From Germany: A Friend and His Class Presentation

A German practitioner from Hamburg, May 13, 2002

My friend is not a practitioner. He is more inclined toward fitness training, but he does know a lot about Falun Gong. Almost every time we meet the conversation drifts towards this topic, because he has had many questions and also always new ones. The subject somehow fascinates him. He has helped us tremendously since the beginning of the persecution in China. He is going to be a carpenter and has built for us information distribution tables, easels for display of materials and other things - all free of charge. He had told us if we did these activities to make money, he would not do the work for us, but likes doing it this way.
For more than seven months now he has attended specialist school training for his profession as carpenter and is looking forward to his final examinations. As part of the assignments in politics class, he had to give a report. The choice of theme was up to him.

At first the students were supposed to only write one topic on the blackboard. My friend is not one to be constrained. He wrote several things on the blackboard at once. One of these was Falun Gong. At first no one knew what it was and then he began to speak...

I think it was one week later that he told me about this, but at that time he still had not decided which theme to choose. I did not pressure him to speak about Falun Gong as his final choice of topic. I wanted him to decide for himself; a while later he met me again and told me that he had decided on Falun Gong. I then saw to it that he would have all the necessary information he could possibly need, but he also went on his own to gather information. Among other places, he visited the Chinese Consulate in Hamburg. They gave him a brochure. He wanted to see what they had to say about Falun Gong. When he looked at it he realized immediately that their information was nothing but fabrication. The brochure showed a photo of a person who hung himself, a so-called practitioner. He mentioned to me that the photo did not show a chair under the person and he asked me how it could be possible for anyone to reach the noose to commit suicide by hanging. Besides, the noose was suspended way too high up. It did not look believable or plausible. He found all kinds of examples like that and in the end decided the brochure was ridiculous.

He took a long time to prepare for his presentation. He expended a lot of effort because he wanted to do a good job. The preparation took several months, and he used every opportunity to learn more and more about Falun Gong. One example bears mentioning: Ms. Zhang Cuying, the famous painter, had a one-woman show here that he attended. He read with fascination all the brochures on display at the exhibition. He forgot everything else around him. Now, he had to make a decision which part of Falun Gong to present in his address to the class, because officially he was allowed only one hour to get the job done.

The date for his presentation was supposed to be the month of January, but it was delayed again and again, until his turn came up exactly on April 25th, 2002, the anniversary of the "Zhongnanhai Incident." It seemed like coincidence. He did his presentation via the computer. The effect was very good. His one-hour presentation lasted 1-1/2 hours. I demonstrated the exercises and provided additional information. People asked lots of questions, which he answered expertly. I was surprised by how much he already knew. Even though time had run out, many folks remained and asked additional questions while others listened.
That event awakened many of his classmates' interest in Falun Gong. It seems to me that the class was enchanted with his presentation. His teacher said he had done a great job. I think so, too.

Source
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/5/31/22619.html