Fighting the Good Fight of Faith: Ghenadie Bitco talks taekwondo and God at Lynwood Baptist Church youth night

Lynwood Baptist Church youth in Cape Girardeau experienced far from an ordinary youth night Wednesday.

World-renowned taekwondo fighter Ghenadie Bitco gave the church's youth a demonstration on taekwondo, and talked about how he came to the sport.

For Bitco, snapping six wooden planks in half with his bare right foot is no problem. The sport means much more to him than throwing punches and earning medals, however.

Bitco fought every day before he learned taekwondo, but not for sport. Bitco fought to survive.

"I grew up in a neighborhood where every day I was supposed to fight for myself," Bitco said.

Ghenadie Bitco kicks in half a plank held by a spectator Bitco picked from the crowd during his Wednesday presentation at Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. For this move, Bitco moved around the circle and broke four planks with his hands and feet within seconds. Bitco can break up to six planks at a time, he said.Monica Obradovic

Bitco grew up in Moldova, a small country in eastern Europe. It was part of the Soviet Union until it fell in 1991. When that happened, order left Moldova. Without an overruling power such as police, chaos ran rampant.

By the age of 12, Bitco would go to clubs and take shots of vodka and smoke. Older men in his neighborhood forced Bitco to fight his friends for entertainment.

At one moment during his presentation, Bitco asked all the 12-year-olds in the room to raise their hands.

"You are blessed here," Bitco told them. "Your parents are well educated and know how to act in a society."

The youth present were also lucky, Bitco said, because they didn't have a father like his. His father was very lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the morning, Bitco's father would go to a bar and come home at night and abuse Bitco and his mother.

Taekwondo athlete Ghenadie Bitco speaks Wednesday at Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. He spoke to Lynnwood Church youth on how the sport saved him from an absive childhood and brought him to Christianity.Monica Obradovic

"He would tell me, 'Ghena, come here.'" Bitco said. "I was supposed to come in front of him, not crying, not shaking. I was 3 years old. If I cried, he'd slap me one time. If I cried more or did any other actions, he'd beat me up very strong, because he wanted to build in me a character that'd be able to stand for himself."

Bitco's childhood changed the day he saw a taekwondo demonstration in his hometown.

"I was shocked," Bitco said. He told himself, "I'm going to learn that so I'll be able to defend myself and my mother and be the protector of my family."

He would go on to learn taekwondo through Alexei Tentuic, a world-renown taekwondo master and champion. Tentuic brought Bitco to faith in God. After every belt Bitco earned, Tentuic had him study a different book of the Bible.

Eighteen years later, Bitco has competed in over 40 countries around the world. His faith helped him to accept his father and love him the way he is, Bitco said.

Taekwondo athlete Ghenadii Bitco leaps over volunteers from the audience to break a wood plank Wednesday at Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. Bitco, a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter who began learning taekwondo to escape his abusive childhood, spoke at the church about the sport and how it brought him to faith in God.Monica Obradovic ~ mobradovic@semissourian.com

Bitco and his wife, Kate Stepaniuc, opened a Christian summer camp in their Moldovan hometown last year. Stepaniuc is a professor of mass media at Southeast Missouri State University. She and Bitco have a 3-year-old son named George.

Toward the end of the presentation, Bitco wanted to stress to Lynwood's youth one last thing.

"If you want change for your society, for your neighbor, for your family for anything," Bitco said, "Only do good actions, which is the fruit of the spirit."