★Blessings For The Year Of The Tiger

[San Jose and San Francisco] Once again, spring has returned, but in contrast to previous years, the impact of El Nino has brought torrential rain to Northern California. Despite some concern that the turnout at the Lunar New Year Festival would be affected by the weather, during the Festival, the rain stopped pouring. The warmth from the sun on a spring day filled the earth, and the Festival was a success, many thanks to Divine blessings.

Due to the large number of people attending the Festival, we hardly stopped working, distributing News magazines, sample booklets, and flyers containing information about our multilingual local radio programs.

During the Festival, there was a special visit to the booth by the Mayor of Milpitas, Mr. Henry Chang Manayan. Accompanying him were Mr. Nhan Ngoc Nguyen, President of the Aulacese Democracy Education Foundation, and the Assistant Sheriff of Santa Clara, Mr. Tom Sing. Mayor Manayan said that he very much admired Supreme Master Ching Hai, and hoped one day that he could meet Her.

The following weekend, the New Year Festival was held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. This time, our booth was in a central location, and thus, the number of people passing by was even greater. We worked with joy and enthusiasm, but sometimes, due to the sheer number of people visiting the booth, we could not respond immediately to everyone's questions about the Quan Yin Method. All the inquiring people, however, waited patiently for us. While waiting, visitors to our booth enjoyed the videotaped Long Beach musical program.

Some visitors returned to our booth after their visit from the previous week and shared with us that they had enjoyed reading the Suma News magazines and learning about our organization's activities. They also asked for more information about initiation.

A number of people had heard of the Quan Yin Method through weekly local radio programs produced by our initiates, but never knew what Master looked like. Pleasantly surprised, these visitors said, "Oh, so this is Supreme Master Ching Hai. How young and beautiful she is!"

Many people said that it was very satisfying to be able to listen continuously to Master's weekly radio program for hours, and also commented that Suma's teachings are very logical.

During the two weekends of the Year of the Tiger Festival, everyone joyfully accepted our sample booklets and exchanged best wishes for the New Year. As always, Master's love radiated like sun rays in the spring.