WHAT HAPPENS when a Mississippi girl and a Pennsylvania man meet in Oklahoma? They find their way to Tennessee, take over a hometown karate studio, and treat their students as friends — and their friends as family.
Janene and Seth Bennett own and manage the Lebanon location of David Deaton Karate. Neither of them dreamed life could be so good, kicking and punching.
Truthfully, kicking and punching are only part of what happens at the studio. Their curriculum is split into two parts: kata days for learning form and fighting days for sparring.
“Our style is traditional, so we don’t focus on the sport aspect,” Seth said. “We focus on self-defense and discipline.”
Former youth pastors, Janene and Seth, teach the Black Belt principles they live by — integrity, respect, perseverance, and self-control. These principles are also prevalent in the self-defense workshops and children’s summer camps they offer.
The backstory of how Janene and Seth met reads like a romantic comedy. They both moved to Oklahoma to attend a Bible college, but Seth enrolled the year Janene graduated. A year later, they met at work. He was in the warehouse, and she was in the call center. After she was eventually moved to a warehouse position, Janene was given a responsibility that changed their lives: assigning shifts.
Seth caught Janene’s eye from the start, and she wanted to get to know him, but he was shy. She didn’t chase him, but with the authority to assign shifts, she made sure the two of them always worked at the same time.
“He was kind of clueless at first. He didn’t know what was going on,” she said with a smile. “But eventually we went out.”
Seth has a different take on the story.
“I knew as soon as I saw her, I was going to marry her,” he said.
Some people would say chance is responsible for the two meeting and marrying. But Janene calls it “a God thing.” She also believes it was “a God thing” that led them to the karate studio.
In 2015, she and Seth passed by a new karate studio in town. By then, they were parents of 5-year-old Logan, who was a true Ninja Turtle fan.
“He even had Grandma take him to Walmart to buy him a dowel rod — his bo staff,” Janene said. “That was the first weapon in the cache.”
Signing up Logan for karate classes was a no-brainer. Janene and Seth made the arrangements, and Logan was hooked.
After Logan’s first lesson, the three left the studio and drove down Main Street, right past what would later become the front door of the business they now own. That’s when Logan asked a question they will never forget.
“He wanted to know if people could do karate for a living,” Janene explained. “Seth told him yes, and then Logan told us that’s what he wanted to do. He wanted the three of us to own our own karate studio. Seth and I just looked at each other. We had to trust God to work it out.”
After Seth started training for his black belt, the family practically lived at the dojo. It usually takes students three years and at least 300 classes to earn the degree. By the time Logan was ready to test for his black belt, he had taken more than 600 classes.
One night, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bennetts drove by the studio and noticed their instructor working late. They stopped to check on him. That’s when he let them know he was moving away to take care of his parents — and asked if they wanted to take over the business.
They said yes, and he agreed to teach them everything they needed to know about running the studio, affectionately referred to as the “Bennett Dojo.” Though their instructor was supposed to help them make a smooth transition, COVID-19 hit, and their instructor was unable to return to Lebanon. The Bennetts were on their own.
Today, the business is thriving. Seth is the main instructor now, but Janene and Logan teach as well. Logan is 16, a sophomore, and a member of the high school band. He still carries a passion for martial arts and has earned his second-degree black belt.
The Bennetts teach because they enjoy making a difference in other people’s lives. When they served as youth pastors, their teens often referred to them as Mom and Dad because they knew Janene and Seth would always be there for them.
“We were the ones the teens called at 2 a.m. when they made dumb decisions and needed help or advice. We were available 24/7 for them and poured our hearts into them,” Janene explained. “Then one day God told us to step down and to step out from the ministry.”
They obeyed God’s direction through many tears and turned their attention toward spending time together as a family, usually at the dojo.
“I think we always thought after we stepped down and stepped out, we would end up in full-time ministry again, but God put us here,” Janene said. “It took me a while to realize our ministry time prepared us for what God wanted us to do here.”
When their students are dealing with problems, Janene and Seth pray for them. They want to be there for their karate students as they were for their students in youth ministry.
“It took me a while to realize it,” Janene said, “but this is ministry.”
The Bennetts want their Lebanon neighbors to know they don’t have to travel far away to find a place that offers fitness, discipline, defense training, and fellowship. They invite everyone to stop by their neighborhood dojo to say hello and to check out the thing that money can’t buy — a place to meet new friends who feel like family. GN
