Earlier this year, we created the NHPC Karate Ministry Council, consisting of myself and four invited sempais (brown belts or higher) who are not only mature in wisdom (and age), but have consistently been with the ministry for several years, one of whom – Rodney – has been with the ministry since its inception. The council (sempais James, Doreen, Robert, Rodney and myself) discusses the health, direction and goals of the ministry informally, and in addition, conduct meetings every several months.
Some highlights from the meeting:
—Sempais James and Wes have agreed to give 1/2 hour seminars in the near future. James will talk about interesting correlations between aikido and karate-do (In addition to his shodan from NHPC, sempai owns a shodan from the JIKC and a sandan – 3rd degree black belt – in aikido). Wes will be talking about self-defense awareness (apart from NHPC, sempai studied karate at the KAH, Kajukembo, Okinawan Shorin-Ryu, was formerly a HPD officer and is currently a federal law enforcement officer). We also plan to invite Senseis Wayne and Peter to give unique seminars in the future.
—At least once a month, we intend to do training that emphasizes maai…distance and focus training. With 99% of the training consisting of “air” punching and kicking, it’s important for students, especially as they become more skillful, to learn about control and power projection and deflection into actual targets.
—The recent re-emphasis on basics has proven to be very successful, and the overall level of solid basics in evident in the group. Along these lines, we intend to do more training breakouts and focus unit mastery sessions on areas we need improvement on.
—The council has decided upon a modest exam fee of $5. This adds a little more weight or “skin” into taking the test. In addition, should one be receiving a new color belt, the fee will pay for the new belt. Any extra funds from the exams will go towards defraying ministry get-togethers.
—Speaking of ministry get togethers, the council decided we should plan a “party” for the members so we can see our kohais and sempais in a more social setting. In the future, we also plan to have “beach training” one early morning.
—Sensei Wes will also plan to share appropriate reading material on karate for brown belts and above.
—Also, we’re looking into having NHPC karate ministry t-shirts made (we think cost would be about $5) with the small insignia on the front. We’ll need to know how many/what size to pre-order and we’ll have to discuss shirt color. More info to be provided.
—Since we seem to have so many musicians/singers in the ministry, there was some discussion about looking into doing a praise/worship song at Sunday service one day, if it’s possible.
—Finally, we talked about how much we all enjoy participating in the ministry…but selfishly, I suppose, remain very satisfied training with our current karate ohana. I am as much to blame, as I’m very happy teaching the group that we have. However, we realized that, very similar to inviting others to church, we should actively encourage others whom we think might enjoy karate-do to give our ministry a try. Admittedly, this would have been harder to accomodate in earlier years, since only sempai Trish and I could really work with the beginners. Today, we’re fortunate enough to have a core of excellent sempais who could help introduce new beginners to the art. I believe that the best new students invariably come from the references of our own members since you’re familiar with the program, and you’re also familiar with the newcomer. Just think of how many people could reap the benefits of training if each of us just invited one new person or family. The council members looked at each other and realized that…sempai James joined because he was doing his daily walk and we saw each other as I was unlocking the gate…sempais Doreen and Robert were next door in the old ministry office waiting for their ball exercise class and saw us in gi’s…sempai Rodney faithfully followed his wife’s suggestion that he take her and their daughters to try out the ministry…I came back to teaching karate after a two year hiatus because Trisha (then 9 yrs old) begged me to take her training. What we realized was that none of us decided…”Hey, let me look in the ads, I think I want to participate in karate-do!” Instead, each of us was called to it through a chance meeting/invite from someone we knew. This is the way of the world…except now, we’re supposed to do the inviting.