Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!!!

This year has definatley been one of CHANGE!

As most of you know, in May of this past year, we started talking about the possibility of moving, we prayed and the Lord led us to Alaska, we packed up and moved all 3800 miles to our new home the end of June and arrived early July. You can read about and see pictures of our trip if you go back to June and July here on our blog:).

Caleb is getting so big, he turned 3 in October and is keeping us plenty busy! He loves sunday school, preschool, really anything he can do with other kids, playing catch, singing, painting, Toy Story and Dinasours are his new favorites:). He keeps us laughing and is such a happy, loving boy.

Mark is working at Fred Meyer. He had an opportunity to go on a missions trip into Dillingham, AK early in November, it was an amazing experiance where he saw people healed, delivered, and come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. On his trip the Lord reaffirmed in his heart, once again, that these truly are the people God is calling us to serve, love, and take His gospel to.

Jessie is working part time for an in-home preschool, three days a week for a few hours in the morning. She LOVES the kids (of course) and enjoys watching Caleb play with his little friends. She is also helping out as much as she can with the Children's program at our church! She also does some at home labeling for North Pole Coffee Co. in her spare time. Little plug here, if you havent tried North Pole Coffee, DO IT. It's hands down THE BEST COFFEE. It's worth ordering it.

Our last piece of news is that we recently became a liscenced foster home for the purpose of adopting and are just waiting for a child to come into the system for whom our family would be a perfect fit. We happily await God's timing and will be excited to welcome our new member into our family with WIDE open arms!!!

Thats about it for us this year. Check our blog often for updates and pictures as we begin to walk out God's call on our lives!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Mark, Jessie and Caleb Dickinson

Good News!

We got good news today that after waiting MUCH longer than anyone anticipated, Mark's background check finally came back and he will be officially a FredMeyer employee starting this thursday! Yay! Praise God, while we've been waiting for him to be able to start with them, he's found a couple of odd jobs to provide in the process:).
With Mark starting work, we're just a couple of weeks away from having internet in our house again, and therefore, just a couple of weeks away from being able to more frequently give updates, AND finally post some long awaited pictures!

Thank you all for your continued encouragement and prayers! We are looking forward to Mark getting out to the villages in September, and looking foward to see what else God has in store for our family! Each day he reaffirms to us this is where He wants us, that we've been sent out for a purpose, to fulfill the calling God has placed on our lives... God is SO good!

Love,
Mark, Jessie and Caleb

New Email Addresses

Just so everyone knows, Mark and I now each have our own email addresses, so we no longer use dickinsonbunch@1cox.com...

New Email Addresses:

Jessie: jessied@1cox.com

Mark: markd@1cox.com

Thanks for updating it in your email address books!

Adventure Update

Hello Friends and Family!

Sorry its been so long since our last update! We are home and LOVING it! We still don't have internet access so it'll be a little longer until I'm able to resume posting pictures and blogging regularly (this blog is thanks to my parents letting us use theirs while we're visiting:).

Our last day was a long one, but was SO nice to finally make it into Alaska with no issues. Customs was a breeze, we showed them our passports and went right on through! We met the Cox's for dinner about an hour away from Fairbanks, it was very exciting to finally see them after our long drive!

Our house is the bottom half of a duplex, two bedrooms, updated kitchen and nice living room, we even have our own backyard! Yippee!

Mark has gotten all the leg work done for his new job at FredMeyer, we're just waiting to hear what day this comming week he'll be starting his two days of paid training, and then officially starts work!

We're looking forward to getting out to the villages in September, and learning the culture in the meantime... Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. We look forward to sharing all that God is doing in and through us with you! Please continue to check our blog often for new updates!

If you would like our new address please shoot me an email and I'll reply back with our physical address, I just dont want to post it publically: dickinsonbunch@1cox.com

I can update pictures to facebook from my phone, so check out our facebook page while your waiting for new pictures to be posted to the blog:).

Love,

Mark, Jessica, and Caleb

Day Five: Teslin Yukon

Animal Museum

Mountain Goat

Dahl Sheep
Polar Bear

Moose (by the way, these things are HUGE! You cant possibly get a good idea of their size from this picture.) and some wolfs

Deer and Beaver

Caleb LOVES the animal museum... We've taken him back four times today, he just cant get enouh of it! :)

Caribou

Buffalo head, its HUGE!

Grizley Bears

Day Five: Starting in Bed, and ending resting: 0 miles:)

We've had a FABULIOUSLY relaxing day. We haven't done anything but sleep and hang out. Next door to the hotel there is an animal museam filled with animals you can find in Canada/Yukon/Alaska so we've enjoyed walking through there, and down near the water, but thats it! :) Looking forward to leaving here tomorrow morning to finally make it home late tomorrow night! We have 700 miles left to Fairbanks, a long drive, but Wednesday we drove 800 miles! I think we'll make it just fine:).

Again, we continue to thank you for your prayers and encouragement! We are loving life and really just enjoying spending time in eachothers company durring the past several days. I know a five-six day road trip isnt ideal, but we're making the best of it, and having fun making memories that will last for the rest of our lives!

Love you all!

Day Four: Canada, Yukon Territory

Caleb kept saying, "Mama, take a picture of me saying cheeze!" He didnt have to ask me twice!:)

Enjoying the drive

Pretty Canada... I must say, I am really VERY pleased with my scenic and animal pictures considering they were ALL taken through the windshield of the truck.

The first sighting of big animals... Reindeer!

Our favorite scenic part of our drive thus far!

Pretty much the same place, just arround the bend.

We saw several small herds of buffalo once we hit the Yukon Territory.

More scenery...

Day Four: Started in Calgary Canada, Ended in Telsin Yukon: 440 miles

Today was a VERY interesting day! The drive today was the BEST yet! GORGEOUS scenery, and cool animals! We saw a TON of buffalo, and those of you who dont know, thats Mark's favorite animal... which I dont quite understand... LOL. We also saw a couple of reindeer! The buffalo were all over! Some were running across the road in front of us and we got to see a baby, there were some sleeping ON THE ROAD, too funny. We were suposed to drive all the way to Whitehorse today but stopped in Telsin to fill up on gas and our truck died... so we spent the last two and a half to three hours of what would have been drive time to Whitehorse trying to figure out what to do about the truck, and then trying to get ahold of someone with UHAUL... Aparently since today is National Canada Day (whatever.) no one was available to help us, so someone will be dispatched tomorrow morning at 7:30am... we have NO idea how far they are from us or what time they'll get here, but sometime tomorrow and they'll have the parts to fix the truck. Praise God we broke down here and not on the road! We've got a hotel room and I've got wifi so here's your updates! Missing friends and family, but still very much enjoying our family time and our new adventure!

Love you all!

Day Three: Canada!

Lets be honest... the only pictures anyone REALLY wants to see are of CALEB! :)

Eating healthy on the road isnt always easy to do, but we've been hitting the grocery store and getting food for the day instead of eating out... saves money and is better for you:)

Sweet Travelers

Caleb and his toys:)

Pretty typical scenery in Canada

BIG factory, couldnt get it all in the picture, but we thought it was cool

Day Three: Started at Calgary Canada, and Ended at Fort Nelson Canada: 832.25 miles

Today in Canada the scenery didnt change much... some parts were pretty, but everything was just flat. We wondered why everything was so green, then it started rainging and hailing on us and we found out why! By far the hardest day today just because of the ammount of ground we had to cover, but its SO nice to have it behind us, and we are having fun as a family along the way. Caleb has been SUCH a little trooper. We are VERY blessed parents to have such a sweet, content, obedient little boy! Today his "surprise" was his first Mr.Potato head, he liked it but it didnt go over near as well as the etch-a-sketch or the drumb full of percussion instruments:). Thanks for all your prayers! We're having a great drive and are enjoying our adventure... looking forward to getting home to Alaska though!

Alaska Adventure Day 2: Idaho, Montana, Canada

Caleb LOVES his portable DVD player, and so do mommy and daddy:). We pretty much are able to constantly keep him entertained when he's not sleeping or keeping himself entertained!

Our wheels...

Idaho or Montana...

Proof that I've been doing some of the driving too!

Go to the light!

Day 2: 740 miles, starting in Pocatello ID and ending in Calgary Canada

Another long drive day comes to an end, fun day overall, enjoying eachothers company and the beautiful scenery. Got through the Canadian border without any issues, just had to wait for customs to clear our firearms... Caleb got his second "surprise" today, a drumb full of other instraments: a recorder, maracas, and a tambarine... needless to say, we've been having quite a fun time being our own family band! We must be getting into a gruve because it seemed much easier driving today. Longest drive day is tomorrow, so I'll head to bed... We wont have cell service until thursday so we'll talk to ya'll then! I'll try to update the blog again tomorrow night, it'll depend on how late we get in to the hotel though! Love you all!

PS. Not many pretty pictures to be taken in Canada today, just lots of road, SO tomorrow I'll make sure to get some good ones to share:)

Alaska Adventure Day 1: California, Nevada, Idaho

Mark, VERY excited about this new chapter in our lives! Excited for the great adventure that awaits us!

Nevada... RENO RENO RENO! Wish we had time to stop at Circus Circus, it was calling our names! :)

What Caleb's been doing best so far this trip, SLEEPING! :) He's really been such a good boy!

Freeway passing into Idaho

Rock formations in Idaho...

Day 1: 700 miles, from Shingle Springs, CA to Pocatello ID

Lots of fun, getting used to the long bouts of driving. Caleb did exceptionally well, was especially excited to get his first "surprise", an etch-a-sketch. I see many hours on the road will be spent drawing pictures of mommy and daddy as well as writing his abc's:). We didnt leave as soon as we wanted to, so we drove on into the night and stopped an hour earlier than planned... On with the great adventure!

Off to Alaska!

The day has arrived! We're packing up and ready to hit the road! We'll be updating our facebook's as the day goes on. We'll be in Idaho this evening and I'll log in to wireless internet to update and fill you in on our first day Alaska bound! We're so very excited to see what God has planned! We'll be sure to share lots of pictures along the way!

Thank you to friends and family who have helped us get ready for this move! It's been a LOT of work, but so worth it, and SO exciting! We look forward to sharing the many things God will be doing in and through us!

We love you!!!

Mark, Jessie, and Caleb

Update

Just a quick update to let everyone (well, whoever reads this blog anyway) our progress...

We've just about finished the dreaded packing phase of moving! Yay! Our goal is to get done so we can go swimming at Aunt Kriss' house tomorrow (pictures to follow I'm SURE), clean and load the truck on saturday, go to church and rest on sunday so we can be ready to finally hit the road to head to ALASKA on Monday morning!

Before I forget, we do have a new address, since I dont want to post it publically for just anyone to see, shoot us an email and I'll shoot you one back with our info so you can update your address book if you so desire...

Time flies SO fast! We can't believe how quickly God has put everything together, taking care of every detail. We're so excited to see what God has in store. Mark can't wait to get to the villages and I cant wait to start seeing what ministry opportunities await me once we get there. God is good and his mercies are new every morning! We praise God for all He's done and is continuing to do in and through us as we step out in faith believing for God to do great things, and, since He's the one sending us, great things to happen indeed!

Many blessings from our family to yours!

Mark, Jessie, and Caleb Dickinson

Visit with the Coelho's

Caleb LOVES his Tia and Uncle Mannie! Since we're not sure how much more time we're going to get to spend together with us moving in TWO WEEKS! (AH!) The newly weds made a trip up to see us, well, mainly their nephew:)

I LOVE this picture:)

Only time I've ever seen Caleb have chunky cheeks! LOL

Kissies

Manuel, Angie, Anthony, and Caleb hanging out at the Dickinson home

We love you VERY much Coelho family!

Following God's Call to Alaska!

Lots to say, but I’ll try to give you the condensed version… starting back in January, we had a time of fasting and prayer at our church, Mark and I really started praying about what God wanted us to do, how He wanted to use us ect. Every time we prayed we each felt like the Lord was saying to finish School of Ministry and He would give us the next step. End of January, God gave Mark two visions that he said I could share… The first was of the men in the villages of Alaska, the darkness that surrounded them, and the torment that surrounded the women and children. The second was of a dove flying into the darkness, with a beam of light shining from its mouth. Mark felt the Lord saying He wanted to take light into their darkness by way of His Holy Spirit. Apparently since then Mark has desired to go to Alaska to be a missionary to the villages, most of which have never even heard the name of Jesus. The Sunday we finished school of ministry (they delayed our actual “graduation ceremony” due to other events already scheduled in the church) I got a call in which I heard the associate pastors of the church my parents are currently attending wanted my resume to consider me for the position of children’s pastor at their church. WOW.Still dont know how thats all going to play into the bigger picture, but, while all this is going on, Mark got hooked up with Bill Easter, missionary with the AG for many years, currently lives in TN, HE will be moving to AK next year to be a missionary, get this, to the VILLAGES, but is going to be visiting in September for the entire month, and to make a long story short,Mark is VERY much looking forward to working along side him in minstry to the VILLAGES!

Mark felt almost instantly that this is what God had for us, opening doors and making a way, so we began to look into the cost, how would we get money etc… and we knew Mark would have to have a job… SO, we didn’t even have to look for him a job! My mom chatted it up with two managers in Fred Meyer one day about Mark and they practically offered him a job on the spot!

Once all that got figured, it was time to find a place to stay… a friend of a friend hooked us up with some people that live in Fairbanks, literally just a few minutes away from where Mark will be working, 2 bed 1 bath, perfect location and great for us starting out up there! We’ll have our own backyard still, so we won’t have to give that up, and the owners are Christians!

We share all this for a few reasons, first, to testify to what God is doing in our lives. We’re not really living unless we’re living to the purpose God created us to fulfill. Second, to let you know we’ll be moving to Alaska the end of June, between the 28th and the 30th. Like I said, this has all happened VERY fast!!!

If you have any questions feel free to ask! Definatley check out our blog often, we'll be posting updates and pictures along the way! Please keep us in prayer as this is a BIG move. We know we’re in the best place we can be when we’re right in the middle of God’s will.

Lots of Love,
Mark, Jessie, and Caleb

Fun Morning

First off on our fun morning, Father's Day gift making at Color Me Mine (big thanks to Poppy and GiGi for the coupon out of their entertainment book!)

The boys had a lot of fun and did a great job decorating mugs for their daddy's:)

Plus one for Poppy:)

With that taken care of, on to McDonalds!!!

Slide buddies!

Anthony really enjoyed himself:)

Mark and Anthony in the play place

Aparently THIS play place is handicap accessable... LOL