Back to the Burgh: Praise In Motion Mini Tour

Grace. Somethings are beyond explanation. God's ideas are so much greater than ours. I remember thinking when I stopped dancing in high school that I had wasted so much time. All those hours everyday. Dancing, in the afternoon, evening and weekend. I was practically dancing in my sleep. I realized that I had allowed my desire to dance and be good at it to take over my life and so I stopped. I never had danced in church. I danced in Heinz Hall, the Fulton Theatre. I danced the nutcracker and Balenchines Concerto Baraco and Serenade. When I put a stop to the dancing madness and decided to pursue a different type of future than the starving artist I might have potentially been, I really stopped. I did not dance at all. It did not even seem appealing, it was so tied to seeking something that was contrary to what I knew God wanted.
I never would have thought that I would move away to a strange place and that God would use that time and training and love for dance. He would resurface my love for dance and redevelop it in a totally different way. Who knew it would be my bridge to new friends and a deeper relationship with God when I came to this strange place, Miami. I came here terrified and we visited this church. The girls there invited me to this Bible study and I thought to myself there was no way that I was going to go after all I didn't know any of these girls and some of them seemed strangely friendly, especially compared to the other people I was meeting in Miami. But Travis forced me to go check it out and after all we didn't know anybody at all. So off I went nervous because its not like me to go a place by myself where I don't really know anyone unless I am helping people or getting paid. Then I get there right, and for some reason they decided everyone was going to give their testimony. So there I am sitting in this house with these girls I don't know and now I have to talk and its been ages since I even gave my testimony. Since I have no choice I tell my story reluctantly and begin to talk about how I left dance because I realized it was taking the place of God in my life. Dancing was such a big part of my life that it is a big part of my testimony. So I am talking and I see the girls giving each other weird looks and I'm like ok what did I say this is not going good. I was trying to be honest but not sound weird because after all I don't really know these girls and I don't want them to think I am strange.
After the Bible study I find myself surrounded and they are chattering about re-starting this dance ministry they had and how they had been praying for people to be a part of it. They tell me a little bit about their endeavors in the past and I get the drift that the church was not all that receptive to dancing in church. So I am thinking about how I had decided that basically I was never really going to dance again and I certainly don't want to do that now. I certainly didn't want to be in the middle of any church drama, I was so rusty in my mind I could never dance good enough to meet my own standards and I thought the girls were slightly crazy for being so excited for all they knew I could be the worst dancer ever. I was like no way am I dancing I put that behind me, I was busy with grad school after all and we didn't know if we were even going to go to that church.
Well God obviously had a plan for His glory. He didn't care if I could not do a split or a huge grand jete and triple pirouette anymore. He did not care if it made me uncomfortable or took up my time. He was redeeming my mistakes, He was giving me back a gift. I don't know how but a whirlwind of Praise In Motion came after that. I learned that dance was not about perfect technique and wowing those watching. After all I had to realize I had to get past my pride and the fact that I could not dance like I did before but that was ok. The girls were absolutely beautiful worshiping God even though they had never taken a dance class. This is something I never could have understood before. This endeavor of dancing for worship required a complete change of mindset from perfectionism to humility. I used to watch anyone dancing even a professional and I could not enjoy it because I would just pick it apart but I learned to look beyond the unimportant details of a cicled foot or pointy elbow. Our moves were not perfect but the heart was right. Three years have past. These strange girls now my closest friends, dancing for anything other than worship now seems a foreign idea, and our church looks forward to seeing us and speaks about our group with pride.
You never know what God is going to do or what part of your life he is going to redeem. He taught me what it really means to dance, dance for him in worship and dance for him in my daily life. He used dance to help me build friendships when He knew I needed them and He has used it over the past few years to revive my soul. I know that this is grace. I know that this is Him at work. What else could it be. It may not seem so miraculous if you are just hearing about it but these girls are the best dancers I have ever seen in my life. I have seen Barishnikof, I have danced in famous places but my dear friends are true dancers beyond what famous dancers could comprehend. God has given us so many opportunities to minister at city events, other churches and in our church home. Three years in a row we have packed the church for an evening of dance that we call night of praise. This past week we got to go together on a trip to the church where I grew up and another church to dance. There we were back where I came from. When I was there I was a "better" dancer but no one ever saw me dance. Now here I was "old" stiff and I just had a baby and I danced nine times in the church basement. Not glamorous, not perfect, but after all that's how worship is supposed to be right?

Zion with her other set of godparents Greg and Devon

Why is it that guys like to take pictures like this?
Travis and Joshua all bundled up overlooking Pittsburgh.
Tim and his girlfriend Rachel. Aren't they cute?
The whole crew. We look good in the cold weather I think. Especially Vena the scarf queen.

Waiting for the "T". We took a trip downtown to ride the incline and check out the skyline during a break.