By Australian Dafa disciples
Many people who attended the Redcliffe Kitefest from 26 to 27 August 2017 in Brisbane, Queensland found seeing Falun Dafa to be an uplifting experience.
Falun Dafa practitioners were one of the many community groups invited to hold a stall at the annual event, which attracts more than 40,000 people and features world-renowned kite flyers, people making and flying their own kites, jet ski stunt shows, aerobatic displays and children’s activities.
The stall was near viewing areas where crowds of people gathered each day to watch the kites and shows, providing a good opportunity for many people to see the Falun Dafa exercise demos, take information, stop and hear about the many benefits of the practice and the latest information on the Chinese regime’s 18-year-long persecution and organ harvesting of practitioners in Mainland China.
Some passerbys wanted to know how they could learn the exercises and promised to attend the local practice site. Children also visited the stall and enjoyed watching the exercises. One little girl was thrilled to join a practitioner in sitting in the lotus position. Her family members cheered her on and took photos.
One practitioner shared a heart-warming experience with a high school freshman, who listened intently about the beauty of the practice and the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners. He signed the petition to help stop the organ harvesting in China and gratefully took a lotus flower, handling it with great care.
An Indian gentleman spoke in depth with a practitioner about his Hindu faith and knowledge of the history of Shakyamuni’s era. He was quite amazed by “the highly righteous principles” of Falun Dafa, and interested in learning the exercises especially since he had previously seen practitioners do the exercises at the South Bank Parklands. He also signed the petition and his daughter was thrilled to receive a lotus flower.
A local lady became interested in Falun Dafa because she was looking for something like taichi or yoga to experience tranquillity. She asked about the practitioners who were doing meditation and how were they not disturbed by the noise and crowds of people. She said she would find out more by visiting the Falun Dafa website.
Other people had heard about the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China, and took the time to better understand why it was happening. One gentleman talked with practitioners for a long time about the organ harvesting atrocities in China. He took fliers with him, planned to find out more on the Falun Dafa website.
Falun Dafa also had the opportunity to fly three different kites with tails carrying the messages of “Falun Dafa is Good” and “Zhen Shan Ren” (truthfulness, compassion, tolerance – principles of Falun Dafa) for a total of four hours on Saturday. Event organisers were very pleased to hear Falun Dafa practitioners had also previously flown the same kites at the Coolum Kitefest.
On the Sunday, children who practice Falun Dafa also flew the kites and found it to be a great experience of perseverance and hard work to keep them in the air. One of the children called Jamali became frustrated when he could not fly the kite. His mother reminded him the kite was to help show everyone what Falun Dafa is, and this encouraged Jamali to keep trying until he was finally able to fly the kite.
