Welcome to my blog!

This is so exciting! Welcome to my new blog page: Dance Ministry Education! Those coming from my YouTube page probably thought the Earth swallowed me whole, but it did not and I am still here. Continue reading to find out what happened and why it happened.

If you do not know me or know very little about me, allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Wendy and I run this blog. Ever since I was a child, I have loved movement and dance but was never granted the opportunity to express myself through the art form. I started dancing "late" in life. Though late in the eyes of society, I wholeheartedly believe that I began dancing precisely when God intended me to start. I grew up in church and was raised by parents who were both Sunday School teacher. Needless to say, I was involved in everything but nothing ever really felt right. I struggled to find my purpose and calling. I first got to praise dance at the age of 18 and I automatically felt like my spirit was at home, it was the strangest feeling.

2005 Youth Concert

I began to dance more and the more I danced, the more I wanted to know about the ministry. I began researching it in the bible, researching the topic online, and my soul was completely surrendered to the calling.

I had been longing to have dance training and I wanted to improve physically. When I decided to go back to school my then boyfriend, and now husband, encouraged me to take dance classes on the side. I studied ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop, and even a little flamenco. I not only got to train with amazing professors and learn alongside talented dancers, but I also got to dance on their stage. It was such an amazing experience.

I was invited to attend my very first praise dance conference and began attending it regularly. It was so encouraging and eye opening to see hundreds of dancers gather together with the same passion to praise the Lord. I can't explain how many times I wanted to give up and those conferences were such a blessing in my life. They gave me the opportunity take classes and participate in their concerts. They even used me in some of their advertisements.

With all the growing I had been doing, it came time to move on to the next stage of my life. I wanted to be selfish and keep this all to myself because I was happy where I was. However, the Lord had different plans. He began to put a burden on my heart to share and teach the knowledge I had accumulated over the years. So, I put a small curriculum together and threw my very first dance workshop.

It was so much fun and I would love to say that it was easy, but it wasn't! I would love to say that I jumped at the idea, but it terrified me. I made up excuses as to why I shouldn't do it and why it wasn't from the Lord. The Lord doesn't take no for an answer. He put me on blast one memorable youth service. He revealed it to my youth pastor in prayer. He called me up, made me speak about my vision to have this event, and picked up an offering to fund it. I honestly didn't think anyone would want to help. The Lord touched their hearts and the money that was raised, funded the workshop pictured above and the one for the following year. I will never forget that! As I continued growing, the Lord's next step in my life was to write a book. You think I would have learned that God has my back, but I didn't and I became incredibly intimidated. I, again, made excuses as to why I shouldn't and why it wasn't from the Lord. The Lord had to set me straight during prayer. It was not I who was writing the book, it was the Lord writing it. I was just an instrument and a means to publish the book.

I grew like a flower! I started off in germination, which is the seed form; I went through the growth, the learning and training process; I bloomed into the worshiper and dancer God wanted me to be; and now I was in the pollination stage. When the Lord sees a willing heart, he begins to work in your life. I experienced God's favor in my every move. I began to help choreograph at church for events, plays, local dance seminars, and the children's dance ministry.

He gave me dreams and visions of the future He wanted for me in ministry. I saw a school, not just of technique classes, but also classrooms where students came to study and learn about dance ministry. Along with a store of dance instruments and garments. I even started making logos for it! Are these the official logos? No, probably not. How will I get here? I don't know. Do I have a plan? Nope. I have no idea where to start. Is it exciting? Kind of...but also kind of terrifying. I trust and believe in God's promises that I will get to see this become a reality.

Now I don't know why the Lord would choose me to do anything for Him, but He has and I'm grateful for it. I wanted to be obedient but I didn't know where to start. At that time I had a YouTube channel. Me, myself, and only I decided to dedicate it to the Lord to help spread the knowledge through said channel. I began posting videos and when it began to grow, I realized the great need for education and training in dance ministry.

I continued to receive God inspired ideas for more books. God revealed to me that it was pointless to teach people how to create choreography without a tool. He inspirited me to design this dance choreography journal. Along with a few other cover designs.

Shortly after, He entrusted me to publish a second book. I like to refer to this one as the praise dancers dictionary.

And a third that I am still working on. This one has been far more challenging to write than the other two.

We always have to be willing to learn, grow, and come under the submission of leadership. This past year God opened a door for me to dance with a christian theater. I could have walked in there with my head held high and been like, "I've written this many books. I have a channel on dance with x amount views and subscribers. I've taught in conferences and danced for years. blah, blah, blah!" I could have walked in and demanded a position in leadership, but how obnoxious would that have been? I don't know everything there is to know. I am not done learning. I joyfully accepted the opportunity to start at the bottom and work my buns off to be, not the best or to reach the top, but to be the greatest blessing possible to that ministry. I have learned so much under the amazing direction from the staff. Don't be proud, be a sponge. Absorb as much knowledge as possible whenever you can. Never stop being a student. Never stop learning. Never call a phase in your life a stepping stone. It is selfish and diminishes the blessing.

Everything God has asked of me, I did. There was one thing, however, that was completely my will and not His. There was one thing that I decided to do that He never instructed me to do. I was not directed to host a YouTube channel. I saw my promise for the future and tried to rush that process. I tried to make the vision manifest on my own merits instead of waiting on the Lord. There are no blessings for the disobedient. During the YouTube phase, my life seemed to halt. Direction was absent and the road became so foggy, that I became disoriented. In the back of my mind I knew why but was in denial for so long. I had to make things right. One night I sat down in front of my computer and deleted all my videos. I was originally going just put them on private, but the Lord was like NO! You will be tempted in a moment of weakness to re-post them. I cannot begin to express how much it hurt to see all my hard work go to the trash. If I told you that I remained strong and that I didn't cry, I would be the biggest liar on the face of this planet! I loved it, but it was not where I was supposed to be. Like Jonah who needed to go to Ninevah, but got on a boat and tried to go somewhere else. The Lord said nope! There was a storm, a whale, and eventually obedience. And now the Lord was requiring obedience from me. That sounds so earnest and spiritual in writing, but to me it was painful, difficult, and even unfair. I arrogantly pointed at all that I had done and said, "but Lord, look at all that I have built for your kingdom!" It took a while for me to come to terms that it was not my territory, and it is not where He called me to be. So I waited for instructions. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. It was heartbreaking to see comments from people asking where my videos had gone, and if I was going to post again. I wanted to give them hope but I had no words to say. I would put my fingers to the keyboard and I had no response. How am I supposed to explain what happened when I didn't even fully understand what happened? Once I purged my channel. good things started to happen. The fog cleared and God began opening doors, and renewing my spirit. I went back to being inundated with ideas and dreams and instructions and i was just like...

I could not keep up with what the Lord was showing me. I had write it down or doodle it on a napkin so I wouldn't forget.

Recently while I prayed, God put one word on my heart: teach. but I was like, "how?! you took away my YouTube!!!" because I'm a brat but God still loves me for whatever reason. When I had calmed down a few weeks later, He added more to that word: teach like a teacher. Of course I was like huh...? He reminded me of when I took online classes in college. I totally Sarah-ed the situation. Remember what Sarah did when she over heard the angel of the Lord tell Abraham that she would bare a son in her old age? She laughed. As did I. You want me to start an online course? I don't know how to do that! Who is going to want to buy it anyway?!?! I could actually feel God rolling His eyes at me! (I'm joking, if you are not familiar with my sense of humor.) Despite my lack of confidence, I am choosing to be obedient. I'm terrified and intimidated. I don't feel entirely sure if this is God's will and am actively finding reasons not to publish this site. Based on the patterns of my life, it probably means I should do it.

I have created this page to spread the knowledge and training God has allowed me to learn. You can still receive teachings for free, but there are also now paid e-courses available for those who prefer to pay. Education cannot just be about random knowledge and choosing which pieces of information you prefer to learn. It has to be a completely development. The first course is all fundamentals and before you decide to wait for a more "advanced" course to be published, you must pass fundamentals before moving on to the next course. I already know I will get private messages of people asking to be given an exception. If you can pass the final exam with a 90% or higher, you can bypass the course. If you take the course the exam is included within the course. If you choose to only take the exam, there is a separate fee for that. You cannot walk before you crawl. You can't do algebra if you haven't learned arithmetic. You just can't. This is something I am very passionate about. I have a responsibility to teach like a teacher.

I am excited and nervous for this new adventure, and I hope to connect with you through either the free resources or the e-courses. Lets build the kingdom of God together through dance!

-Wendy B.