About Us – Dance With Me Ministries

Fourteen Years

This coming Sunday, Dan and I will start our fourteenth year of ‘Dance With Me Ministries.’ Fourteen years ago we set out to teach a few friends some dance steps along with an empty-nester marriage book study. We were thinking of a one-and-done kind of class. God had something else in mind.

The couples in our year one class wanted more. More teaching, more fellowship, more dating, and more dancing. It was so much fun and it blessed us beyond measure. Just one more class we thought. Just one more class has turned into fourteen years. We have loved every minute of it. We have met many wonderful couples. Thank you out there if you have been a part!

Here are a few stats for you:

over 105 couples have attended
started in 2009
8-16 weeks of classes yearly
Classes every year except 2020
2 marriage conferences
Over 55 DWMM’s-sponsored dance/date nights
donations only for venue cost
4 different venue locations
13 Christmas Balls
Over 1,000 joint volunteer hours for Dan and I

It is good that God takes us step-by-step when calling each of us to the unknown. He takes the desires of our hearts and uses them if we allow Him. Looking back, we are humbled at how God could take an imperfect married couple, untrained ballroom teachers, and use them to encourage couples to grow closer to each other. The ministry is all about keeping the marriage close. The ballroom dancing is the bonus.

Each year we wonder if it is going to be our last with DWMM’s? Will couples still want to join us? Has ballroom dancing died out? It is not for us to answer. God will open doors or shut them when He wants.

Our fourteenth year will bring us new couples to meet. New adventures and more blessings. We are excited to get started.

God’s Word-Ephesians 3:20

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

Spring Garden Dance 2010-Our first year pioneers: Lori and Dan Bailey, Coreen and Greg Wildebour, Marilyn and Dave Popelka,
Kathleen and Mark Banowetz, Denise and Andy Smith, Therese and Mark Smith, Sheri and Craig James, Kristi and Kent Knake, Pam and Mike Sieke

About Us

Dance Illustrations

Ballroom dancing provides many illustrations that are a perfect picture of what God intended a loving marriage to look like! In 2010 we went to Colorado and wrote the lessons we wanted to use in a marriage enrichment class . Moving Together as One, Lead Me, Our Words, Take Me Around the Dance Floor, Let’s Date and Hold My Hand are just to name a few. We have shared these lessons with over one hundred couples who have taken our classes. The goal of this blog will be a continuation of our class. We are hoping that through this blog, couples will be encouraged and uplifted in their marriage.

Writing our lessons together-2010

About Us

Ordinary to do the Extraordinary

As our children began to grow and leave the nest, we soon realized the changes we would be facing as a married couple. With no kid activities to circle our life around, it now became just the two of us. This was a transition in life that we were not prepared for as it seemed to come from nowhere. We also realized that some of our friends were calling it quits after 20 years or more of marriage. So we decided to do a Christian based book study for Empty Nesters to encourage couples going through this stage of life, including us! At the same time we were taking ballroom dance lessons to prepare for the marriage of our oldest daughter. We both noticed that many of the lessons we were learning from the book, we were also learning in our ballroom dance class.

Lori asked Dan, “Do you want to teach ballroom dance with our marriage enrichment book study? “ Dan’s words were, “We are not good enough to teach dance.” Now, looking back, yes this was totally true! We had only been ballroom dancing for 2 years, and we had no formal training as dance instructors.

But, God loves to use ordinary people for His extraordinary work. He gives us everything we need for the call He sets before us. We didn’t need a perfect marriage or years of ballroom dance instruction. We just had a heart for marriages and a passion for ballroom dancing. So this is how ‘Dance with Me Ministries’ began.