Shinjin Karate: End of an era; beginning of a great new adventure

For almost five years, Five Cities Keichu-Do has operated as an outreach ministry of Bethel Baptist Church. Our faith-based martial arts program has not only produced champions on the tournament circuit, but has been involved in a number of projects and events such as charity fundraisers, community outreach events, Vacation Bible Schools, community projects, church ministry efforts and more.

The Prewett family has considered it our privilege to teach our students and run this ministry on behalf of our church. It has also been our desire to be able to impact the community even more effectively. We believe strongly in the numerous benefits of our martial arts program, and we have always wanted to make Keichu-Do more visible and more available to our community.

During these past five years, all of our involvement in Keichu-Do has been a labor of love. As our students know, their tuition payments have gone to the church. Our family has been reimbursed for class expenses, but we have not benefited financially from teaching, and we have always had to cover our own personal expenses (e.g., gas, tournament registration fees, travel expenses, and the costs of our own training, continued education, memberships in martial arts organizations, journal subscriptions, and more). We have been more than happy to do so, because we believe so strongly in not only offering our students the best that we can, but improving our "best".

It is because of this commitment to our students that we have been so excited about the opportunities that we will be able to offer everyone at our new location. This is a big step for all of us. While we look back with nostalgia and gratitude for the years we spent at Bethel, we are also looking forward with anticipation to being able to offer a lot more to our students. To be honest, this is somewhat of a scary step for our family, especially from a financial standpoint. We are leaving the security of the nonprofit, church world and entering out into the "real world". Suddenly we have to deal with tenant improvements, rent, utilities, insurance, etc. --- on top of all our personal expenses. However, we believe that the benefits outweigh the risks. We also believe that now is the time for us to offer our valuable martial arts program to more members of the community. We are excited to see Five Cities Keichu-Do grow, in excellence as well as in numbers.

Here are some pictures of our last classes on Thursday, attended by the dedicated bunch who didn't let the upcoming holidays keep them away from training: