Serendipity: Many Coincidences Help Swedish Practitioners in Portugal Part 2

The second week in Portugal we continuously had wonderful coincidences

Tuesday was our first day in Portugal and we were looking for a place to give Falun Gong introductions. After some searching we finally found a very well known gym. They normally do not rent out their gym room but they made an exception with us. So we booked for Tuesday and Wednesday evening of the second week of our stay. And we printed 4,000 flyers containing this information.

On the following Sunday, the newspaper Correio da Manha conducted an interview with us at Torre de Belém. Link in Portuguese: http://www.correiomanha.pt/showNews.php?id=25264
This article was printed in Monday’s issue of the newspaper.

On Tuesday, at the introduction, there were more then 25 people there. All went very well and we understood that many came because of the article in the newspaper. Also there were a few people who were not learning the practice. Later we found out that one was a radio reporter and she interviewed the mother of the Portuguese practitioner whom we coincidently met in the street while giving out flyers. This mother who still regarded herself as a new practitioner was very surprised at herself but nevertheless happy that she could help. Also she was the one who translated into Portuguese while we demonstrated the movements and she did it very well. The other women waiting was a researcher who had held a lecture on Falun Gong at the Political Science University, a week before. One of us happened to come across this information and we wanted to meet her but we still did not come into contact with her at that time. And there she was very much wanting to talk to us. Everyone there seemed very happy. Afterwards one of the men said that he normally never read this particular newspaper but that day he did and that was why he was there.

Next day it was the same. We were again more then 25 people. But this time there were lots of cameras and people standing there beside the 25 people trying to learn. We found out that they were from RTP TV station. This TV station is state-owned and one of the biggest in the country. They too had read the newspaper article and called the gym directly who gave them permission to be there. We asked the people there if it was ok for them to be on TV, and all agreed. The Portuguese practitioner was interviewed while we were practising. Later we found out that it was broadcast live and 4 million Portuguese saw us. The reporter asked why was this method was persecuted in China. Afterwards the Portuguese practitioner’s friends called and told him that if that was what he was practising, they would also like to practise.

During these two days, the Portuguese practitioners together decided that they would practise once a week on Sundays at Torre de Belém. After we came home, they sent us a mail telling us that they were 20 people at the practice site.

When it came to the Chinese people. We met some of them in the streets and we kept on clarifying the truth to them. One day one of them came back to us and asked if we were the ones who had distributed the CDs and the materials at 3 o’clock in the morning to hundreds of Chinese at a Chinese event. He told us that he and some of his friends did not get any because they were all gone by the time they came to us. So we gave some more to him to give to his friend.

But then we were thinking how about all the flyers we have distributed during the week? And not many came to the introduction. Well, one day the practitioner whose telephone number was on the flyer said that it had worked. Many were calling him and he was telling them about the practice site. In the newspaper article there was no phone number.

There were also some NGO [non-governmental organisation] and business contacts we wished to make while we were there but somehow we could not quite make it work during our stay. Just before we left, the Portuguese practitioner wanted to know what he could do after we were gone. While we talked about these contacts, he just said that he knew someone there at that company and knew that person and so on. And we realized that he had lots of connections with many different people. He also happens to know just the reporter we wanted to see. Should we mention that we couldn’t have left the information in better hands? We knew that he also clarified truth on his own before we came.

We felt that our heart was in Dafa [Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance] and Dafa [Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance] was there to lead us. Nothing seemed hard at all and everything worked just perfectly. But we are also very sure that our determination to always study the Fa [principles of Falun Gong] every day was the key to all things working out smoothly. This was the greatest lesson this time.

Reported by Swedish practitioners