SPORTS
BLACK BELT MISSIONARY
MIXING THE MESSAGE WITH MARTIAL ARTS Article by Joe Bowles
involved with others, and his restaurant business was booming… but something was missing. Kevin, had been a Christian since 1972, but there had not been an awareness of what God wanted to do with him until one evening when he walked past a street preacher. “It’s a great thing you’re doing to protect people’s lives,” the street preacher said as he walked a few steps with Terry. “But it’s a better thing to keep people out of Hell.” In those few moments, Terry’s life changed. In a short while, he and his wife Maria, and children packed up and Terry enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist College. In four years, he graduated with a degree in Pastoral Theology. From there, Terry, his wife, and seven children traveled to Maria’s birthplace; Tecoman, Colima, Mexico to establish the Victory Baptist Church. In order to get people to check out his church, he offered free martial arts classes to anyone who came to his Sunday School. He also became a martial arts instructor to the police academy in exchange for the right to visit inmates in the prison system. A year later, in 1992, Terry started a college, the Victory Baptist Institute. Tragedy struck two years later when Terry’s eight-year-old daughter Rebecca drowned in a river during a church picnic. He and his family were devastated but continued their ministry in Mexico, and ironically, the church attendance exploded after the accident.
Kevin Terry mixes martial arts with the Gospel message. Photo by Joe Bowles
A
resident of Plant City since 2011, Kevin Terry has a love for life that is infectious. It’s not that life has always been easy, because although he has had his share of successes, those successes have also been tempered with heartache, as well.
After having enrolled in pre-med at Ohio State University in 1972, Terry became interested in linguistics, but was more enthralled with Chuck Norris, who at that time was recognized by Black Belt Magazine as Professional World Middleweight Champion in Tang Soo Do. So, Terry left college, hitchhiked to California and began Born into a military family, Terry’s father, to train at Norris’ studio. a Navy Captain, was transferred so often that Terry attended ten different schools At Norris’ studio, Terry became friends before he graduated in 1972. If not having with the studio’s chief instructor, Pat a permanent home wasn’t hard enough, Johnson, who was the stunt coordinator the stability that he did have was shattered on the Karate Kid movies. His association when his mother died when Terry was only with Johnson led Terry to use his martial seven-years-old. With bottled up anger, he arts skills as a stuntman in Hollywood. But, was constantly in fights with other kids. Terry was searching for additional ways to utilize his skills in helping others. At age thirteen, Terry was able to channel his anger into a karate program offered Early on, his life’s philosophy had at the naval base. By the time he was morphed into “Get involved with others.” seventeen, Kevin Terry had earned his black Terry discovered a sense of joy and peace belt in Tang Soo Do (Korean Karate). whenever he invested his life in others and
78
MARCH 2014 focusplantcity.com
so that is what he set out to do. In 1980, Terry organized and led the Hollywood division of the Guardian Angels, the red beret citizens group that patrolled the inner city streets in Los Angeles and Hollywood deterring crime and making the valley residents feel safer. In 1981 during Los Angeles’ bicentennial salute, Mayor Tom Bradley and his wife Ethel awarded Terry with the Humanitarian of the Year award. From there, Terry was interviewed numerous times on radio and TV. He appeared on the nationally syndicated Richard Simmons television show and in 1982, appeared in Death Wish II, a “crime thriller action movie” starring Charles Bronson, which became a box office hit. Terry was able to ride his beloved sport of karate into a measure of fame, he was
In 2001, Terry decided to continue his ministry in the states and moved to Haines City, then to Winter Haven, and now to Plant City. Since coming back to the states, Kevin has served as dean of academics, a schoolteacher, evangelist, martial arts instructor, and as a Spanish language teacher after he published “TNT Power Spanish,” a 200-page textbook/workbook that he guarantees will teach a person conversational Spanish in three months. Today, Kevin says that he is still involving himself with other people. “Investing my life so that others might succeed… that’s the joy of my life.” If anyone would like to make contact please email him at kevin52L@yahoo.com.