And The Father Will Dance
by Patricia Whalen
How do I begin to tell you how much God has done for me? When I reflect on my past, I am in awe of how much God loves me. There was a time in my life when I thought I wasn’t worthy of God’s love. You see, I had been sexually molested from the time I was three until I was seventeen. My life was full of guilt shame and condemnation. How could God possibly love someone like me?
All types of abuse hurt, but sexual abuse is the most damaging, because it brings more guilt and shame on the victim than on the perpetrator.
I’ve often heard people say that when the enemy gets bold, God gets bolder. I look at my life and see evidence of where God poured strength into me and gave me giftings that offset the abuse that was happening to me, so that I was blessed as well.
 One of those gifts was the ability to dance. I have always been fascinated by folkloric dancing of all nations. The heart of the nation is seen in its ethnic dancing. Ever since I can remember, I have been able to watch someone dance and duplicate the dance steps. My mother could not afford to give me dance lessons so I gave myself dance lessons. I would practice in front of a mirror until I was happy with what I could do and then perform for my family.
The ability to perform kept me going while my world crumbled around me. I lived in a perpetual daydream. Somehow, I made my way through school, got married at seventeen, had three sons, and survived two divorces. I am married again to a wonderful man of God and we will celebrate our twelfth Anniversary this August.
I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. My life felt that it was controlled by forces outside of myself and never could see more than two choices. It wasn’t until I got involved in the Elijah House School of Inner Healing and Prayer Ministry that my life started to make sense. God has delivered me from the guilt, shame, and condemnation. I am now able to stand in the presence of God and know that He loves me.
The devil tried to destroy me through attacks on my body, yet God has taken that same body and is now using it to bring Him glory! He instilled in me a natural ability and talent to dance.
Since 1974, I have studied Middle Eastern dance forms from Egypt, Greece, Morocco, Persia, Turkey, Arabia, and Israel, and have been blessed to study under some very famous choreographers. So, when God called Zechariah Ministries to put together an Israeli dance troupe, our paths crossed. God has blessed me with my heart’s desire, to be a part of a folkloric dance troupe, and now, I get the added privilege of helping to put together an Israeli dance troupe. WOW!
What a joy to be able to dance and represent the Israeli Heritage as well! If anyone knows how to dance with the heart, it’s the Jewish people. Life is so precious, and the joy that comes out of their music is so contagious, that there is no other way to truly express the joy of life than to dance with every cell of our being, in other words, to dance from our heart.
L' chaim…To Life!
Zechariah Ministries is in the process of forming dance teams to perform when invited to address a congregation or organization. For more information, please visit our website.
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