Karate for Christ

Our church started "Karate for Christ" a few weeks ago. It's grown tremendously over the past few weeks, so much that we're going from meeting once a week to twice a week. We have two classes each night, an hour for kids from 5 and up, and then an hour for teens and adults. It's free, as long as you go to church (somewhere, anywhere) on Sunday. Both of the kids are doing it, and are enjoying it. We missed one night a couple weeks ago, and both kids were bummed. Most of the parents who bring their kids stick around to watch, so it gives me and other adults from our church an opportunity to talk with them and get to know them.

Our head instructor has been trained in "Karate for Christ", and has a 3rd degree blackbelt in karate, working on his 4th degree. Brad has a 4th degree blackbelt in taekwondo and helps as an assitant in the kids class. We also have 2 teen girls who assist in the kids class, one working on her red belt, the other has a black belt. It's a good thing our head instructor has so many helpers! :-)

Brad then works out during the adult class. It's been so long since he earned his black belt, that he's forgotten some, but it's coming back to him. When Elizabeth was in taekwondo, Brad promised me that if I ever wanted to take taekwondo classes, he would do it with me and start over. Well, he's keeping that promise and starting over in the adult Karate for Christ class, even though I've told him he doesn't have to start over. It's nice having his experience in the house though. It means that if I work out at home, he's here to correct my mistakes. He's so supportive of me in this! He's there encouraging me along the way, and gives me that extra push when I think I can't do it.

Apparently I did push it a bit last night, though. Part of our warmup in Karate for Christ is stretching. Well, apparently I pushed myself a bit too much stretching my right leg. Yep, it REALLY hurts today, difficult to walk, and don't even think about asking me to do a flight of stairs. I hope this works itself out by Thursday night, because the adult class will be meeting again then. I don't want to miss anything!

I've surprised myself in what I can do, though. LOL I have more power in my arms and legs than I thought I did. I'm not anywhere near Brad's power, though...just WOW! Brad hits or kicks the big 'wave bag' we have, and that bag knows it's been hit. I'm proud of the work I've done, though. I'm learning a lot, thanks to our wonderful head instructor. More than that, I'm slowly getting myself in shape. It's not always easy, but I'm glad I'm doing it.

It's also nice that I'm not the only woman in the class. Our head instructor's fiancee is in the adult class, plus another mom started with us last week. There's also a couple other ladies who want to join in with us, so hopefully we'll see them in there soon!