The Dixon’s @ The Master’s Mission PO Box 547 Robbinsville, NC 28771 Jan/Feb 2009

It was cold this morning. As I walked by moonlight to the barn, the grass crunched under my feet. It wasn’t until I was finished milking and the sun was rising that I noticed the beauty surrounding me. It was as if the trees and grass had knit for themselves little sweaters of icicles to keep warm.Winter is finally here in the mountains of North Carolina.

Our vacation last month was great. We had a wonderful time with friends and family. We enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time just catching up with one another. I wish it could have lasted longer. It was especially fun getting involved in the Christmas Eve service at our home church in Findley Lake, NY. Marshall was able to fill in as Joseph when Chris Hooks suddenly became ill. Thankfully Marshall didn’t fill in for Chris on the songs he was to sing!
We spent part of our vacation in Ohio visiting family. It was fun to finally play the guitar with my step dad Steve, who loaned us one of his guitars years ago because I told him I wanted to learn to play. Of course, it wasn’t until we moved to the Master’s Mission that I made it a priority to learn to play and I am so happy I finally can. After visiting with family in the northern part of Ohio, we headed to southern Ohio to visit with the Craig family for a few days. What a blessing that was. The Craigs have been missionaries for 20 + years. It was a great encouragement to us to spend time with them and learn from their experiences.


As part of the Women’s Technical, all canidates were required to shop for 3 months of supplies. Marshall and I found the nearest Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart and drove 2 hours to get there. Jill Craig told me that when they were in Kenya, they had a 2 day’s drive to get food and supplies. You wouldn’t want to forget an item if you had to drive 2 days to get it! Two hours didn’t seem too bad but by time we got home, sorted through everything, and repackaged all of our items to freeze, then drove them to our freezer, it was quite late and made for a long day.

Marshall has been busy in Men’s Technical. He is learning auto mechanics. Right now his class is overhauling an engine. The knowledge he is gaining has already come in handy.
Bible class is going well and is such a blessing. We just began 1 Kings. We are still amazed at all we are learning.
At Little Snowbird Church, we continue to help with the kids program on Wednesday nights.
Please continue to pray for us as we minister to the kids and as we learn and grow in our faith and knowledge of the scriptures. Pray we would be a good example to those around us, especially to the kids. Not only to the kids in the community and at church, but to our own as well. Pray that we would retain the knowledge we are learning here everyday. Thank you for all you do for us!
Love & Blessings, Tracy (writing for) Marshall, Tracy, Devin, Cameron & Kaiden

Quick Update

Wow, it's been a busy month. Our friends Jeff & April Rotunda, Pastor Jim & Susi Pegan, & Ana Post came all the way from NY to visit us. It was a great time and we were so happy to see them.

On a sad note, Marshall's grandfather passed away and we were not able to make it back to N.Y. for the funeral.

We are through with our first quarter & had our first Bible exam. I think it went well for us, but we haven't gotten our results back yet. We will also have our first evaluation soon.

We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with family in Waynesville, N.C. It was a first for us to spend Thanksgiving with my North Carolina family, so it was a special time.
Soon we will be traveling back north to visit with friends and family in N.Y. and Ohio. Our plans are to arrive in N.Y. on Dec. 20th and spend Christmas there and then travel to Ohio for a few days before we head back to TMM.

I uploaded a lot of new pictures be sure to click on the OUR PICTURES link and check them out.

Bush Driving

Last week we had bush driving which was a fun experience. Dan took the men out one day, then it was the ladies turn. As Dan was taking us out to the path we were to drive on, us girls were thinking we were already on the path, which we thought was quite rough. Little did we know what was ahead. There were ditches down the middle of the path and rocks and boulders. And we each were to take a turn driving this path. We all survived and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The next day, the guys had to take this poor old Blazer out and get it stuck. The first attempt at getting it unstuck was too easy for them, so they decided it would be better to just drive it off the road. I posted a few pictures, which don't do the real thing justice. The first picture is of the first time they got it stuck.

Dan ( our teacher ) was used as traction :)

The guys had to take the truck out and get it stuck. The first attempt wasn't a big enough challenge, so they drove it off the road.
Believe it or not, it didn't take them that long to get it out.

These are the brave fools :) that drove it off the road.

Us girls having our turn bush driving.

Clover the Cow Clan Club

Maddison, Allison, Cameron, Devin, Kaiden & Preston
Yes! That's Marshall milking a cow! Her name is Clover.

The Clover Clan Club :-) (that's what we call ourselves)

Jeff, Gena, Preston, Madi, & Ali Cole, Heidi Brompton & us Dixon's

It's been a busy week here at TMM. We got our milk cow Clover last Sat. She is a sweet little girl and has been very good with us all learning to milk her. Heidi is the expert though. She comes from Colorado where her and her family have a farm. She has been milking by hand since she was 8yrs old. So she has been a huge blessing to us. We have been getting about 2 gals of milk each milking. We have also been making our own butter using the cream.

Another exciting thing that happened this week is that we had a film crew here working on the new Master's Mission video. They were here for two days and we had a lot of fun with that. The kids were even crazy enough to get in the water for filming. Marshall was filmed welding and I was filmed playing paintball. Seems like it should have been the other way around.

In my women's class, we have been learning the do's and don'ts of writing a prayer/news letter.

We have been enjoying meeting some of the families on furlough. Right now Jon & Becky Woodworth is here. They have been serving the Lord in Kenya for almost 10yrs. The have 5 children. 3 girls and 2 boys. Ofcourse our kids have been enjoying theirs. Devin keeps asking if we can go to Africa now instead of Ecuador. :) We just tell her, we'll go where ever the Lord needs us. We have really been thinking of home lately. Especially with our church's missionary conference this week. We will REALLY miss being there. We have the schedule and you all are in our prayers. God moved in our hearts last year during conference and I pray He will do the same for someone else this year.

We love and miss you all!

October already!

Hi everyone! It's been busy but we still continue to have a great time. We have been spending time with family in Waynesville NC when we can. This past weekend we went to my cousin Heather's wedding. It was beautiful and a blessing to have been able to be there.

Marshall had a test last week on air strip construction. He had to draw up a blue print of where he would put his air strip, here on top to the mountain at TMM. He also had to write up detailed instructions. Last week he also learned to operate the bull dozer and he gave me and Cameron a lesson today. That was interesting and fun to drive something that powerful.

Another exciting thing that is happening around here is that we are supposed to be getting a milk cow tomorrow! We are going in with two other families and 1 single canidate here to get her. Milk down here is so expensive and we have been trying to talk to Cole family into getting a milk cow and it's finally happening. The Cole's are on staff here at TMM, so they will keep her once we are gone. She is a Jersey cow and I'm sure pictures of her will be posted soon. You all know how much I (tracy) LOVE cows. I'm so excited. :)

I'm working on uploading pictures to add to our blog. Hopefully it will work. You might have to click on a link to see them.

The adventure has begun!

Hi this is Cameron. The adventure begins in my story. It's been a lot of fun here. Abby just came back from Florida. Madi and Ali Cole went to Ohio for a missionary conference and they will be back on Friday. We miss them so much and it will be really fun when they come back. We have been helping my dad clear the woods for a dam. My dad's real name is Marshall. We ate Bologna the other day at the Meyer's, they made lasagnia out of him. He tasted really good. Yesterday we were getting wood and found a lizard that was black with yellow stripes down it's back and it had a bright blue tail. It was really pretty. It also dropped it's tail because it got scared. That is what different kinds of lizards, salamandars and gekos do.
Bye!
cameron

How to reach us

Incase anyone wants to write to us. :)

PO Box 547
Robbinsville, NC 28771-0547

if you send a package, send it to:

2902 Mission Rd.
Robbinsville, NC 28771

The number we can be reached at is 828-479-6873
we will get a note in our box with a message of who called and we can
call you back.

Also, if you would like to send us support, you can do that online at The Master's Mission website, on the first page, click on the donate online link. Or you can send support to the address above. Make your check out to The Master's Mission and put dixon support in the memo line. Thanks!