Top Events of My Year 2011 by Jenna Vick Silliman

This has been a year of delighting in the Presence of the Lord Jesus in dance and flagging. “God inhabits the praises of His people.” (See Psalm 22:3) I started the year 2011 celebrating with Revolution Church at a New Year’s Worship Night at the fairgrounds in Port Angeles, WA with all live music. I brought my only flag, my blue and silver flag, and enjoyed flagging my heart out. Before each song I would pray and ask Jesus if I should flag or worship dance. I had a blast dancing and twirling and singing and flagging the night away! What a way to start the year! We worship in a home fellowship called Deep River in Sequim, a town right next to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula in the far Northwest of the United States. Though we always dance around for worship, there isn’t much room for dancing and flagging, so I enjoyed this huge venue for New Year’s Eve worship.

Another highlight of my year is in July I met my half-sister, Bonnie, that I found out about a year prior. My other two sisters and Bonnie and I met at a café in Northern California and we had a sister’s day to talk and get to know each other. Bonnie is an awesome person and we are looking forward to another gathering this summer to spend more time together.

A third top event in my life is teaching girls about worship dance. In the summer I taught an eight-week class and had 15 girls join in. For each class I gave a short talk, demonstrated by dancing myself, and then I put on worship music and let them dance freely and have fun. Sometimes we danced with teddy bears and sometimes I let them choose a colorful scarf from my collection to “flag” with. They loved it and so did I! As a result, in December I was asked by the Sons of Norway Club to start teaching children, ages 4 to 9, how to dance some traditional dances. I accepted and will begin every Tuesday night at the Sons of Norway Hall in Port Angeles. Also I was asked to teach on worship dance and flagging to the Deep River Youth Group, which I did in the end of December. One thing leads to another and now I am planning a flagging prayer walk down the main street of our town on Saturday afternoons—a happy hour of intercession for the people of Sequim, Washington.

I attended Open Heavens Conference at Bethel Church in Redding, California in October. This conference is my fourth top events of my year—more on that another time. I enjoyed more flagging and worship dancing and enjoying God’s presence! I was blessed to stay an extra day and that was the day I met Andrea York. Flags drew us together. She makes these amazing angel wings for flags that make you feel like flying when you use them. As I tried out a few different pairs, some other flaggers gathered around us. Soon we had a flagging workshop with each of us sharing how we got started, how we flag, about the creation of our flags, and where we’ve flagged. I was drawn to Andrea from the first minute and a friendship was born.

Andrea and I connected on Facebook and began messaging each other. In the end of November, another conference, similar to the one at Bethel, was held in Canada about four hours north of me. Andrea invited me up to stay with her and worship flag at the conference with her. I had acquired two more flags, a white one and a purple one, so I packed my bags and my flags and headed to Canada. I got to meet her sweet family and spend time with Andrea so we could share our hearts and our dreams with each other. The whole trip was a fifth highlight of my year, but the best was flagging on stage, Andrea front left, me on front right, with Georgian Banov on his violin and everyone singing out their love to the Lord Jesus!

To begin the year 2012, I headed to the fairgrounds again to worship in dance and flagging. Now I have three new pairs of flags made by Andrea too--shiny gold, a turquoise pair, and some rainbow flags—each with their own kingdom meanings. I enjoyed ushering in a new year with praise and worship of our living God. I wonder what God has in store for us in the year ahead?