Once again, students and instructors were blessed at Summer Camp during the week of August 11. There were a total of 17 students in attendance, along with help from Shihan Panariello, Shihan Diane Vella, Sensei Jeremy, and myself.

The theme for Summer Camp this year was “For Life,” as we explored an introduction to realistic ippons, but more importantly how we can apply God’s word to our lives. As always, training lasted three hours, followed by lunch and a bible study. This year, the bible study centered on the Principles to Live By found in our testing requirements. To help the students understand and apply God’s word to their lives, for three days they worked on reading, paraphrasing, and selecting examples of how the Principle to Live By for their rank applies to their life.

Throughout the week, students did a great job practicing kata, sparring, and focusing intently on ippon kumite. No one gave up during the morning exercises and some actually requested to do more. Once Friday came, we ended the week with more kata, sparring, and an ippon kumite tournament. Students received notes on ippon kumite, a short dvd, a certificate of completion, and the much anticipated Summer Camp t-shirt. After the annual pizza party, we ended our time together in God’s word by studying Prov 4 which provided us with our verse for the week: “Hold onto instruction and do not let it go; guard it for it is your life” 4:13. As always, my prayer is that we would spend the rest of the year focusing on and applying this exhortation to our lives because God’s word is “For Life.”
Have a great year, continue your training, and stay in God’s word.