Belgium: Falun Gong is Popular in Genk City

On October 13th and 14th, 2007, Falun Gong practitioners were invited to participate in the Natural Therapies & Natural Health Expo in Genk City, Belgium, to introduce the benefits of Falun Gong to the general public and expose the Chinese Communist regime’s cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Upon hearing about the cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, people are shocked by the Chinese regime’s atrocities	A local resident is fascinated by the book Falun Gong	The Falun Dafa stall is one of the most outstanding booths at the Expo.

Genk is a typical multicultural city, in which nearly one third of the population of some 60,000 is expatriates, mostly from Italy, Turkey and Greece. The city used to be famous for its coal mines and is now home to the Ford Motor Company’s assembly lines in Belgium.

The Natural Therapies & Natural Health Expo attracted various natural therapy and natural health product companies to Genk City. The photos of the similar activities held in the past were posted on its website, including that of Falun Gong booth at the Expo held in Leuven City in the past.

Besides the demonstration of Falun Gong exercise, Falun Gong practitioners also promoted traditional Chinese culture, including teaching visitors how to fold paper lotus flowers, introducing traditional Chinese music, dances and Chinese calligraphy.

During the two days, all the visitors who passed by the Falun Gong booth would be given a flyer. Many people stopped to view the demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises. Some of them looked at the books on display, or even asked practitioners for more information. The most commonly asked questions were what Falun Gong is, how to practice it, where they could learn the exercise, etc. After receiving the information about the practice sites in various cities, some even asked the practitioners around to give them further contact information. After reading Falun Gong’s publications, some of them showed their interests in the cultivation practice and bought Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong, saying that they would further read it after going home.

The table for teaching how to fold paper lotus flowers was often surrounded by visitors. While teaching how to fold paper lotus flowers practitioner Kamen also told visitors the facts about the persecution in China and how Falun Gong practitioners persistently proceeded with peaceful and rational anti-persecution activities. Many people were moved by the story about a young practitioner by the name of Fadu.

Fadu is a little girl who used to live in a happy family in China, but now, some of her family members are dead while others are forced to become destitute. Due to insisting on cultivating Falun Gong, her father was persecuted to death by the Chinese regime when she was only a little child in arms. Falun Gong is a cultivation practice dedicated to teaching people how to cultivate themselves based on the universal principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance,” so as to improve their physical and mental well-being. Shortly after her father was persecuted to death, her aunt was illegally arrested, and her grandfather passed away due to tremendous grief. Fadu and her mother have been to many countries to expose what’s going on in China to people around the world. Many children around the world have folded paper lotus flowers to express their care for all the children like Fadu.

What was different about the Expo this year was that Falun Gong practitioner Jane Dai and her daughter Fadu happened to be in Belgium and they were invited to participate in this event. People expressed their feeling of deep sympathy and appreciation for the mother and the daughter. People sympathised with their miserable sufferings while appreciating their courage of stepping forward to help many others being persecuted in China, in the face of the persecution. People in Genk City have come to know the Chinese regime’s atrocities. The organisers also expressed their sympathy and support for them, and took photos for them.

The volunteer worker organising these activities was Western practitioner Patricia and a lot of the stuff used in the activities was prepared by Western practitioner Wilfred. When we expressed our appreciation to them, they said that it was their great honour to cultivate Falun Gong and they were pleased to do some truth clarification work together. Whenever this kind of activity was held, Western practitioners Jos and Kamen, their daughter Ulia, a university student, and their son Salem, who is going to graduate from a senior high soon, would definitely be there. They have cultivated Falun Gong for seven years now and they enjoy harmonious and happy lives.

Falun Gong is a cultivation practice that can help people become compassionate, while making the society more stable and harmonious. It is like the Buddha light illuminating everywhere and rectifying all abnormalities.