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Jeffery J. Taylor
SAN-KYU (3rd Brown)
My wife and I are the blessed parents of nine children. We have made devotion to family and the strengthening of families in our community our life's passion. We have enjoyed many opportunities over the years to share our family's successes and failures through teaching and counseling situations, including as special guests at family enrichment seminars. I am a mediator by profession, currently serving a State dispute resolution agency as Executive Director. My wife and I have chosen home education as the method of training our children. We place a great deal of emphasis on finding interests that we can hold and enjoy as a family, even though we all may not participate in them at the same level. As is explained below, the Christian Karate Federation has turned out to be that type of interest and activity for us.
I consider myself very privileged to be a part of the Christian Karate Federation. Our Dojo is unlike any I have ever experienced in the past or have heard of elsewhere. My first experience in the martial arts was in 1974 when I trained in a system which placed heavy emphasis on tournament fighting, unhealthy competition between students, eastern religious forms of meditation, and charging lots of money for lessons, promotions and everything else. Frankly, the experience was not one I would have ever desired for my children. When I started my family and for many years thereafter the martial arts were nowhere in the picture. Then, in March of 1996, I heard that Kelly Keys, one of the men in our church, was running a Christian Karate School as a ministry. At the urging of my wife and oldest sons, I decided that my sons and I would visit the class to observe. I must confess that I arrived that Saturday morning quite skeptical that Christianity and any form of Karate could be combined in any meaningful way without compromising one or the other. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! What I found was an incredibly talented man that obviously loved the Lord and children. It was apparent that he selflessly wanted to make a positive difference for Christ in the lives of all the students brought to him. I saw team work and a family atmosphere instead of harmful competition; good physical exercise and skills to protect one's family without showy forms and techniques; wonderfully relevant devotions from the Bible and prayer but no Eastern religion; and free will donations as one had the ability to give instead of a surcharge for every drop of sweat (and we sweat a lot!). I quickly realized that what I saw was something I wanted our family to be involved in. We were hooked from that moment on!
After many months of sitting on the "side lines" watching
my sons train, I found a Gi under the Christmas tree. I got the hint after
realizing that there really aren't very many acceptable places to wear
a Gi and I showed up to class the next Saturday as a student . . . not
just an observer. Now I have the wonderful opportunity to serve the school
as an assistant instructor, helping younger ranks learn the correct forms
of basic exercise, helping with devotions and otherwise supporting the
Instructors in any way I can. Serving the Lord in this ministry under Sensei
Keys and Sensei Merz is truly an honor.
