Martial Arts for the Master

Martial Arts for the Master

By Randall Murphree

Teens huddle to talk and giggle, then scatter to practice – sometimes exaggerate – their martial arts moves. A nine-year-old girl mirrors her dad's kicks. Adults attack the air with abandon. Then Lydia Welch, a slender, 100-pound package of energy in a karate uniform, bounces front and center and barks the command to prepare for class. Instantly, 20 students from age 8 to 48 hustle into straight lines and stand at attention. Though some are among her closest Christian friends and fellow church members at Trinity Assembly of God in Ripley, Mississippi, the students respond with instant respect and absolute silence. This simple show of respect for the teacher, the quick discipline, the military atmosphere, the art itself – it could be any martial arts studio. But this is not just any martial arts school. It is Welch's Karate Institute. Garry Welch, a barrel-chested, 200-pound black belt, joins his Wife in front of the class and assumes the role of teacher. The first order of business? The class salutes and recites the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. And then – they pray!

Garry and Lydia Welch became big karate buffs when they first began studying martial arts in 1981, and they progressed quickly through the arts immersed in traditional Eastern philosophy. Welch is a Fifth Degree Black Belt and his wife a Third Degree Black Belt. They began teaching in 1983, but at their school today, the discipline and physical aspects of martial arts are the only elements retained from the skills developed in the ancient Far East.

"As we began to grow closer to the Lord," Garry explains, "God began to convict us of the Eastern mysticism, the bowing, the meditation. In 1990, God called me into ministry." Becoming an ordained minister, he put away his karate uniform forever – he thought. Then in 1995 the Lord began dealing with him about using karate as a means of spreading the Gospel. Robert Blackstone, Welch's instructor and a Sixth Degree Black Belt, had developed a system for teaching karate while replacing the Eastern religions with Christian elements. Garry was encouraged by Blackstone, and almost before he realized it, he was organizing Kerusso Ministries and Breakforce, a karate demonstration team to carry the Gospel. In its two-year history, Breakforce has appeared before countless groups both Christian and secular – church meetings of every kind, public and private schools, civic and community events, youth rallies and camps, FCA huddles, Promise Keepers, women's groups and more.

OUR SHARE OF STITCHES

"We get our share of stitches," chuckles Welch. "We earn our share of broken bones and trips to the emergency room, we get our necks X-rayed." In a typical demonstration, Welch emcees, introducing team members as they execute a quick- paced series of expert moves, each punctuated with a piercing "Eeyah!" They break boards with feet and hands. "Eeyah!" With hands and elbows, they reduce small towers of concrete blocks to rubble and dust. "Eeyah!" One man bends and twists a solid steel bar into the shape of a fish. "Eeyah!" Garry himself smashes

eight concrete blocks. "Eeyah!" Then, before his audience knows what hit them, he plunges into a message that captures their attention as much as Breakforce had inspired their awe. Even in settings where Welch cannot overtly share the Gospel, Breakforce is a witness. Each uniform bears a patch with a cross above a Scripture reference to John 3:16. On the back of each is a larger cross and a reference to Colossians 3:23. Another patch features the school's logo with the inscription, "Where Jesus is Master." Each belt bears the familiar fish symbol of the Christian faith. Welch says that in secular martial arts competitions, he has had numerous opportunities to share Jesus when other participants ask him what the symbol means.

Dream Makers DREAM BREAKERS

In a public school setting, Welch declares to students, "You're a very special person! You're a unique individual, and every one of you has something special to offer this world."

His voice rises as he urges his audience to set their goals high, shoot for the stars! "One of the main things that'll help you meet your goals in life is to pick the right friends," he continues. "Your friends are going to have more impact on you than anything else that you'll be around." He defines friendship in two contrasting titles: dream makers and dream breakers. "A dream maker," Welch explains, "will encourage you to set your goals high, will encourage you to reach for those goals. He will never lower your standards or your goals. He's not the kind of friend who's just there to see what he can get out of you or get from you." On the other side of the coin, Welch says, is the friend who's a

dream breaker. This is the heart of his message. He characterizes dream breaker friends as those who may urge you to try drugs or alcohol, be sexually active, or give in to suicide. Welch draws an effective analogy. "I can buy a CD player, carry it home and find it doesn't work. I carry it back to the store and exchange it or get a cash refund. But this brain, this heart, this liver – they're the only ones you have. There is no refund, there's no exchange. Once you overdose on cocaine and your heart explodes, you don't get another chance." He doesn't mince words as he states the Breakforce stand on drugs and alcohol: "We just draw a line and tell you it's wrong! They destroy your mind, they destroy your body." Before a church group, Welch's gospel message is very direct. In one demonstration, concrete blocks are stacked in twin towers, each labeled with one of our culture's most common sins or temptations – peer pressure, alcohol, drugs, fear, doubt, hatred, anger, lust, pride and strife. Two team members symbolically break down the strongholds as dust and chunks of concrete fall to the floor. Welch speaks from the Word of breaking down strongholds, and talks of the false gods we often allow into our lives.

SERVING A GOD OR THE GOD

"At one time in my life," he admits, "karate was my god. Some say they can't afford to follow God, the cost is too high. But we lose our love, joy and peace when we follow

false gods!" Team members present "mini- dramas" – some only a minute or two long – in which they demonstrate how martial arts may be used for self protection. Near the end of the show, and always a highlight, is the team member who breaks his way out from behind a wall of concrete blocks doused in gasoline and set afire. Other spell-binders include one man blowing up a hot water bottle until it bursts, one who rips a full 7- Up can in half, and Welch's tearing a two-inch telephone directory in half. He brings the house down using his bare hand to drive three nails into a Cross.

After a demonstration ends, they are almost always approached by those who ask for a chunk of concrete, saying, "Tonight, the anointing of God broke down some walls in my life. I'd like to carry a piece of this home and set it on my night stand as a reminder." Audiences may think Breakforce came to entertain them. But after all the showmanship, the incredible feats of strength, the bruised and battered limbs, their purpose is clear: Breakforce wants to see every heart in every audience become a place "Where Jesus is Master."

Randall Murphree is a freelance writer and editor of AFA Journal in Tupelo, Mississippi. He has written for FCA 's Sharing the Victory, Wesleyan Advocate, Decision magazine, and others.