Happy New Year!

It seems that my life and ministry work have natural cycles to them; sometimes most of the outreach ministry comes from Unite directly, sometimes most seems to come through The Gamers Guild and the people who come in for it and the free store. This year, surprisingly, it seems like many of my best inroads for ministry have come from the Aikido side of the equation. Back when Unite was more focused on college ministry and less focused on community ministry, that was also true certain years, but it has several years since that was last the case.

Some of the ways that Aikido has been a strong inroad to allow for ministry have been obvious. One of the coolest examples was that of a student who came into The Gamers Guild to learn to play some games but saw the Aikido next door and wanted to give it a try. I knew he was atheist as far as his beliefs went, but one day after he’d been in class for a few months and we’d developed a stronger relationship through Aikido, I felt led to invite him to a small group Bible study. He joined in and sat with us for a few months more, and through God’s work in His life and some circumstances in it, he ended up becoming a believer. Now, I would consider him to be one of the more staunch men of faith I know.

Another example of Aikido connecting me to someone I could love and share faith with was that of a friend of mine from Japan. I met her when I was studying Aikido in Japan as a live-in student, and we developed a friendship. I didn’t have too much chance to discuss faith with her, but I did know where she stood and she knew where I stood. Due to some political situations, she had been asked to leave her dojo in Japan, and she was studying in Denver under a different Japanese instructor whom she’d had years of prior training with. We happened to be in Denver at just the right time to be able to help her when that political situation caught up with her here in the US and she was asked to leave this school, as well. She still had a couple weeks before her flight back to Japan, so we were able to let her stay with us in our house and comfort her when she was hurting. Ultimately, she made it back to Japan and has re-started as an Aikido instructor there, but I know that our time supporting her was very important to her, and I am glad God gave us the opportunity to do it.

In an extremely different direction, Aikido allowed me to share twice with the Kansas Academy of Math and Science (KAMS) students at Fort Hays State University (FHSU). These youth are high school students attending the university as they finish the last two years of high school. At the end of the program, they earn their high school diploma and an associate degree from the university. Needless to say, they are under a lot of stress. As I’ve mentioned before, Aikido teaches ways of making peace and harmony that are fully parallel with scripture, so it can be a very useful catalyst to help illustrate some of Christ’s principles and to share them in an environment that doesn’t allow faith discussions directly. The KAMS program was interested in having me, as an Aikido instructor, present peacemaking methods and philosophies for handling stress that are present in the art. I asked, and they were not interested in me presenting Christian concepts due to the varied faiths of their students. As such, I went in and presented Aikido honestly. When it was warranted due to our discussion, I also mentioned real times that my faith interwove with these peacemaking concepts (which often occurs as they are one and the same to me), and I was able to emphasize the importance of asking faith questions and delving into deeper life issues as part of dealing with stress (and I was able to do this in a way that was honest and non-threatening).

Several of the KAMS students in the audience were already part of the FHSU Aikido Club, and a few of the others I knew from The Gamers Guild, so this crossover was really useful as it let me have several real and deep discussions with those youth after the presentation. I must thank God for answered prayers that we were able to have these discussions; I had asked several others to pray for me going into these two presentations for KAMS as I needed to be sincere and honest—not compromising part of the faith that is core to my life and being—while also being sensitive to the way I was asked to present, which was not on faith but was on subjects related to faith. I think God helped that balance be preserved while still allowing beneficial talks and relationships to form from it.

I was further able to develop relationships with the KAMS students and other FHSU students on the FHSU Aikido Club trip that we took this December before Christmas. This trip usually occurs in January, but due to a variety of reasons happened Dec 14-20 this year. Also unlike previous years, six of our students were 20 or under, with only two being 21 or older. Of these younger students, several had never been on public transportation, and a few had never been on a trip outside of one with their family. These stresses combined with the physically stressful nature of an Aikido trip pushed them all quite far; they did extremely well, and I’m quite proud of them. I’m also truly grateful to God that He gave me the opportunity to have several deep talks with several of the different youth attending on a very great variety of subjects. We were able to talk about how to handle conflict as peacemakers, how to look at trials as opportunities for growth, how to help others who won’t help themselves with serious disorders, ways for dealing with questions about sexuality in an increasingly confused world, and several other deep topics to boot. It was a very excellent trip as far as bonding and growth went, and I’m excited to see how God continues to use the relationships that He furthered on that trip.

This is far from a complete list of ways God has been using Aikido as a connector for ministry, and it’s also not to say that the other ways stop—just that He’s been obviously using Aikido more heavily recently. The Gamers Guild has also gotten several new faces—I was very pleased to hear a couple of guys say that they felt welcome and accepted there where they don’t feel welcome most other places. Those two are both good young men who are working through some very hard circumstances and who are trying to turn their lives around. They come in to The Gamers Guild to socialize and feel welcome when they aren’t working; getting to know them and also to have some heavy-duty faith discussions with one of them has been quite a blessing.

The small group Bible studies and other ministry functions also directly show growth and benefit. I’m thankful for the honesty and comradery in our Monday and Wednesday small groups—several of those study evenings have been quite important for all of us attending. It’s also been enjoyable having George (one of the local homeless guys) and one or two of The Gamers Guild guys occasionally sit in on small group and share.

There are quite a few other things going on as far as kingdom ministry at this time, and I’d be happy to share with you if you ever want to grab a coffee in Hays or talk on the phone or over the Internet. That said, thanks again for your continued prayers and support—we greatly appreciate the blessing of being able to do ministry work together with all of you. Keep serving God in your own areas of influence, and have a Happy New Year!