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Praise Him in the Dance
"He has changed my sadness into song."
Psalm 30:11
Belma Vardy remembers hearing the sound of feet running outside and, being a very young child, she was quite curious about the sound. She peeked outside between the curtains just in time to see her friend's home explode before her eyes. There were bombs exploding everywhere. This was life in Berlin, Germany in the early 1960's. People everywhere were trying to escape in panic as the Berlin Wall was being erected all around them. It was a night of terror that she buried deep within her heart.
Although Belma was born in Toronto, ON, she and her mother moved to Germany to live with Belma's grandparents while her mother recovered from an illness.After her mother got better, she decided to return to Canada. However, she left Belma with her grandparents believing that they could raise Belma better than she could.
Belma Vardy is third from the left, the girls with her are Krista Geerlinks, Amanda Geerlinks, Nicole Geerlinks, Judith Koene, Renee Reinders, and Becky Lise.
After she returned to Canada, Belma's mother and father were divorced. Eventually her mother remarried. Her new husband thought Belma should come to live with them. So at age eight, Belma came back to Canada to live with her mother and new stepfather.
This, however, was not a happy home forBelma. The Children's Aid, an organization that protects children, eventually took her away from her abusive home. When she was sixteen, Belma ended up on the street looking for a place to love, She asked a young couple if she could live with them. In exchange for a home, she took care of the couple's children. By doing this, she was able to finish school, something she was determined to do.
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After completing school, she became a successful model and actress. At that time, she thought that money and fame would bring her happiness. But with each magazine cover and every successful movie role, she felt like she was sliding into a dark pit of unhappiness.
One day a friend who had found joy in Christ invited her to church. Belma wanted the happiness that she saw in her friend, so she decided to go. At that point in her life, she was so discouraged that she didn't care if she ever walked out of the church. She just wanted to die. That night God spoke to her, and she invited Christ into her heart.
The dancers celebrate the King at the GEMS Counselors' Convention
At home the next day she sang the only Christian song she knew, Are you Washed in the Blood of the Lamb? She sang for hours and began to move her body to the music in an expression of total praise to God. That began what Belma calls her "thing." Her "thing" is Belma's special way of eloquently showing with her whole being just how much she loves God.
Sometime later, at a Christian conference, Belma discovered others doing her "thing" – worshipful dance. She enthusiastically joined the dance team and felt total freedom as she danced her praise to God in public for the first time.
Step by step, God has opened many doors for Belma. She has hadthe opportunity to study dance under many talented teachers in England, France, and the United States. She attended Bible College for two years because she knew that whatever God was calling her to do had to be grounded in His Word and His love. She began writing songs about her love for God and recorded an album, Celebration of Dance. And then in 1988, she began a very special class for children where the Bible is studied and the children respond in worshipful dance.
Since that time, Belma has produced videos in which these kids have appeared – The Biblical Basis for the Celebration of Dance and Let's Dance, a video with the fun-loving Veggie Tale characters.
Today, Belma is a beautiful, graceful, gifted, and talented woman. God continues to heal her once broken heart, and He is using her in mighty ways. How can God use you?
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