MYFEST 25!
Oct Wed 15 - Sat 18, 2025
Mié 15 de Octubre - Sáb 18 de Octubre de 2025
Moo Yea Tang Soo Do
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Torneo por invitación
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| Schedule Horario:Rule Book. Libro de reglas:Libro dr reglas de WEKAF:Tournament Application
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Call to make a reservation. Mention "MYFEST25!" for the MYFEST Rate. Rooms are Q185/night ($24) per person. 50% down payment required
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Llama para reservar. Menciona "MYFEST25!" para obtener la tarifa MYFEST. Las habitaciones cuestan Q185/noche ($24) por persona. Se requiere un pago inicial del 50%.
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In 2010, after 25 years of teaching martial arts full-time, my family and I, despite not speaking Spanish, moved to Guatemala as Christian missionaries. A year later, we became the first missionaries to live in the impoverished Indigenous village of Santo Domingo Xeancoj. We led mission trips, hosted medical campaigns, installed stoves, and opened “The Center,” offering meals, English, Dance, Breakdancing, and Karate. We were told "Karate is violent and Christians do not Breakdance. We pressed on for two years until the strain amd heavy toll of poverty forced us to return to the U.S. I continued returning to serve in Santo Domingo Xenacoj quarterly until COVID shut everything down in January 2020
WHY a Martial Arts Tournament
and WHY Santo Domingo Xenacoj? (cont)
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Jan 2021: A year later, I returned—marking 10 years of work in the village. But I was struck by a painful realization: “If I died today, nothing would have changed.” Frustrated and disheartened, I refused to let that be the final chapter. I turned to my friend Robert James Cook, whose dissertation, A Wrap Around Poverty Intervention Model (2020), showed how social capital—relationships built on trust, voice, and hope—can break cycles of poverty. That message hit home. I realized martial arts was my social capital. With decades of international connections and my role as Guatemala’s WEKAF representative, I knew it was time to go all in—and use everything I’d built to transform Xenacoj for good.
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In July 2023, I launched a “Teach the Teachers” martial arts program with six students, telling them, “I’ll teach you, and you’ll teach others.” Less than a year later, we took 12 Guatemalans to the International Tang Soo Do Championships in Bogotá, Colombia—where they won 20 medals. Watching them in Bogotá, I saw real change: they had hope. They worked hard, took a risk, and triumphed. Inspired, I took my own step of faith—committing to host an International Tournament in October 2025, without knowing how I’d pull it off. But that’s what faith is all about.
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July 7, 2024
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