United States: Falun Gong Welcomed at Healthy Living Expo in Delaware

The third annual Healthy Living Expo was held from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on March 22nd, 2009, in the Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware. More than sixty exhibition booths on health products and clothing were in the expo. The Falun Gong booth attracted many visitors.

Visitors ask for information on Falun Gong	Mr. Abdul Majid learns Falun Gong

At the beginning of the expo, a Chinese lady brought her 4-year-old granddaughter to the Falun Gong exhibition table. The lady is from Jiangxi, China. She said there were many Falun Dafa practitioners in her work unit in China, and she had just started learning the practice. Unfortunately, the practice site was shut down after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated the persecution of Falun Gong, and she had no other place to learn it. She said, "After I came to the US, I could read The Epoch Times and I now know a lot more about Falun Gong, since that information is blocked in China." She was pleased to take a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party before she left.

Peter, a middle-aged man, had heard previously about the persecution of Falun Gong. When he saw the Falun Gong booth, he was eager to find out more about the practice, and the reason for the persecution in China. After listening to the practitioners and watching a Falun Gong exercise demonstration, he came to understand that practising Falun Dafa means becoming a better person by following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. He said right away that he would come to the practice site on the weekend to learn Falun Gong.

A middle-aged lady listened carefully to the introduction by a practitioner, in particular the part about Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. When the practitioner talked about the persecution, she was initially surprised but then said, "I should have thought about it, because the Communist regime cannot tolerate these principles!"

Mark Parks started to practise Falun Gong recently, and he was pleased to see the Falun Gong booth. He was excited that more practitioners can share their cultivation experiences. He bought a copy of Zhuan Falun, and said that he had given his copy to a friend after introducing Falun Gong to him.

At the expo, staff from other booths also came to visit and ask for information about Falun Gong. One expo staff member said that she wished to learn Falun Gong and had bought a copy of the book Falun Gong. She said that she had learned from the practitioners that Falun Gong is a high level practice following Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

At 4:00 p.m., the expo concluded and the booths started to be dismantled and packed up. In front of the Falun Gong booth, a man named Abdul Majid was reluctant to leave. He read carefully the information about Falun Gong and listened to the introduction. When he saw Ms. Lin, he asked, "How old are you? Do you practice this?" When he learned that Ms. Lin was 80 years old and has practised Falun Gong for ten years, Mr. Majid was encouraged and said, "Can you teach me now? Please!" He carefully learned the first set of Falun Gong exercises and felt great. When he learned about the practice site in Delaware, he was delighted and said, "I live nearby. The place is about three miles from my home." He is a retired accountant who immigrated to the US from Pakistan and has lived in the US for forty years.

Over the course of the expo, many people expressed their wishes to learn the practice and wrote down the contact information for local practice sites. At the end of the expo, nearly one hundred residents had expressed their wishes to learn Falun Gong. Some people bought the Falun Gong books, exercise CD and video tapes.