Sparring Training with Arlene Limas and Grant TaeKwonDo

T has really been enjoying being with his team and training with Master Limas and Grant TaeKwonDo Staff. He loves being with his team. They all paired up with kids from different schools to do their drills. He are some pictures of the drills from this morning. They are getting g ready to start the afternoon session. I had to take the pictures through a tinted glass window or a regular glass window depending where I had to be to get the shot at the time. 

Podium Pictures from BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

Grand Master Nelson giving T his 2nd Place Trophy for breaking. 



Grand Master Vincent giving him his 1st Place trophy in Poomsae. 

T had a good time today and enjoyed seeing old friends he hadn’t seen in a while. It was one of the best in house tournaments that BBW has ever done. Everything ran so smoothly. 

More Pics from Sparring Portion of BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

Sparring Portion of BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

T was asked to do Tag Team Sparring to represent the Zebulon Dojang were he takes traditional TaeKwonDo training. His team won against the Headquarters/Knightdale team. In some of the pictures you will see him yelling/coaching his team from the sidelines...LOL!  He was a beast today. Enjoy the pictures. 

Grand Master Vincent and T at BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

Grand Master Vincent and T got to have a conversation today. T thinks the world of Grand Master Vincent and Grand Master Nelson and both were at the the tournament today. He really enjoyed getting to spend some time talking with Grand Master Vincent. 

Breaking Portion of BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

T loves doing the flying side kick. Today he had to go against a student that was a head, if not a head and a half, taller than him. He had reach T just did not have so he came home with 2nd place in this event. Here’s a picture I was able to get just before he broke the board. 

Poomsae Portion of BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

T’s Poomsae was spot on today. He was so sharp. He seems to do so strong at doing his Poomsae but prefers sparring most of all. Here are some pictures that I was able to get. 

BBW Fall Hanmadang and In House Tournament 2019

Two trophies (Poomsae and Breaking) and the Zebulon School won the Tag Team Event😁.  One trophy was first place for Poomsae and the other was second place for breaking. The Zebulon School received a trophy for the tag team win as well. 

Just Had To Share

What God did at Pearl Harbor that day is interesting and I never knew this little bit of history.

Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. I went into a small gift shop to kill time.

In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, "Reflections on Pearl Harbor" by Admiral Chester Nimitz. 

Sunday, December 7th, 1941— Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington, DC. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone.

He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat--you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war.

On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, "Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?"

Admiral Nimitz's reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?" 

Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?

Nimitz explained:
Mistake number one: 

The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.

Mistake number two: 

When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.

Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.

That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or, God was taking care of America.

I've never forgotten what I read in that little book. It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas -- he was a born optimist.

But any way you look at it -- Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism.

President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver lining in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair and defeat.

There is a reason that our national motto is, IN GOD WE TRUST.

Why have we forgotten? PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY! IN GOD WE TRUST.