Over the years, under Master's leadership, fellow practitioners worldwide like a "universal peace task force", impart God's great, unconditional love to the helpless people in natural disasters or wars, to the neglected Au Lac refugees, to the repentant prisoners, to the sick and homeless, to the veterans. Master also sends timely attention and help to the forgotten, overlooked or unwilling to go to corners of the world.
To give to those mostly in need and to serve quietly are Master's principles for giving relief. With this in mind at all times, fellow practitioners pray wholeheartedly for the disaster victims and the refugees to be blessed by God's eternal love and for God to help them to overcome the superficialness of their sufferings and understand the deep meaning behind disasters.
Because of the wars in Chechnya and Bosnia, hundreds of thousands of people live in fear. In their hastened and confused steps to flee the war, with family members separated from each other, and their lives in danger, they wonder where they might be the next day, when they wake up from their dreams.
Being plugged into such utter misery, the lives of countless people are suffering immense pain. When their appeal for help reached Master, compassionately She immediately asked fellow initiates to quickly enquire about the channels for giving help.
Upon learning that the International Red Cross and the Medecins Sans Frontiers (M.S.F.) employ the most direct means in their relief activities, both of them sending their own personnel to the war zones and directly giving daily necessities and medical supplies to the people, Master gave instructions to give US$30,000 to the M.S.F., US$40,000 to the International Red Cross, to help the victims in both wars, and US$20,000 to the United Nations, as a relief fund. At the same time, She also prayed that the relief efforts would go smoothly, for the safety of the working staff and for an early end to the wars.
Master has often mentioned to us that Earth was originally a charming planet in the big Universal family. However, some people with evil intentions, who longed for power and personal gain, started a war in the galaxy and attacked other planets, creating tragic consequences. Some planets were left without water and air, while Earth had the retribution to face the fate of being separated. Only when the entire human race awakens, thoroughly understands the importance of peace and love, and strives to uplift the standard of morality on Earth, there may be hope for the Earth to become a member of the galaxy alliance again. The Quan Yin practitioners understand even deeper that the roots for the strength to save our planet depend on spiritual practice, through which the loving atmosphere that the Earth misses, can be replenished. Only then our planet Earth may be saved from its ill fate.
Upon knowing that the Kobe area in Japan had been severely devastated by the strong earthquake, Master repeatedly mentioned, "What pains me most are the people trapped in the wrecked houses, having nothing to eat, no water or electricity. Physically injured, cold and hungry, their frightful cries for help have been unanswered. This is truly painful.” Sensing others' distress as Her own, compassionate Master quickly organized the relief effort. Immediate arrangements were made for a rescue team to be formed by fellow practitioners and resident disciples who have medical, first-aid, purchasing or Japanese speaking skills. They were to help with the relief work in Japan.
Master foresaw that the basic living needs in the disaster area and the neighboring cities would be depleted by panicking purchasers. Therefore, the fellow practitioners in Japan were asked to find out the most needed items of the victims, which were then purchased in Formosa and airlifted to the disaster area.
The purchasing of the relief items happened to be during the busy shopping season just before the Chinese New Year; it was difficult to obtain the materials. Nonetheless, with Master's blessing and arrangement, everything required was purchased smoothly one after another. Knowing that the purpose was to relieve the victims, the merchants volunteered to supply us with goods that had already been sold. Some of them even lowered the prices, and gave us full cooperation in delivering the goods. These actions truly demonstrated their humanitarian and caring spirit. Particularly worth mentioning was the airline company whose air cargo orders had already been stopped. Through the earnest help of an express courier company, within the shortest period of time, the relief materials were finally loaded on the plane.
Once, we met an old lady who had already received timely material aid. Our fellow practitioners gave her a copy of Master's sample booklet, and extended to her, through the Japanese interpreter, Master's loving concern for the victims of the mishap. Upon receiving the sample booklet, the old lady seemed to have sensed Master's compassion. Blissfully and emotionally, she bowed and thanked Master and the rescue team. She told us, "Material help is not the only thing the victims need. They need spiritual solace and encouragement even more." This is exactly what Master used to say, "When we are helping the disaster victims, just providing the required materials is not good enough. We should bring them love, let them know that they are being cared for, with the love from brothers and sisters. Therefore, many victims received the love, the deep inner feelings, which cannot be replaced by money or food."
One thing that delighted the rescue team very much was that in noticing the tents that we had distributed earlier, many other relief groups managed to locate the victims and provide them with further aid. The local inhabitants often praised: "the Ching Hai Team is great!” That was undoubtedly the best encouragement to the rescue team. Of course, all the team members understood very well that the high efficiency and working speed of the team were entirely due to the "long distance" and within competent directives of Master. (Before our departure to Japan and during our mission, Master gave detailed instructions and "push" power through constant overseas calls and insight.)
Shattered roofs, twisted steel rods, streets full of garbage, victims crowed together sleeping in rows on the floors of classrooms, or shivering in the park - these were the scenes in Kobe a week after the earthquake. Overnight, these Japanese people, noted for their neatness, have to face the bitter situation of seeing no end to the unbearable mess, and the prospect of not knowing when their homes will be rebuilt. Our mission was to find the people most in need amid this chaotic state.
Actually, Master had already invisibly devised a detailed relief project. Right from the start, a house had been arranged, large enough to accommodate the whole rescue team and store the large quantity of relief materials. Besides, it was only a few minutes' driving distance from one of the group of people most in need of the relief. Such a big residence is rare in Japan, and even rarer for someone to have voluntarily offered it. The convenience of short distance was even more incredible! It happened that wherever we went, we encountered the truly needy people. On one occasion an old lady, almost resorted to a fighting manner to secure some sleeping bags and warm clothing for her children. Unless in utmost desperation, the polite conscious Japanese would never behave this way. Following an inner feeling, a fellow brother changed the direction he was driving in. After passing through several traffic lights, a crowd of helpless people within the debris, suffering from hunger and cold were found.
Apart from our group, we could see a team of doctors from the SHARE organization helping in the disaster area. A group called "The Family" provided meals each day for five thousand people. A Pakistan volunteer from "Peaceboat" provided hot soup for anybody in need every evening. There were also many church groups, housewives and students who volunteered to join the relief work. As well, worth mentioning was a very old, blind hermit who came to volunteer with his students, who practiced with him in seclusion in the mountains. It seemed that many noble souls from Japan, or we can say from the whole world have gathered here, lighting the torch of hope for this wrecked and desolate city.
For us, a lame youngster who kept running about to direct us, an elderly person who visited us at midnight providing accurate information, the snow starting to pour down just after we had finished distributing the relief materials - from these we could see how Master's power was working nonstop in the background! We learnt many precious lessons: How our ego hinders Master's work, exhausts and distresses ourselves, and diminishes the working results. When we eventually put down our ego, all the jobs were accomplished easily and happily. Under an increasingly cheerful mood, the real happiness of helping others was tasted. Truly, it was realized that it was God and not "I" who was taking care of everything.
Note from our editor:
From this article, we can see that at times of disaster, love awakes and
springs within people's soul for each other, regardless of background,
ideals, etc....
Some counties around San Francisco were declared national disaster areas. In the areas near Guerneville, the flooding happened so quickly that people were trapped and had to be airlifted to safety by the National Guard.
Responding to the urgent need of the victims, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento fellow initiates worked together to organize a fund raising drive; the donations were given to the Red Cross. After that, Master was still concerned that the victims were lacking in living necessities, so She instructed fellow initiates to go to the disaster areas to find out what the victims needed, in order to supplement what the government and Red Cross could not provide. Master also allocated US$50,000 to fellow initiates to buy necessities for the victims.
Fellow initiates from San Jose purchased and distributed more than 1,000 bags of food, cleaning supplies and warm clothing directly to the victims. Each bag also contained a very precious spiritual food - Master's sample booklet, in the hope that God's loving power and words of wisdom would cheer-up and bring courage to the victims.
After the supplies had been distributed, local initiates from Guerneville played their own compositions, on guitar and flute, and sang beautiful spiritual songs to ease the frustrations and worries of the newly homeless compatriots.
The visiting initiates were deeply touched at the cooperation and brotherly love which appeared so naturally among the flood victims. Many people politely refused supplies that they did not urgently need, preferring instead to give them to other people who were more desperate, while some people just politely asked for Master's sample booklets. After our rescue team left, local Guerneville initiates reported that many local people redistributed the supplies to their friends and families, but held on dearly to the sample booklets. They said it was a touching and delightful sight to see people all over town wearing sweatshirts that were provided by fellow initiates and reading Master's sample booklets.
The three thousand tons of rice that arrived in Cambodia have been handed over to the government by the rescue team there representing Master. At the press conference, special representative to the Prime Ministers, Mr. Nhim Vanda, accepted the rice donation on behalf of the Cambodian Government.
Later, Minister Nhim Vanda visited our branch Center in Cambodia. He presented a gift - a four faced wooden Buddha statue, in gratitude, for Master's righteous and charitable action in helping the Cambodian people. In return for his courtesy, the rescue team gave him Master's lectures books, video and cassette tapes - these holy teachings of wisdom symbolize the key that opens up everything.
In Formosa, utilizing the remainder of the donations, another three thousand tons of rice will soon be shipped, providing further relief to the drought crisis in Cambodia.
Led by the King, the relief operation proceeded to Svay Dounkeo and Phnom Sam Pao. Due to the persistent drought, all one could see on both sides of the road were fields of dried rice paddies. One could imagine the great shortage of food. The King cordially and kindly greeted and shook hands with the people. When it was announced that each family would be issued several dozen kilo bags of rice, everyone applauded happily. As each household received the rice with Master's name printed on the packaging, invisibly an everlasting affinity was established with Master. The King also introduced who Master is, and our group to the people. Their applause demonstrated their gratitude and respect to Master.
It was the earnest hope of the rescue team that each victim would receive the loving relief rice. They also hoped that, after this operation led by King Sihanouk, the government would continue to expedite the distribution of the rice to the victims, helping more people in need.
Minister Nhim Vanda, special representative to the Prime Ministers, accepts the rice donation on behalf of the Cambodian Government. King Sihanouk is highly honored and respected by his subjects. With palms together, a large crowd listened attentively to his speech. (The Queen is standing to the right of the King.)
After the cordial introduction by the King, the people show their deep appreciation for Master's love and to the hard working rescue team.