August 13, 2003

Dear friends,

We hope all is well with you.  So far this summer has been quite eventful for us.

Our daughter, Anne, came home to Panama to stay for the summer.  Her first day back at the Hogar de las Niñas de Capitál, the girls gathered around her, hugging her and asked when she was going to stay for a week like she has done in the past.  She’s been keeping really busy by helping to organize a stand at an event, Festival de Juventud (Youth Festival) at the Hotel el Panamá, where she’s also creating lighting for her group’s booth and demonstrating her favorite martial art, Capoeira.  She was also a camp counselor at Raices (Roots) which is a four-day camp for all the youth in the Diocese of Panama.  Then, she was in charge of setting up a booth with the Pastoral Juvenil, the Diocesan Youth Group, for a fair.  She was really surprised how many people came to the booth and were interested in the Episcopal Church.  In two days over 60 people signed up for more infomation about camps and other events the youth have!

The seminarians who participated in this year’s Panama Project arrived on June 7.  They were:  Kenneth King and Andrea Wight, both from CDSP, and Sally Johnston from General Theological Seminary in New York.  We had them over for the now traditional BBQ on the following Monday at our house.  Luckily, Jan Hill (of St. Judes’, Cupertino) helped me prepare the food after our morning visit to the Hogar.  The BBQ is a great way of getting acquainted.  Everyone was very nice and we had a wonderful evening.

Michael and Walter Smith, (the head of the Department of Theological Education for the Diocese of Panama) decided this would be a good group to go to Bocas del Toro which is near the Costa Rican Border.  Bocas has four churches and only one priest.  United Fruit Company had banana plantations there, and most of towns were once company towns.  The group went to Bocas on Friday,  and Michael and I flew up the following Monday, landing on the island of Colón, where the city of Bocas del Toro is located.  We then took a water taxi to Almirante, were we stayed.  All the seminarians jumped into activities immediately by helping with Evening Prayer, confirmation classes, visitations and meeting with the ECW.  Sally worked with St. Mary’s on the Island, Andrea worked with St. George’s in Almirante and Kenny was in Changuinola at Transfiguración.  To get to Changuinola from Almirante, you cross a long bridge built by the railroad company for the train to use; it is not for cars.  It’s only wide enough for vehicles to travel one direction at a time and you just hope a train doesn’t come while you’re on the bridge.

I stayed only couple of days while Michael stayed on to work with the Project and help out with the church services on Sunday.  The day after I left, the water was cut off in Almirante for three days.  People were collecting rainwater in buckets to use.  The house in which Michael and Walter stayed had a water pump, so they had water a day longer than the rest of the town.  They ran out of gas for cooking and had to take a trip to Changuinola to refill the tank.

The group met in Santa Clara for debriefings and relaxation.  I was told the new chapel was beautiful.  It has a drop ceiling with fans, a bathroom, sacristy, pews, and proper electrical wiring.  Everyone seemed to have positive experiences at each of their sites.

The St. Christopher Men’s Fellowship held a luncheon on July 20 as a fundraiser.  This year, they chose to honor Michael, along with two well deserved women, Profesor Joyce Green and Mrs. Ellen Chandler.  We were really surprised when they chose Michael, because normally they choose people who have been active in the church for many years.   We were told they wanted honor him for his pastoral contributions to the church and community, and for people to get to know him.   There was a lot of wonderful entertainment, very nice speeches about each of the honorees and a tómbola (a drawing for prizes).  Michael’s Dad, his sister Melanie and her four children came for the event.  It’s always wonderful to have company from the States, and we especially enjoyed the time with the family. Michael also was honored to accompany Professor Cragwell, a member of St. Christopher’s, when Professor Cragwell was honored by the Mayor of Panama City, Lic. Juan Carlos Navarro, and given the keys to the city. Michael was asked to give the invocation for the ceremony.

We are planning a trip to the States in October and looking forward to seeing everyone.  The churches we hope to visit are:  St. Francis in San Jose, St. Mark’s in Berkeley, St. Jude’s in Cupertino, St. Philip’s in San Jose, and St. James in Sonora.  Most of our stay will be in the Bay Area, but we’ll be visiting family and friends in Fresno, too.  I’ll send an itinerary closer to October.  We hope to see you then!

Your missionaries in Panamá,
Mona and Michael Dresbach
mgdbach@hotmail.com -Michael
mldresbach@hotmail.com -Mona

If you would like to make donations or a monthly pledge to our mission,
please contact St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1205 Pine Ave., San Jose, CA
95125, 408-292-7090.  Please feel free to check St. Francis' web site at
www.stfrancisepiscopalchurch.org, which includes an archive of our letters
and pictures of our mission.