The activities on the 25th were held at King Square in the famous English town of York. At about 10am, practitioners set up a display stand, hung up banners, started to demonstrate the exercises and collected signatures to rescue UK practitioners' family members who are being persecuted in China. Although King’s square is relatively small, it is right next to an outdoor market, so many pedestrians pass by. There is also a raised platform in the square that is very suitable for demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises and performing some traditional Chinese dances.
No matter which practitioners were performing, whether it was the exercise demonstration, the traditional fan dance or the drum performance, there were always a lot of people watching. During the demonstrations, practitioner also clarified the facts about the persecution in China to passersby. Many of the passersby signed their names on a “Rescue Our Family Members” petition one after another. This allowed them to set the foundation for a wonderful future.
During the process of collecting signatures, there were a lot of touching stories. One elderly lady asked many questions after signing and she cried at the severity of the persecution in China. After hearing about the persecution, another elderly lady said, “If we remain indifferent and unmoved after this has occurred, then we are guilty.” One English family came to sign the petition, including the father, a son and the eldest daughter. A young girl, aged four or five, couldn’t even write, but was determined to sign so another girl helped her to write her name.
Two Chinese people watched Dafa practitioner’s performances, stood for quite some time and then accepted soome information leaflets. In the end, they asked where to buy the Dafa books, because they wanted to learn. One middle-aged lady mentioned that her son was a member of Amnesty International and she wanted to help us in contacting Amnesty International in York so that practitioners could perform an exercise demonstration and introduction Dafa to more people. As the activity was just about finish, a staff member from the University of York approached practitioners. She said that in the university there were a lot of Chinese students. She wanted all Chinese students to know the facts of the persecution. All the Dafa practitioners who participated in the activity felt the purity and kindness of the people of York.
The activity on the 26th of October was held in Leeds, Northern England. Leeds is a big city and many Chinese people study there. In the morning, Dafa practitioners went to Leeds and began a day of activities at 10am in Dortmund Square. The exercise demonstrations and performances demonstrating traditional Chinese culture attracted a lot of people again. Because there are so many Chinese students in Leeds, we will discuss some of the meetings we had with them.
After accepting the Dafa materials, one pair of Chinese students came over to the Dafa stand. They took pictures of the banners and the stand. In front of one of the banners entitled “China: Stop the Persecution”, a piece of paper was covering the characters for “China”. They asked to uncover the characters in order to take a picture of the entire banner. Another pair of Chinese students accepted the leaflets before asking a practitioner to take a photo with them under the banners of “Falun Dafa is Good” and “Truth, Compassion, Tolerance”. On this day, local media also came and talked with western practitioners. The reporter recalled a report from 2 years ago, when a practitioner from Leeds went to peacefully appeal on Tiananmen Square. The practitioner was the victim of violence and insults from the Chinese police before being deported.
Throughout the 2 days activities, a lot of people learned more about Dafa and came to know the facts behind the persecution. Nevertheless practitioners are aware that there are many more people waiting to hear the truth. Dafa practitioners must remember Master’s words: “hurry up to tell them”. Only then can practitioners complete Dafa disciples’ historical task.
Translated from Chinese at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200310/25553.html
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