Hello, my dear reader! I am so excited that you have stumbled upon my blog. My name is Hannah, and I have just recently graduated from Belhaven University with a BFA in Dance and a BA in English. I am currently in the process of support raising to join a team in the Middle East that uses the performing arts to share the Gospel. But before I share more about my team, I want to tell you a bit about why I chose to do GoCorps….
I never thought I would do missions or be a missionary. Since I was a little girl, it had been my dream to be a professional dancer. When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina. As I grew older, I fell in love with all styles of dance. I didn’t really care what kind of company I joined, I just wanted to dance. In order to pursue that dream, I attended Belhaven University and majored in dance.
In the spring semester of my freshman year, I went on a mission trip to Mexico with my church. It was less of a service/evangelism trip and more of a missions training trip. One of the leaders of the trip was a professor from my university who was the head of the Intercultural Studies department. During the five days we were there, she gave a series of lectures on the importance of missions. As she walked through the biblical basis of missions, the concepts of reached and unreached people groups, the statistics of unreached people groups around the world, and the overall great need for missionaries, I began to feel God tugging on my heart. When the leader asked us to pray about how God was calling us to participate in missions, I felt God telling me to GO, to participate in the great work of making disciples of all nations. The calling was very clear in that moment, and I knew that if I said no, He would keep pestering me until I said yes. So I said yes…
BUT, I didn’t say yes to when, where, or what. For the next three years, I dragged my feet just a little. I knew God had called me to missions, but I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be right after college. I still wanted to dance, so in my head the plan was to dance with a company for a few years and then go and do missions after. As I was considering all this over those three years, I was introduced to GoCorps. I heard of it through one of their coaches, Melody, who came my school and gave a presentation about the organization. I thought it was cool, but didn’t seriously think I would do it. Fast forward to the COVID-19 Pandemic, when all my summer plans went out the window. CoGorps did a summer Discipleship Initiative for those interested in their program, and the Lord made it pretty clear that He wanted me to do it. As I studied Bible verses about God’s heart for the nations and read articles on missions, I once again began to hear God calling me to missions, just as he had freshman year. I still really wanted to join a company, but it was as if God was asking me, “Will you give up YOUR dream to take up MINE?”.
Reluctantly, I began to seriously consider doing missions after college, and GoCorps went from being at the bottom of my list of options to being towards the top. At the end of the Discipleship Initiative, Melody went over the Media/Arts GoCorps placements. I was pretty reluctantly listening until she got to the team in the Middle East. As she began explaining how the team uses the performing arts to share the Gospel, I got SO EXCITED. It wasn’t quite a company, but it was a group of artists collaborating and performing, both things near and dear to my heart. I began to realize that God in His mercy had provided a way I could answer His call while using my skill set and passion.
Over the next few months, I applied to GoCorps and really began to pray and seek the Lord. I wrestled back and forth, one day feeling convinced I wanted to move overseas and then next wondering how I could ever give up the professional dance life. Did I really want to give up the structure and rigor of a company, the euphoria of dancing on a stage under the lights, the magic of opening night….to dance on a street corner? It didn’t seem that great or glamorous, and even though it used dance, it wasn’t really a company. Was I willing to give up my dream? Over time, I realized the answer was yes. I would gladly give up my art to expand His kingdom.
I recently read something that summed up my journey pretty well. It’s from a book called “Kill Your Art” by Philip Shorey. He says “Life is too short for me to do “art for arts sake,” even if art is seen by some to be a form of Christian doxology. In a similar manner, every breath we take also brings glory to our Creator, but God doesn’t want us to stop there and just breathe for breath’s sake. There is so much more to be done to accomplish his mission. My hunger is to do something extraordinary, and to do it with eternal worth. I have big ideas and huge dreams, and I want to be the best I can be at what I do; but the biggest dream I can ever think of is to wholeheartedly give my all to Jesus for him to use me, no matter what it looks like, or what structure it takes. . . . I may never become famous as a great artist. I may never compose the music for an internationally acclaimed film. But I don’t need that when I’m a creative partner to the greatest Creator in the universe. Isn’t real success much deeper than the momentary spotlight?”*
As I prayed over Christmas break whether moving overseas was something God was truly calling me to do, I kept running into Bible verses and ordinary things in life that seemed to confirm God’s call—from the verse “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), to the Hillsong song that declares “Tell the World that Jesus Lives”. I felt Him confirming over and over that this was the step He was calling me to make, so I said yes….
That’s great, you say. But how on earth can you use dance to share the Gospel? Well, it’s pretty simple. The team uses all kinds of performing arts as a form of street evangelism. They collaborate to create a mini show, perform it on street corners or parks, and then share the Gospel with the crowd. They talk and pray with audience members, and if anyone is interested in learning more about Jesus, they connect them with a local church. Their mission is simple—To creatively proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Muslim world. I am beyond excited to join this team, to use my heart for the sake of God’s kingdom, to share with others the hope and grace to be found through Jesus Christ, to take up GOD’S DREAM in place of mine.
*Shorey, Philip. Kill Your Art: A Street Performer's Guide to Being a Messenger of Jesus Christ. Steiger Press, 2017.