QUADRUPLETS DRAW MISSIONARIES BACK TO U.S.
PLANO GRANDPARENTS DISCOVER A NEW MISSION
12:47 AM CDT on Monday, July 18, 2005
by Lauren D'Avolio, Dallas Morning News
PLANO – Missionaries Billie and Don Dixon, now working at Plano's Prestonwood Baptist Church, had taken up 32 addresses in three countries during their 29 year marriage, before leaving France for Texas to be closer to family.
They have served as missionaries in far-flung regions of Brazil and on the outskirts of French cities, though their most momentous calling may lie in what drew them back to America: newborn quadruplet grandchildren.
"This is the mission field, at present, so this is where we are," said Mrs. Dixon, who specializes in deaf ministry.
The pair has landed at Plano's Prestonwood Baptist Church, with Mr. Dixon, 49, ministering to singles "38 and better" and Mrs. Dixon, 48, doing administrative work.
Long before the days of multiple-birth grandchildren and enrolling in a church with membership at a staggering 24,000, the Dixons uprooted themselves from their Knoxville, Tenn., hometown. They went to work as missionaries sharing the biblical message they so deeply believe in with as many people as would absorb it.
In September 1990, the couple embarked on a voyage to Brazil, where they remained until 2000.
Mr. and Mrs. Dixon studied Portuguese, founded schools for the hard of hearing and instructed teachers on how to properly communicate with the deaf. They also established a number of dental and medical clinics and feeding programs and offered job training for the hearing and for the deaf.
"It was a gorgeous setting," Mr. Dixon said, noting he found Brazilians to be "open and friendly."
Mrs. Dixon said that deaf people in Brazil are treated like second-class citizens, receiving half or less of the salary of a healthy individual -- if they're fortunate enough to be hired at all. It's the foundering economy, widespread ignorance and the lack of medical care that fosters so much deafness, Mrs. Dixon said.
"Six to 10 percent of Brazilians are legally deaf. They don't know to give their children medication when they're babies, or they don't have access to it," Mrs. Dixon said. "Lots of times, you have cousins marrying cousins. It's a really sad picture."
Mr. Dixon said they encouraged Brazilians to read the Bible and conduct their lives accordingly. They helped plant seven Baptist churches.
"We were there to help Brazilians start their own churches," Mr. Dixon said. "It's all still going on today."
The Dixons moved to France when Mrs. Dixon developed health problems related to sun exposure in Brazil. Mrs. Dixon said they established "house groups" in France. Trust had to be earned incrementally -- person by person and conversation by conversation -- leading to an apartment ministry with neighbors.
Mrs. Dixon learned French sign language and was preparing to start a coffee shop for the deaf when they received a phone call that would shuffle the couple back to North America.
"When they told us they were having four at once, we just kept saying, 'Wow, wow, wow,' " Mrs. Dixon said. "I mean, how many different ways can you say, 'Wow?' "
Mrs. Dixon said she asked her husband what their role was going to be in rearing four grandchildren born virtually simultaneously.
"We had a week of prayer, and I showed him a passage from Isaiah that translated to, 'Be available to your family.' We were on our way back."
After 15 years on the mission field, it wasn't easy to pick up and leave. Now, they see their two sons more often, Doug, 24, and Donny, 26. Donny and his wife, Liz, of Irving, saw their family more than double in size in April with the additions of Hudson, Madison, Samantha and Candice. They also have a 15-month-old son, Logan. The babies were born several pounds underweight but are gradually being coaxed from the brink of viability to plump-bellied infants.
"I'm a visionary as well as a missionary," Mrs. Dixon said. "A mission comes along based on a vision. And people come to understand what life is about."
E-mail ldavolio@dallasnews.com
