Leadership

JAN DYER (UK)

Jan is married to Graham and they have three grown up children and six grandchildren. Jan has been dancing for the Lord for over 30 years. She joined CDF Britain at its inaugural conference in 1990 and soon after was elected Regional Coordinator for Midlands West. During this time too, Jan was coordinating Children‘s Ministry, Dance Ministry and leading All Age services in her church. Jan then served as National Coordinator for CDF Britain for six years before being appointed ICDF Joint-Coordinator in 2011.

Jan has a heart to see people of all ages released into engaging in worship through the creative and dance arts.

SAARTJIE DE WET (South Africa)

Saartjie has been involved in Christian dance for the past 26 years as dancer, teacher, group leader and administrator. During this time she served 7 years as Regional and National Coordinator in South Africa, and as Joint-International Coordinator for 6 years. She has been trained in classical ballet but her passion is free worship and intercession through movement. Besides being a Christian dancer she is also exploring ways to express her Christianity through the visual arts. She has recently started a dance school dedicated to serving different sections of the community. Saartjie has been married to a farmer, Chris, for 40 years and they have three adult children.

Liesl Townsend (South Africa)

Liesl became involved in Christian Dance when she joined the Christian Dance School with Rosemary Raw in 1981 (later known as Christ Light Dance Company) in Cape Town. She has fulfilled leadership roles in CDFSA as the Provincial Coordinator for the Eastern Cape and Gauteng and the National Coordinator of South Africa from 2009. Her passion is evangelism through dance, and teaching the Basic Foundation Course in Christian Dance which she has developed. She runs a dance group and is also part of her local church’s dance team.

Liesl is married to Rory and they have two daughters, Zoë and Jesi, and as a family they have supported her in the ministry with choreography, music production, websites and other multimedia tasks. Liesl is a Social Worker and works as a Client Relationship Manager supporting companies with their Employee Wellness Programmes.

LUCY ANDREW-PARK JARASIUS (Australia)

ICDF Asia Pacific Connection & ICDF Documents

Lucy has worked for over 25 years with CDFA (Assistant National Coordinator 1992-98) and ICDF (Coordinator 1997-2006; Joint-Coordinator, with her husband, Andrew, of the ICDF Network for Creative Arts and Social Concern 2006-2013). As part of her role, Lucy is looking forward to forging new connections as well as encouraging existing CDFs and contacts. Her work with indigenous peoples helps bring unique perspectives to her future ICDF training projects.

BARBARA WOOD (Ireland)

Special Projects

Barbara served as National Coordinator for the Christian Dance Fellowship Ireland (CDFI) before joining the ICDF Steering Committee in 2003. She is based in Ireland, but travels frequently. She has five children, four of whom are in Ireland and one in France. At present she has eight grandchildren.

She loves almost all forms of dance and goes to classes three times a week. She has a passion to see people released in free-movement in worship.

SUE SUTHERLAND (UK)

Committee Secretary

Sue has served ICDF Britain since its inception in 1990. Becoming regional co-ordinator for her region of the North West of the UK. As conference secretary she planned the 2009 ICDF conference in St Andrews, Scotland. Since stepping down as a director of ICDF Britain, a post she held for five years, she is now excited to take up the role of secretary for the ICDF steering committee. She loves to explore how the creative arts can work together to create something beautiful and is passionate about seeing people freed in all areas of creativity.

REBEKAH DYER (UK)

Rebekah has supported our web presence since 2013. Rebekah grew up using the creative arts in worship and has been involved in ICDF for many years. She enjoys tinkering with technology and has a special interest in fire performance art. She has a PhD in Theology, Imagination and the Arts from the University of St Andrews.

As web coordinator, Rebekah keeps the website up-to-date and helps maintain our Facebook and Twitter pages. If you notice any incorrect details or have any technical issues with the website, please contact her.  

Kaye Strauss (UK)

Kaye was born in the UK but grew up in South Africa. There Kaye was mentored in dance and went on to lead three dance groups. After returning to the UK, she led a Youth Dance Group in her Church and travelled nationally and internationally on mission with the Northern Messianic Dancers.

Kaye has been supporting ICDF in prayer for some years now through the Roots Dance and Creative Arts Group in her Church. She is a member of CDFB. 

Dr. Colin Harbinson

Dr Colin Harbinson is currently the International Director of StoneWorks, a global arts partnership for cultural reformation and the recovery of the imagination in the life and mission of the Church.

Among the many milestones in his career are:

• Creator and choreographer of the production Toymaker and Son that has been performed in over 70 countries
• Winner of numerous awards, including the Golden Halo Award from the Southern California Motion Picture Council
• Founder and President of The International Festival of the Arts
• Former Dean of Belhaven University School of the Arts, and former Senior Associate for the Arts with the Lausanne Movement

Pastor Tom & Kate Hess

Pastor Tom Hess is the founder of the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations where he serves as a pastor and president. He and his wife, Kate work with Jews and Arabs and have kept non-stop 24/7 prayer going for 25 years on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. They bring close to 200 nations to Israel each year. Among other things they organize the yearly All Nations Convocation Jerusalem and the Watchmen's Tour of Israel.

Pastor Ed Lapiz

Pastor Ed Lapiz is the founder and Senior Pastor of Day by Day Ministries, a denominational Evangelical Christian mega-church organisation headquartered in the Philippines with branches in other parts of the world. He is a prolific writer with many publications and shares his messages on many national and regional radio stations as well as the internet. He is also the director of Kaloob, a music and dance ministry that researches, records and redeems indigenous music and dance. Part of his vision is the indigenisation of Christian church liturgy along with the redemption of the arts for use in Christian worship and ministries.