Tanzania and Taekwondo

His Early Years

Gerald was a sickly young boy. He missed many weeks of school, and the doctors could not identify the source of his sickness. His aunt invited them to attend her church because she thought Gerald could get help there. The pastor invited him to stay for a month, and even though his mother was not particularly interested in religion, she was desperate to help him and agreed to let him stay. One day, after he had been there a month, Gerald remembers, “I vomited a lot - a lot, a lot - to the point where I thought I would die that day. After that, I felt relieved and healed.” That was the first time Gerald remembers God moving in his life, but he did not yet surrender his life to Christ.

Gerald started learning Taekwondo a few years later in secondary school. At that time, his parents were not supportive because fighting sports, like Taekwondo, were associated with gangs. However, this training center was led by Korean missionaries who also taught the boys about Jesus, the Bible, and discipleship. Gerald became quite skilled in Taekwondo and began participating in many championships, often winning gold medals. He won the African championship in 2014. After that, he was invited to South Korea by his master, Park sang ho, for training in sports ministry. He wasn’t particularly interested in sports ministry and was not yet living his life for the Lord, but he did want to learn how to teach Taekwondo. 

Where a Life Skill Became Ministry

Later, he attended the university for banking and finance and taught Taekwondo to pay for his college expenses. After college, he was invited to another sports ministry training in 2019, this time in South Africa, with the International Sports Leadership School (ISLS). He says, “That was the day I met with people who taught me everything I needed to know to follow Jesus. I knew about Him before, but they taught me how to live for Him and leave everything else behind. Before that, people would ask me to talk about Jesus and I would be ashamed. Now I met friends who were happy to talk about Jesus, no matter what or where. They talked about Jesus openly and had a passion for Him.” 

His time in South Africa at ISLS changed the trajectory of his life. One day, he went into the bush for 24 hours of fasting and prayer. He says, “I prayed and asked God to show me what He wanted me to do. The picture that came to my mind was many street boys and girls. The boys ended up being thieves and doing really bad stuff. The girls ended up selling their bodies in the streets. That picture came to my mind like. ‘Why don’t I help this one?’” He realized that up to that point, he had been teaching young people in the gyms during the day, and at night they were using the techniques they learned in Taekwondo to do bad things. That’s where he got his vision to see people transformed by Christ.

Generations of Multiplication

That remains his vision today. There are 12 boys in his current class. One of them is a disabled boy he often saw on the streets. He would ask him, “Why are you here on the streets?” The boy told him he had run away from an orphanage. Gerald invited him to the gym for something to eat and later invited him to be part of the class. At first, the boy refused because he was afraid of being bullied by the other boys. Today, he is a black belt, off the streets, and renting a room for himself. All 12 young men are teaching their own classes. Gerald refers to this as “generations,” and they are on their fourth generation of boys coming off the streets, learning the skill of taekwondo, and leading their own classes. It is a beautiful picture of multiplication.

When Gerald was asked about his vision for Tanzania, he leaned in and said, “That question is too small. My vision is for all of Africa. In Africa today, I am the only person who is doing martial arts sports ministry. I am the first one, but there are a lot more people who are Christians and a lot more people who are better than me in taekwondo and other sports. I want to reach them and show them sports ministry and how we can use taekwondo to reach players. My biggest dream is to reach all over Africa to all taekwondo teachers, to share with them the DNA of disciple-making and how to use our taekwondo to share the Gospel.”

Gerald says, “I’m training coaches and only coaches [taekwondo masters] and then I’m not only teaching them taekwondo. I share a few techniques, but what I teach them deeply is about God and how to do ministry, how to do Bible study with their players, and how to do discipleship training with them.” His school of 12 young men is the model that he hopes to bring to all of Africa, and it can be done because of the generations of multipliers who will come.

He also works to bring general sports ministry to the surrounding towns and villages through Ball Projects where he goes into one of the surrounding communities with sports equipment and sets up a game. Then he watches for potential volunteers from that community who would want to do sports ministry. He trains them and empowers them to carry on the ministry so they can reach every child possible with the only hope there is – the hope of Christ.