(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa was introduced to our village in the spring of 1997. I was the first one to practice and my health really improved. My husband was so amazed and grateful that he told everyone he met, “Falun Dafa is amazing--it saved my wife’s life when she was on the verge of death.”

Before I began to practice, everyone in the village knew my health was poor and I had a bad temper. I argued with anyone who upset me and I wouldn’t stop until I got the upper hand. Dafa’s teachings purified my heart and I became kind and peaceful.

Witnessing how I changed, many villagers came to me to learn Dafa, including the wife of our village secretary. I heard the village secretary telling others that Falun Dafa wasn’t an ordinary qigong practice if it could change someone like me.

The Chinese communist regime ordered the unprecedented persecution two years after I began to practice. The police constantly came to harass us. While some stopped practicing for fear of being targeted, some villagers supported Dafa and told us when the police returned.

The village secretary once said to the police chief, “Why do you always come to cause trouble for us? Don’t you have better things to do? Some Falun Dafa practitioners almost died but recovered by practicing Falun Dafa. What’s wrong with that?”

With a strong sense of justice, the village secretary never cooperated with the police to persecute us but did his best to protect us. He retired and enjoys good health and a prosperous family. I believe he received blessings for his support.

The village security director initially worked with the police to search practitioners’ homes and harass us. After a practitioner later clarified the facts to him and explained to him why the communist regime persecutes us, he stopped participating in the persecution.

After learning about the police officer’s plan to search our homes, he told us to hide our Dafa books and materials. Thanks to his tip, the policemen’s attempt to send a practitioner to jail failed.

Ancient Chinese culture believes that one gains significant virtue for protecting a monk or spiritual cultivators. I think that was also the case with the security director. He was not only promoted, but his wife also enjoyed a good income for the five acres of crop field she was managing. Their son married a kind woman and both of them have good jobs.

Several years ago, our village elected a new director. Not long after he took office, the higher-up came to him and instructed him to collect our signatures on statements to renounce Dafa.

He knew that we were all good people and shouldn’t be persecuted, but he didn’t understand the seriousness of signing the statements. So he asked each one of us to sign. We all refused and tried to explain to him that it’s a matter of principle and we couldn’t sign it. He didn’t try to pressure us.

When he reported to the higher-ups that he failed to collect our signatures, they didn’t give up easily, but said it’s something he had to do, because it was a “political task.” He then went to some practitioners’ family members and had them sign the statements instead.

After I found out what he did, I told him it was a bad thing, not only for himself but also the person who signed the statement. I said that Falun Dafa is a Buddha school cultivation way, and it’s a sin for those who interfere with our cultivation.

He understood the seriousness and apologized. He said we are free to practice Dafa as long as he is in office and he would quietly support us.

During the founding anniversary of the communist regime one year, the village director came to my home with two police officers. He remained silent the entire time. I could tell that he was pressured by the police to bring them to my home and he was concerned about my safety. When the police asked me whether I practiced Falun Dafa, I told them how I benefited from it. They left.

A local practitioner was recorded by a surveillance camera while distributing materials. A higher-up official came to our village to investigate. To protect the practitioner, the village director said told him, “This person doesn’t live in our village.” Afterwards he reminded the practitioner to be careful.