Pow Ming - a Chinese instructor visited Vancouver a year or two ago with an interest in doing some outreach to the Chinese community. I offered to organize and event for my townhouse development community which is mostly Chinese residents. I enthusiastically greeted folks at the entrance, as they left for work and handed out invitations, articles in Chinese and Chinese website addresses. I booked the amenities room and the theatre at the Club House for the special day. Two people came. Both ladies knew me personally as I had taught their children ESL classes. They were politely receptive. At this visit Pow Ming gave a collection of DVDs with Chinese subtitles and other printed material which sat in a downstairs cupboard until very recently.

This weekend I emailed Pow Ming with the following update:

Hello Pow Ming,

Thought I would give you a little update on how your little seed of Chinese Outreach in Vancouver is doing.There is a small group of us in Vancouver that are interested in doing outreach and have been meeting and planning for a few months now on a regular basis. We resolved that this summer we would commit to having some summer events.

I was particularly interested in doing some outreach for the Chinese community in Richmond and approached a Chinese mall. I wrote the management a letter of introduction and gave them some material intoducing Prem Rawat and the foundation however the management team met and decided not to give us permission to do outreach in their mall. So that was disappointing.

Next I approached two friends who are well connected. One is a Yoga teacher and the other is Montessori teacher who works with a Chinese college. I expressed my interest in doing a presentation to their students and left it at that. Then the Montessori teacher hired me to create a two week cooking program for 21 children and five Chinese student teachers volunteered to help with the children. I was very touched by their willingness to help, their humility and their hard work and felt it was important to find a way to express my gratitude so when the program ended we had a little thank you party at my complex club house.

We swam in the pool, had lots of conversation and a good laugh here and there and ate sushi and summer fruit. In conversation I told them about my wonderful teacher and about his dedication to his passion for peace and I invited them to watch two short DVDs introducing him (Introduction to Maharaji and WhoUR - approx. 5 mins each). It took a while to get the equipment to work but we managed in the end and we watched the two DVDs. Grace's comment was 'How is it that we have never heared of this wonderful person?' so I replied 'Well, now you have!'

I told them I have DVDs with Chinese subtitles they could borrow whenever they liked. The ladies went away with twelve DVDs (their choices - they said they would lend other students) and with a copy each of the Discovering More DVD.

As we said good night we were spinning around in the road saying 'what a beautiful night! ... we had a beautiful time! ... EVERYTHING is so beautiful!' ... We understand, don't we.
So Pow Ming your gift of Chinese materials is finally being put to good use and the seed of Knowledge is begining to sprout among the Chinese people in Richmond, BC. I hope you are happy.

Susan

Pictures from the folk fest

On Sunday morning

On Sunday morning I bathe in bliss
Saturday was a revelation
An honor to be in the company of so many beautiful people,
So many dear hearts striving to find their way



I walked into the festival site and back in time!
Lisa greeted me with

“so your busted”

I struggled to comprehend that she really said “so you bused it?”, meaning I came by transit did I?

Back to the reality of the moment.

Hugs welcomed me and a realization that “we were doing it”



By the time I left at 6.45pm 32 people or so had been introduced via a video of Maharaji.
Conversations were had, thoughts and feelings exchanged
The festival conducive to an atmosphere of openness and love.

“It would have been allot easier” John remarked “without the music”
“that damn music” I jovially echoed

Sweet joy we reveled in the excitement of this work.

What will be our next wonderful adventure?

Business card invitations (Gwenda printed these) to the next video event were picked up, giving opportunity to come back again.
The local web address with it’s links another signpost for people to find their way

I am touched by the humanness of it.
Some people had their own way of accessing peace inside but lingered long with us to enjoy the companionship and reminder of their longing.

Many people came, then came again
The free flow was a delight, staying in touch inside, essential.




As the sun streamed through my window I was reminded that my friends were still there, some staying overnight on the sight
I hope they are OK
I think we could have done with more people on the ground.

I made the posters a series of 12:-
Udo loaned his beautiful flower photos
I crafted colored backgrounds, grafted with simply wonderful quotes

It was John’s or was it Susan’s idea
They would act as a magnet..............and they did!!

Shanti and her mates made roti
Resourceful Judith sold them to the other vendors as we had no license

T shirts! .............We had T shirts!! (Bawn did this)
And judith got them printed

Maria got the banner by fed-ex and brought chairs and later balloons

Lisa supplied the tent

If I missed somthing don’t shoot me!!

So exciting I could hardly wait to hear what happend Saturday night and Sunday

By the way he weather was and is beautiful

At this point I need to say i'ts not all plain sailing

At this point I need to say i'ts not all plain sailing.
We don’t always agree, somtimes tempers get frayed and emotions run so high they are over the top.
However one of the beauties of,
being part of his team, with our shared the vision of his work,
is that we don't all get "down " at the same time. We continue to get inspired, re-charged by each others enthusiasm, love, and longing, sheer hard work and determination.

We started meeting a few months ago

We started meeting a few months ago.
We wanted to help Maharaji spread his message and let people know that he can help.
For me this is great meeting of dear hearts and like minds, wanting to let more and more people know.
Working together to find new ways, old ways, any ways that work.
Persistently, tirelessly; not to say we don’t get tired, but we don’t remain tired, we love doing this wonderful work.

To begin with here in Vancouver, we met together in a library free of charge on Saturdays.
More recently we have phone meetings; the lack of traveling is good, confusion over who said what, when is not so good.

Still the fire burns, we planed to be a presence at the Vancouver folk festival.
Watch this space to find out how it went