in small brick houses that they built themselves. The poorest family only had a bed and a desk built from bricks. In order for the children to do their homework, a wooden board was placed on the bricks, turning it into a desk. They didn't have any furniture, only a stove to cook on, and the remaining were just farming tools. Nonetheless, living such an impoverished life didn't stop their wishes to cultivate and be good people. They couldn't wait to tell us all the magical stories and miracles they experienced after they obtained the Fa. Their hearts were full of joy.
We also saw a grandmother who was in her sixties. She was only about 4 feet 11 inches tall. In order to buy Dafa books, she did extensive labor work with her thin body, doing labor for building a temple on the mountain. She carried bags of sand weighing about 30 kg (66 lb.) to the 500 meter high mountain top, up and down four times. She earned 20 yuan and bought the precious book Zhuan Falun. She said for such a precious book, she would happily do any hard work. The second day after she started the practice, she had her period again (practitioner's bodies often return to a state of youth after practicing Falun Gong, and some senior women have this phenomenon).
We gave the practitioners a video player and many copies of Zhuan Falun and the newly published book, The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa. They treated them as the most precious treasures.
We also played Master's exercise instruction video at the playground of a shabby elementary school and taught the exercises to villagers. Over one hundred people came, and every one of them learned the exercises very seriously. Even people who were working on the opposite mountain stopped to watch the villagers doing the exercises. They later came to the assistant practitioner's house to learn about Dafa. I heard that after we left, about ninety percent of the villagers obtained the Fa and began cultivation.
After obtaining the Fa, the practitioners all focused on their Fa-studies and cultivation, and they became considerate of other people. The small village was changed, and there was a harmonious atmosphere everywhere. Several families who previously fought with each other over water to be used in the fields became considerate of each other after they began studying Dafa, and they carefully left water for others. Some blocked up their own fields to let the water flow to other people's fields first. Some people said, "Since I obtained the Fa, I am no longer bothered by anything. I am so happy every day and I sing out loud when I'm doing farm work."
Every evening, in order not to bother local practitioners as they heated water on their heated brick beds, we went to the river nearby to take a bath. This gave us time to enjoy the beautiful scenes of the mountainous area. Perhaps the gods were protecting the people in this beautiful and relatively remote area, preserving their purity; thus the contamination from modern human society was lessened so they could obtain the Fa without any barriers.
Indeed, they really treasured their blessings to obtain the Fa. They got up at three in the morning to do the exercises, and afterward prepared for the day and went to do the farm work until dark. Although they lived very far from each other, they persisted in studying the Fa together every day. Some people walked a few miles along mountain paths at night with a flashlight to join a study group.
When we were leaving, the residents brought their best farm products to give to us. We said that we were Dafa practitioners and we couldn't take things from them. Since we stayed at a practitioner's house, they served us with the best things. Every one of us gave them five yuan per day to help with their living expenses, and we had to persuade them hard to take the money.
As World Falun Dafa Day approaches, when we think of the practitioners in Qichun, it seems that we can once again see the flashlights, shining like bright stars along the dark, narrow mountain paths. Under the guidance of Falun Dafa, the lights illuminate the returning path for the villagers in Qichun.