New Zealand: Introducing Falun Dafa on the North Island

During the Christmas and New Year holidays, Falun Gong practitioners from Auckland, New Zealand carried out a four-day van tour. The tour traversed nearly a thousand kilometers to convey the blessings and the truth of Falun Dafa to towns and villages along the route to the Upper North Island.

Van tour delivers the real story about Falun Dafa to cities, towns and villages along the route to the Upper North Island

Signing a petition to call for an end to the persecution and demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice

"Someone sent this to my mailbox"

Most of the places we traveled through during the van tour were rural areas. The local people are simple and kind, but they knew very little about what has been going on in the outside world. Most people had not heard about Falun Dafa before. As a result of the tour, they finally obtained the chance to learn about the beauty of Falun Dafa and receive the blessing of Dafa. Participants of the van tour placed introductory materials about Falun Dafa in mailboxes along the route. They also stopped in villages or towns to introduce Falun Dafa. In relatively larger cities, they held anti-torture exhibitions to expose the persecution that is happening in China, and they contacted the local media to report the event. When practitioners held activities in town centers, they often met residents from nearby villages or towns. When practitioners handed them leaflets, these people often smiled and said, "Thank you. Yesterday, someone already sent this to my mailbox."

"I'll raise the issue of the persecution of Falun Gong at our ethnic Maori meeting"

A passer-by stopped upon seeing the Falun Gong practitioners' exercise demonstration. When he read the three words, "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance," on a newsletter, he started talking with practitioners with great interest. When he learned that the practitioners were going to contact the local media, he said that he could help. It turned out that he is the leader of the local Maori Council. He immediately phoned a Maori-language radio station to do a live interview with practitioners.

This Maori leader expressed the following: The essence of Maori traditional culture also contains the principles of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." He felt that their cultures and ours are similar. He said, "Once an issue like the persecution of Falun Gong is raised, it will arouse the Maori people's attention." "I will raise this issue at our ethnic Maori meeting." The Maori leader also happily accepted bookmarks with the words, "Falun Dafa is great," and promised to take the bookmarks to Maori representatives.

Maori-language radio station holds live interview

Through the help of the Maori leader, a Maori-language radio station carried an interview with Falun Gong practitioners and ran a live broadcast that day. The originally planned short interview was prolonged to more than 40 minutes. After the interview, the announcer said with regret, "Time is too short, it is not enough!"

The interview content covered almost all of what the Falun Gong practitioners wanted to express and it was very successful. During the interview, the announcer repeatedly asked the question, "Why would someone persecute such a beautiful practice?" It was hard for her to imagine that this kind of thing is still happening in today's world. After the interview, another announcer came into the broadcast room and congratulated us for our wonderful interview. It turned out that he listened to the interview in his car on his way to the radio station.

During the interview, when the announcer learned that the practitioners' next stop was K Town, she immediately broadcast, "Listeners in K Town, please pay attention. When you see yellow flags and banners flying on the streets, it's likely that Falun Dafa has come to your town."

"Please contact our radio station if you need a petition form"

On the day after the Maori radio station's interview, practitioners arrived in another town and accepted another live interview with a local radio station. The interview lasted about half an hour. This host once had seen the practitioners' anti-torture exhibition in Hamilton and she was deeply impressed. The persecution became the focus of this live broadcast. When the host learned that Falun Gong practitioners were holding a signature drive to call for an end to the persecution and to demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice, she said over the radio, "Listeners, if you need a petition form, please contact our radio station." When she found out that practitioners' petition forms were all filled up and there were no blank ones remaining, she left her address and asked the practitioners to make sure to send her the forms when they were available.

"Is there a practice site here?"

The last stop of the van tour was W City. Before arriving at W City, the several thousand truth-clarifying materials the practitioners had brought were all distributed. Practitioners had to ask a fellow practitioner from Auckland to make a special drive to W City and supply the materials. In the center of W City, practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises and held an anti-torture exhibition. One after another, people stopped to watch, and signed the petition. An elderly lady in a wheelchair also came over to sign the petition. After looking at the posters depicting the brutal tortures, another woman immediate came over to sign the petition. The young practitioner who was in charge of collecting petition signatures collected more than 200 signatures that day. Quite a few residents in W City asked whether there was a practice site in W City. One woman said that when she first heard about Falun Gong, she wanted to find a chance to learn it.

During this trip, the practitioners deeply felt that the world's people are all waiting to learn about Falun Dafa.