April 22, 1991 – April 22, 2016
Congratulations to Andrew Colson on 25 years in the Martial arts! And we’re also excited to announce his promotion to 4th Degree Black Belt! Thank you Colson Sensei, for being part of our Whole Armor Martial Arts family all these years, we’re all very proud of you!
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.” Psalm 37:23
We’re excited for the following students who earned new ranks on 3/28/16!
Gregg Chastain – 1
Elisabeth Quarto – 1
Pete Muller – 2
Natalie Hayes – 5
Mark Forstrom – 5
Amy Forstrom – 5
Drew Forstrom – 5
Alex Forstrom – 5
Anna Hall – 6
Jace Muller – 7
Kyla Muller – 7
Sydney Muller – 7
Titus Forstrom – 7
Wyatt Locey – 8
Emily Chastain – 8
Ben Coder – 9
Shawn Szueber – 9
And these ranks were earned on 3/31/16!
Aaron Pesacreta – 3
Johnathan Melhorn – 4
Brian Millett – 4
Jacob Jenkins – 4
Susy Noelck – 5
Mason Cunningham – 5
Heather McKenzie – 7
Ilya Cable – 7
Angel Melhorn – 8
Nick Renfro – 8
Vincent Davis – 9
And these students received new ranks on 4/1/16!
Noah Renk – 2
Alyssa Elliot – 4
Katelynn Hurley – 5
Sarah Bollman – 6
Joe Bollman – 6
Michelle Traphagen – 6
Rebecca Oliver – 7
Steven Traphagen – 7
Zachary Traphagen – 7
Julianna Traphagen – 7
Delaney Bollman – 8
Curtis Gray – 9
Hudson Morse – 9
Isaiah Herrington – 9
Zachary Elliot – 9
AJ Elliot – 9
Congratulations everyone!!!
We’re very excited to announce that our own Andrew Colson will be starting his own Whole Armor Martial Arts ® school next month!
Serving the King County area, classes will be on Monday evenings beginning March 7th. Visit his website HERE for more information.
We’re very proud to announce the recipient of our 2015 Student of the Year award:
Pete Muller
Other awards given at our All Class Christmas Party were:
Alex Forstrom – Shihan Award
Aaron Pesacreta – Sensei Award
Sarah Anderson – Sensei Award
Congratulations everyone!
We’re excited to announce that as of 11/20/15, we have one new 2nd Degree Black Belt, and THREE new 1st Degree Black Belts! Congratulations to:
Phil Anderson – Nidan
Steve Hume – Shodan
Joanna Richardson – Shodan
Olivia O’Dell – Shodan
We’re all very proud of you!
And that same evening we had 23 students earn new kyu ranks too:
Sarah Anderson – 2
Aaron Spatz – 3
Bethany Spatz – 4
Joshua Potts – 5
Madeleine Olson – 5
Makana Tubania – 5
Jason Kerr – 6
Steve Colmer – 7
Sarah Bollman – 7
Joe Bollman – 7
Ethan Oliver – 7
Jonathan Davis – 7
Michelle Traphagen – 7
Bryan Bollman – 8
Rebecca Oliver – 8
Sarah Barnes – 8
Taylor Lingeman – 8
Steven Traphagen – 8
Zachary Traphagen – 8
Julianna Traphagen – 8
Delaney Bollman – 9
Ilya Cable – 9
Cheryl Spatz – 9
And the night before, on 11/19/15, another 10 students earned new ranks too!
Matthew Hull -3
Billy Wallace – 4
Micah Kent – 6
Autumn McAllister – 6
Riley Hayes – 6
Matthew Peterson – 7
Anna Hall – 7
Logan Reuther – 9
Emily Chastain – 9
Heather McKenzie – 9
We’re so blessed to see what God is doing in the lives of each of these great students!
Congratulations everyone!!
Congratulations to the following students who successfully passed the test for new ranks at this months Exams!
July 27, 2015
Gregg Chastain – 2
Elisabeth Quarto – 2
Pete Muller – 3
Max Cunningham – 3
Emily Zumstein – 4
Jim Lingeman – 5
Mark Forstrom – 6
Amy Forstrom – 6
Drew Forstrom – 6
Alex Forstrom – 6
Steve Colmer – 8
Titus Forstrom – 8
Brandy Colmer – 9
July 30, 2015
Ian Melhorn – 1
Raissa Karlsen – 1
Halen Merrell – 4
Brian Millett – 5
Sean O’Banion – 5
Alyssa Elliot – 5
Jacob Jenkins – 5
Susy Noelck – 6
Hudson Wallace – 7
Riley Hayes – 7
Jonathan Davis – 8
Nick Renfro – 9
7/31/15 1:00
Clark Bondy – 1
Jonathan Miller – 1
Natalie Hayes – 6
Autumn McAllister – 7
Rachael Puckett – 9
Trevor Puckett – 9
Toby Puckett – 9
Tarence Puckett – 9
7/31/15 PM
Katelynn Hurley – 6
Lucas Bollman – 7
Sarah Bollman – 8
Joe Bollman – 8
Ethan Oliver – 8
Michelle Traphagen – 9
Steven Traphagen – 9
Zachary Traphagen – 9
Julianna Traphagen – 9
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Exam for new ranks Whole Armor Martial Arts!
Jesse Noelck – 4
Matthew Hull – 4
Aaron Spatz – 4
Mason Cunningham – 6
Kevin Raj – 7
Drew Colson – 7
Susy Noelck – 7
Trent Ellis – 7
John Linker – 9
Angel Melhorn – 9
Rick Pitel – 9
Wyatt Locey – 9
Bob Davis – 9
Jonathan Davis – 9
Riley Hayes – 9
Well done – we’re very proud of you!
(and in case you’re wondering what those numbers means by each name – those signify the “kyu” or rank levels in our belt system. It begins at 10th kyu as white belt, and moves up to 1st kyu which is a brown belt with 2 black stripes.)
Congratulations to lots of students who passed the Exam for new ranks tonight!
Tim Hurley – 1
Jim Wilkins-Luton – 1
Trey Wilkins-Luton – 1
Andrew Carson – 1
Jakob Voorhies – 2
Paige Elmer – 3
Sarah Anderson – 3
Samuel Halstead – 4
Madeleine Olson – 6
Grant Clark – 6
Brian Bechtold – 7
Natalie Hayes – 7
Mark Forstrom – 7
Amy Forstrom – 7
Drew Forstrom – 7
Alex Forstrom – 7
Autumn McAllister – 8
Anna Hall – 9
Ethan Oliver – 9
Rebecca Oliver – 9
Titus Forstrom – 9
Steve Colmer – 9
Samuel Colmer – 9
Joe Bollman – 9
Sarah Bollman – 9
Justin Bracken – 9
Congratulations and God bless you all!!
Last night on Dec 15th at our All Class Christmas Party we announced the 2014 Student of the Year:
Raissa Karlsen!! Congratulations – we’
re so proud of you!
Also announced were the following awards:
Shihan Award – Gregg Chastain
Sensei Awards – Ian Melhorn, Noah Renk, Timothy Hurley, Kyle Frazier
Congratulations everyone!!
Today is a special day – it’s the 20th anniversary of our first class at Bethel Lutheran Church in Brush Prairie! To mark the occasion I wrote a small article about the ministry, had a nice plaque made and presented them both to Pastor Ron Zschoche at Bethel this morning. The article and a few photos are below!
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“For those of you not aware, Whole Armor Martial Arts is a Christian martial arts school that rents the gym at Bethel several times a week for classes. The amazing thing is that as I write this on Monday December 1st, 2014 – it’s the 20th anniversary of our very first class at Bethel!
In 1994 the gym looked quite different. The floors were bare cement and there was nothing on the walls but some sheetrock and plywood. The upstairs had not been put in yet so it was quite a different environment from the nicely finished room you have today.
But even though it wasn’t the prettiest place to look at that very first day, the wonderful thing is that ministry happened! We trained in our physical skills as we still do at every class, and more importantly we also opened our Bibles and studied God’s Word just like we do at every class today 20 years later, teaching students to “become strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” And ya know what? God has blessed that in ways I cant even begin to describe. You would absolutely be amazed at the stories I could tell! And I also have to tell you that God is still working powerfully to draw people to Himself as we continue to point people to Christ at every class. Lives really do change and people leave that gym different folks than when they came in, and they impact their families, their schools, their jobs and so much more as we all learn to trust God and live for Him in every area of our lives.
And it doesn’t stop here in our community either. We’ve had students share their faith and skills all over the world, we’ve supported missionaries and seen God use what we do in martial arts ministry further than we ever could have imagined.
So let me thank you, our friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ at Bethel, we are so blessed to partner with you in ministry. And ya know, I hope that we’ve only just begun to see the amazing things that God is going to do!
God bless you!
Ron Hagelganz – Whole Armor Martial Arts”
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Here’s two photos from our first Exam in the gym at Bethel, this was December 1994
Here’s a photo from our Exam last month – my, a lot has changed in 20 years! 🙂
Thank the Lord for His amazing work and the blessing of partnering with Bethel in ministry through Christian martial arts!
You can visit Bethel’s FB page here.