~Happy Father's Day!~

How VERY THANKFUL Phillip and I are for our own Dads that Jesus gave us.  Of course, we couldn't "pick" our Dads...but if we could've...we'd pick Daddy and Dad D. all over again.  =D
We love our Dads to PIECES!!
The longer we live the more we appreciate them both and the lives they live.  We are so THANKFUL that God has saved and sanctified them both and that they have remained faithful to Jesus for YEARS!
L to R:
~Dad and Mom Dickinson and my Moma and Daddy at our church Christmas dinner in Ohio this past December. ~

We are also very Thankful for how MUCH our 2 Dads love our 2 Mothers!!!

And for how much they love us kids and our kids too.  =)
We are Thankful that they taught us how to love Jesus as well, how to work, how to stay faithful to our mates through thick and thin, etc.
This Father's day we are VERY THANKFUL FOR  our 2 Dads!!!  How VERY BLESSED we are!
Happy Father's Day, Daddy, and Dad D.  May y'all have a very SPECIAL day!! 
We love you both, and of course we love our Moms too!  =)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 ~Phillip and Kimberly leaving on a date.
Since she's being so FAITHFUL to her studies, he gave her a break one day recently and took her out for some special Daddy-Daughter time.
(Sarah wants Daddy to wait until she gets to the USA to take her out on her date, so thus I don't have a picture of Sarah and Daddy together.  =)~

 ~You already saw this picture, but I love it of Phillip and Mary.~

~What our Daddy is made of~

Our Daddy (Phillip) is "made up of" bolts and screws,

Suits and ties, and black dressy shoes.

Saws that cut and hammers and nails,

Fun times, exploring on hiking trails.

Daily devotions, songs, and family prayer.

Hugs and kisses, and showing He cares.

Takes the boys "out for coffee" and the girls on a date.

Talks with our kids whenever they want, even late.

Has a great sense of humor and makes us laugh.

Helps our kids with their studies, especially MATH!  =)

Loves our kids TONS and what's important to them...

Is the VERY THING that is important to Him!

He takes time for each one from Mary to Kimberly...

And is super excited about our new baby!

Reads stories that make us want to live a Holy Life.

Keeps Peace in our home, by settling "strife!" =)

Takes us to the park, goes jogging with our kids.

Shows us his "muscles" by opening jar lids.  ;-)

He's an early riser and rises to pray,

Giving God the first part of each day.

He's a hard worker and is teaching our boys,

that a job well done brings so much joy.

Phillip L.O.V.E.S. to read and is very VERY wise.

He loves my cooking, especially my pies. =)

He's teaching our boys how to remain pure...

Which now-a-days is quite the task for sure.

He's a God-made artist and amazes us all...

And takes the time to show our kids how to draw.

In our Home our Daddy is THE KING!

In our eyes He can do ANYTHING. =)

Talks about God when rising up and when lying down...

Yep! He's pretty much the BEST DADDY around! =)

                                                                          ~Heather June 2014 Argentina~
~Phillip taking me out to eat to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary!~

 ~Phillip and I watching Kimberly and Sarah learn how to tie a Chinese knot.~

 ~The finished product.  This takes LOTS of patience! ~

 ~Phillip taking Elijah and Noah to Noah's classical guitar lesson and then "out for coffee."
Happy Father's Day, Phillip!  
All 7 of us LOVE YOU TONS!!!  =) ~

~Our Last English class~

 ~ Since we leave Argentina in about a week, last night was our last English class for a few months.   =(
It's also our dear friend Leo's birthday this week, so we planned a simple birthday supper for him at the same time.
I made an ice cream cake for our dessert.
I made this 2 layered choc. cake recipe (only I put instant coffee in it), then I put choc. chip ice cream in between the 2 layers, and for the icing I mixed up whipping cream, and added a tad of coffee in it as well.
I toasted walnuts and chopped them for the side of the cake.
And... ~

 ~Then I used mini choc. chips to make the "L for Leo" on top of the cake. =) ~

 ~Found these fun paper napkins that looked sort of manly... with a mustache and glasses =), so set the table with a light blue table cloth, my white glass plates, and my black re-usable plastic plates for the center plate.
Then I used my 5 little white frames as place card holders.~

 ~The center piece.~

 ~And wrote "Happy Birthday, Leo!" in my frame that is made for 3 photos. =) ~

 ~The Voice of the Martyrs put out a ministry video called "Stephen's Test of Faith."
It's a short Challenging story of a 12 year old boy who learned the lesson to stand up for Jesus among his friends at school and it also talks about some Christian martyrs.
For our last English class we watched this video in English. ~

 ~I served this salad, my french bread, Italian chicken Spaghetti, and my ice cream cake. ~

 ~The kids table.  2 of our "kids" who normally come to practice English on Tuesday nights couldn't be here tonight, due to sickness.  =( ~

 ~The girls' table.~

 ~Our table.~

 ~And just since I had an extra volcano candle on hands, I threw it on his cake just for fun. =) ~

 ~Our DEAR friends Leo, Caro, Jonathan, and Valentina.  How we are going to MISS them!!~

 ~Their family and ours. (Their family gave our boys and our whole family these shirts with Argentina's national colors as a go-away gift / Argentine souvenir. =)~

 ~Jesus helped my cake turn out yummy. =)
We've fallen in love with these dear children / young people that were here at our house tonight (as well as William and Lisa who were sick), and have enjoyed our Tuesday evenings with them.~

~7 Months and counting! (And details about our Ministry)~

~I started my blog back in 2007 so that our children's grandparents could watch their grandkids grow up SO FAR AWAY from them, and could see the daily activities we are involved in. =) 

So my blog is much about our family, our every day Home life, etc.

~Our ministry blog tab is to the top right-hand of my blog.  On the Dickinson Journey blog the tab at the top of the page called "Our Ministry" tells some of what we have been doing the last few years.

However, we've been missionaries in 2 different countries during the years we've had our blogs, and we've learned not to speak much on our blogs about those around us (who ALSO read our blogs) to respect their privacy.

You may read between the lines when you see pictures of people with us or visitors in our home and realize that a big part of our ministry is trying to touch and influence them for Jesus and Holiness.

My husband is also called to a ministry of PRAYER, and spends LOTS of time with God.  On His blog...He loves to inspire others to spend more time in God's Word and in Prayer!  Like Hudson Taylor said, "Learn to Move men by God THROUGH Prayer."
Our first year or so in Colombia Phillip felt like He was going to break... running and going and doing trying to minister....and since then We've learned to depend on GOD to open the ministry doors HE wants us to walk through, and God has done wonderful things.

~My primary ministry Is my husband, children, and reaching out to others through entertaining.   As well as PRAYING lots for those around us.

~Although I LOVE to cook, bake, and entertain, it's not just for the FUN of it.  We pray for ETERNAL results as well from my labors.

Titus 2:3,4,& 5  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 

~I don't really consider myself an "Aged woman" =) but I'm not a teenager anymore, so my desire is to teach / inspire my own teenage girls and others reading my blog to one day serve Jesus through being the best wife and Mommy possible. 

Missionary wives spend a lot of their time doing what other wives do, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, etc. =)  

The only difference is we do it in a DIFFERENT CULTURE and sometimes with less conveniences than we have when we are in the USA.  (Like no car, walking everywhere we go to grocery shop, no dryer, etc.)  Also, More and more I have been seeing my blog as an opportunity to encourage other Wives and Mommies to be content in the roles where Jesus has placed them. =)

~Through the years, my husband has felt that God has led us to minister to others by discipleship.  An effective way to do that is by spending time with people (inviting people into our home is the easiest way to be with them) in order to touch their lives for Jesus and for Holiness.  In these years of our ministry we have seen that our visitors feel more free to ask questions about what we believe or why we do what we do when in our home.

Since I'm married to a bishop and 1 Timothy 3:2  talks about a Bishop being "given to hospitality," ....Hospitality is a big part of our ministry.

People don't care how much I know, until they know how much I CARE.
In this culture spending time with the people is MORE IMPORTANT than it is even our own culture!
One former missionary warned us that it would be HARD at first for us as Americans... to carve out time to visit with others, but that this would be one of our most MEANINGFUL ways of ministry in these countries.
He told us (and we've learned through the years)  that in this culture a "visit" isn't just a quick hello or being together a half an hour, they don't feel like you really CARE or have spent quality time with them unless you spend HOURS or all afternoon/evening.  

~We continue to encourage and minister as well to the 3 pastors and their congregations in Colombia with LOTS of prayers, weekly communication, advice, and ministry visits to the different fields which we serve.

We are constantly asking Jesus to help us touch those around us for Him and Holiness.
We are trying to Witness,
Pass out tracts to our neighbors,
and staying very involved in the local church where Jesus has called us to attend here in Argentina.
We also are very much in submission to our mission in the USA (Global Holiness Mission) and to our USA Pastor.

Many times when Phillip has preached or has been involved in ministry I haven't mentioned or posted pictures about it. 

If anyone is interested in more closely following our ministry to know how to pray, my husband sends out newsletters.  

Phillip said that if anyone is interested in receiving these newsletters to please send us their name and mailing address for our Dickinson Update and/or name and email address to receive our Prayer and Praise letter. =)

Thank you for your interest in our work, and for your prayers, they mean a lot.

~Heather~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 ~THANK YOU for your prayers for baby and I.  We've reached the 7 month mark.  =)
God is still helping me with my gestational diabetes, which is no small miracle.
(You see, from what I understand, each pregnancy you have gestational diabetes it gets harder to control your numbers.  And the further along you go in each pregnancy, the more your body produces the hormone that interferes with your bodies' natural insulin, so it becomes more and more impossible to control your numbers.
With this pregnancy, one diabetic nurse told me before I left the States that she was quite SURE that by the time I reached 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, that I would be on insulin.
Thanks be to King Jesus (and LOTS of raw veggies and salads), I'm 28 weeks along and still insulin free.  =)

 ~God is goooooood...all the time!  Lord willing we leave Argentina soon to come home to the USA to have our precious baby.  Lord willing, after she is born, and we have her passport, we plan to come back to minister again in Argentina.
She's not due until August, but like I've explained before, I have to fly before I'm 8 months along, or the airlines WON'T LET ME FLY.
Thank you for your prayers as we get everything ready to go back.
Also, Thank you for your prayers for we have 2 more classes with our Asian kids with which we are teaching / practicing English.
These children are so precious and it's our desire to touch their lives for Jesus, and help inspire them to serve HIM forever. =) ~

~Our Noah finishes 4th grade!~

 With Jesus' help Noah finished 4th grade yesterday! =D  
We've only gone to McDonalds one time since we have been here in Argentina, and that was MONTHS ago, so we took Noah and the fam to McDonalds to celebrate Noah getting done with schoolwork.
~As we stood in line to order our food, Sarah saw this fun little place to snap Noah's picture. =)~

 ~Noah, Mary, and Kimberly~

 Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Phillip, due to the following.
The playground was upstairs, and we ate at a table near the playground.
After we ate the kids went to play on the playground, and K, S, and I went downstairs for a few minutes.
  Later Phillip came downstairs looking for someone WITH A MOP!  
He told me that a little boy was THROWING UP upstairs at the top of the stairs ....near the playground!  =(  
So, Phillip told me NOT to go back upstairs and to please get us a couple tables downstairs where we could eat our dessert.
Then Phillip, K, and S, went back upstairs and gathered our stroller and coats and brought the kids downstairs.  (Phillip carried Elijah and Mary down so they wouldn't walk in the throw up.)
I was sad that the kids only got a tad of time to play on the playground, but we didn't want to hang around and risk catching what that little boy had.
So, thus, in the midst of all the activity, I didn't get a picture of Phillip. =(
~Sarah, baby and I.~

 ~The kids eating their ice cream treat down stairs.
I'm not sure what this McDs did differently, or maybe it's a higher quality of ice cream here, but Phillip said it was some of the best-tasting soft-serve vanilla ice cream he's eaten.
How we THANK THE LORD that Noah is done with school for this year!!
Kimberly and Sarah are still working away diligently trying to get their schoolwork done in the few days we have left before we fly back to the USA. Your prayers are appreciated! =) ~

~Celebrating our Elijah...part 1~

This week we are celebrating our little Elijah.
We are SO GLAD that Jesus saw fit to"drop into our home" our very ACTIVE, Very sensitive, very "snuggy" [That would be "huggy and snuggly" mixed together =) ], Fun-loving Elijah!
Trust me there is NEVER a dull moment in our home with him around! =)
He loves activity, but also loves to COLOR and can stay there for hours.  He loves Jesus and has a very tender conscious.  I said he's snuggy....but that normally is at nights or when he's sick only!  During the day he doesn't like to give out too many hugs...for he LOVES a challenge and LOVES for us to chase him in order to GET a hug.  =)

A few weeks ago when Phillip and I came home from the ultrasound of our baby and we announced to the kids that it appears we are going to have a baby girl....Elijah just shrugged his shoulders and said,
"Oh, Well, THE NEXT BABY can be a baby boy!!!!"  =D
I tried to tell him that since Mommy will turn 41 her next birthday, I didn't know IF there would be "A NEXT BABY!"  =)

~Since we were going to have 2 tables at his little birthday party, we made 2 birthday cakes.  This is the chocolate cake that I made for the adult's table.
It's just a simple 2 layer chocolate cake with a thin layer of plain Peanut butter spread between the 2 layers, then a thin layer of P.Butter spread on top, then white chocolate drizzled in circles, and choc. chips sprinkled.  We love the taste of the P. Butter and chocolate together.  We served both cakes with vanilla ice cream.~

 ~In our boxes of things from 2011/2012 there were Lightning McQueen cars things that we used for Noah's 8th birthday, so we decided to save money and use that theme again for Elijah's birthday!~

 ~Kimberly decided to make him a Tow Mater (the Tow truck) birthday cake.
She had no cake mold, just looked at the picture and made it all up in her head.~

 ~Our family and our guests thought that he turned out SO CUTE!!!~

 ~Here's the table where the kids were to sit.~

 ~And here's the adult table.~

 ~We had these little cars to stick down in my cake...which delighted Elijah.~

 ~Our Elijah wearing his new tennis shoes which were part of his gifts from Daddy and Mommy.  He REALLY needed tennis shoes.~

 ~Elijah loves his big brother Noah and wanted a picture with him.  The colors that they were wearing made this picture look like Christmas.  =) ~

 ~WHAT A SPECIAL DAY we had celebrating Elijah's birthday!!!
Our Dear Friends Leo and Caro and their Jonathan and Valentina took our family to the zoo for Elijah's birthday!~

 ~And on top of that they got Elijah a Nice gift.~

 ~Here's Elijah opening his FUN "Cars" back pack from them.~

 ~Standing in line to pay.  Notice Elijah wearing his new back pack to the right.
Thankfully it was Tuesday and so it was half price per ticket and because it was ELIJAH'S birthday he and Mary both GOT IN FOR FREE!!!! =) ~

 ~Our family~

 ~Leo and Caro and family~

 ~We decided to take a picture of "All our children" when some other father WHOM WE HAVE NO CLUE WHO it was...ran up and stuck his child in our picture, and snapped a picture of his boy (to the left of Kimberly) and our kids.
It was interesting and sort of funny.  =) ~

 ~We passed these Cacti and thought it was funny that one had a heart-shaped ear that reminded us of Minnie Mouse...~

 ~And another looked sort of like Mickey Mouse.~

 ~Elijah got a little name tag which let the people know through-out the zoo that he was celebrating his birthday there.
He got to go by the first snack shop we came to and they gave him a BIG cup with a straw that has the name of the zoo and fun animal pics on it and it was filled with....~

 ~Candy...which Elijah shared with everyone.~

 ~Here is where we ate our little picnic lunch of crackers, cheese, ham slices, salami, sliced green apples, mixed nuts, chips and drinks.  We had packed it to be a snack, but it pretty much filled us up (along with some cookies and other munchies we ate later on), so that we didn't have to buy any food in the zoo.  =)~

 ~Our God is so amazing!!! I surely wouldn't have wanted the job of THINKING UP every different kind of NEAT animal, fish, insects, and birds to say nothing of us humans.  =) ~

 ~This zoo was really pretty and well-kept.~

 ~ A fun little fountain in the middle of the zoo.~

 ~The girls in front of the fountain.~

 ~In the Aquarium~

  ~Sarah and Valentina took pics of "Nemo" the fish.~

 ~A fun boat the kids could climb on.
Part 2 of Elijah's birthday pics coming up.~