Before Linda became a Christian, she was a professional dancer in England. She had a great career that was growing each year. Despite this success, Linda was searching for more. Her search ended when she was working in a children’s home between dance seasons and met a woman that led her to Christ. Unfortunately, this wonderful woman also told her she had to give up dancing.
Linda struggled with this for two years as she continued to pursue her career. She finally gave up dancing when she realized that being on stage was no longer giving her the familiar rush of satisfaction. Her joy in performance disappeared, so she gave up everything having to do with dance.
She then went to Bible College and began singing in a gospel group and sharing her testimony. For eighteen years she did not dance a single step. During this time she met and married Graham and they both joined OM. After serving on several different fields, Linda and Graham ended up on the OM Logos ship. As part of the Logos team, Linda watched people performing various cultural dances during the Logos International Nights. She began to wonder; if it is ok to do cultural dance, then it might also be all right to do worship dance. She then participated in a few programs on the Logos ship presenting worship dance.
When Linda was pregnant with her second child, the Logos ship ran aground. Returning home, Linda sank into a deep depression, a combination of post-natal and post-traumatic-stress depressions. This was an extremely dark and difficult time. One day while counseling, the minister of her church presented her with a key. “I hear you used to be a professional dancer,” he said. “In this church we believe that God uses the arts in worship. Take this key to the church and come and dance here alone whenever you want.”
Linda did and found that as she danced, the depression would lift. She found complete healing. At last Linda felt released to dance in worship. She began by spontaneously dancing as she worshipped in church, then as she learned Sign Language she began to incorporate that into her dancing. She has since received requests from all over to teach signed worship dance.
After eight years, Linda and Graham felt called back to OM. They joined the OM USA team. Bill Drake, a pioneer for the arts in worship, joined the OM USA team several years ago and has helped Linda set the stage to bring Dancelink on as a part of the creative ministries team at OM.