Mike Janiczek is the publisher for Advantage Books. As I mentioned last month, my book ‘Dance is Prayer-in-Motion: Soul to Sole Choreography for Christian Dance Ministry’ is set to be released by Advantage Books sometime next month. It’s been God’s leading to work with Mike on this project. He is a committed Christian and his heart strives to publish quality books.

Let me re-cap the timeline of the manuscript: I started to formally write the book in January of 2011 and completed it early in 2013. Then came the saga of getting approval to use 74 quotes in the book. These quotes served to enhance the content of the book by citing dance and biblical experts alongside additional research about the body and the importance of non-verbal communication. As I have mentioned before, I had no idea that the timeline for contacting these sources would take so long. God has used these months to teach me a lot about perseverance…..

Permissions were completed in December 2015.

Now comes the surprise. As some of you know, my shoulder replacement surgery was scheduled for Jan 4, 2016. February involved recovery for me(still an on-going process with weekly physical therapy and pilates), and travel for Mike to conferences on behalf of Advantage Books. March and much of April came and went as Mike and I worked diligently through final edits of the manuscript. Lots of phone calls led to more personal sharing. And more about Mike’s health issues.

I found out that Mike was to have shoulder surgery for his rotator cuff on Monday April 25, 2016. So God brought us together for a bigger reason than book publication. I know lots of information about shoulder surgery and some of the challenges that come with it. In my life, God calmed my fears, gave me peace, and led me to depend on Him throughout the process. Now I can help Mike as his sister in Christ.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Cor 1:3-4

Even though Mike knows Jesus personally, that doesn’t take away his need for prayer and community support. Can I ask you to pray that Mike will experience God’s presence and peace as he recovers throughout the rest of this year? Can I also request the same for myself?

Scripture tells us to pray. I do. Will you join me? It’s an important part of the pathway to choreograph prayer-in-motion in lifestyle and in formal dance ministry.