A Ministry of Dance

In Spanish there are two different words for dance.  They are 'bailar' and 'danzar' and they have two different meanings.  I looked it up and the spanish/english dictionary doesn't indicate any difference, but it has been explained to me that here they mean two different things.  'Bailar' is what most of us think of when we think of dancing.  Here it would be mostly merengue or batchata, and in the states it would be the kind of dancing you would do at school dances.  However, 'danzar' is the word used when the Bible refers to dancing.  There are examples in the Bible of people singing and dancing and praising God.  This is the kind of dance that 'danzar' refers to.  There are many Christians here that do not 'bailar' but do 'danzar'.  In fact, many of the churches here have a Ministeria de Danza (Ministry of Dance).  They are groups of girls and young women who dance as a way of worship in the same way that a praise team sings as a way of worship.  They take it very seriously and have great respect while doing it.  The girls have to follow many rules and may not participate if their lives are not reflecting God's will.  Our church just recently began a Ministeria de Danza and on Saturday we had a big fundraiser for them.  It was awesome.  It was amazing to experience another culture worshiping and praising God.  We had two different praise teams play praise and worship songs, our girls did several dances, a dance group from a sister church came and did some dances, we even had a mime.  We also sold pop and empenadas and popcorn and many other Dominican foods.  They raised a lot of money and it was a night of rejoicing, enjoying time together and praising God.  I posted pictures from that night.  My hope that they will give you a small idea of what it was like.  I would really love to post a couple of videos of the girls dancing so that you can have a better idea of what the dances are like, but the website is not letting me upload any of my videos (I have been trying every day for the last week).  I will keep trying and if my computer ever lets me upload them on here, I will post them.