Merry Christmas from Panama
January 2002

Dear friends,

Advent was a very busy and wonderful time for us.  It started with a  lovely Mother's Day celebration on December 9.  Mother's Day in Panama coincides with The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.  We had a special bilingual service on Sunday which was our celebration of Mother's Day.  Before the service, each mother received a pin to wear.  After the post-communion prayer, the youth gave their special presentation for the mothers. Two boys recited a poem in English, the youth performed a skit, and there was a drawing for many presents.

During the first few weeks of December, Ana Murray, Sybil Josiah,  and I worked more on preparing the Samaritan Purse gifts.  We gave the first group to Iglesia Santo Tomás in Santiago de Veraguas.  We spent several days preparing the gifts that were requested by parishes from various parts of the Interiór and the Darien.  There are still left over clothes, soap and other articles, so we'll be looking into other places to donate them.

The Clergy Spouses group helped to put on the annual  party for the children of our diocesan employees on Friday December 14.  The party is usually held at a swimming pool, but this year, due to lack of funds, we hired a clown, ordered food from Macdonald's, and held the party at the Diocesan Center.  DaMert Company in Berkeley, where I used to work, was kind enough to send donations for the children as gifts.   Miami Express received the package two days before the party, but didn't deliver it to us until just after the party started.  Bishop Murray, his wife Ana, his secretary Fulvia, Michael and I were quickly wrapping presents while the clown was entertaining the children.   We want to thank DaMert Co. for their generosity and such a wonderful selection of toys.  We received more than expected and plan to send the rest to kids in parishes in the Interiór.

The Thursday before Christmas I went with Elizabeth Leigh to deliver presents to the people on her British Aid route.  It was really nice to see them again.  My routine has prevented me from regularly visiting them the last few months.  Lizzie has a new person on her route, a gentleman who looks like he's waiting to die.  He's emaciated and doesn't eat or move.  The home has several rooms, which is more than some I've visited, but there is about a foot of space between the walls and the zinc roof; there's no real ceiling.  Like all the poor living spaces I've seen, the lighting is bad.  Every time I make these visitations, I'm reminded how blessed I am with so much when they have so little.   The complaints that I have about our house seem like nothing compared to what these people live with.

Anne arrived from Boston on the 18th and wasted no time in getting involved in youth activities. First, Anne and her boyfriend Luis went to the Christmas Party at the Hogar de Las Niña to help out and be with the girls.  She then worked with the Rev. Seth Polley at St. Luke's Cathedral with the Children's Christmas Eve service; she helped with the pageant as a co-writer and director.  Later that night she served as a thurifer and sang in the choir for the Midnight Service (Bishop Murray presided).  After Christmas, she went to Santa Clara for the weekend to a Counselor's Retreat for Summer Camp.  Then, Luis took her to Los Santos province to spend New Years Eve with his family.  She helped Luis and his father build an additional bedroom because he has to moved in with his father while he attends classes at the Technological University.

During Advent we tried some different things liturgically at St. Christopher's.  We had Morning Prayer with Holy  Eucharist for two Sundays, we had  Lessons and Carols for the Liturgy of the Word on the Third Sunday of Advent, and then we sang a Cantata: 'The Everlasting Lord' by Mosie Lister in place of a sermon on the 30th. Mr. Percival Thomas, the Music Director at San Crisóbal, discovered that I read music and invited me to sing with the choir that Sunday.  Michael participated as the narrator and a tenor.  It was great fun and many people came up to me and other choir members thanking us for a wonderful musical service.

Our Watch-night Mass on December 31 was also well attended.  Everyone was in their most beautiful outfits for the parties after midnight.  The custom is to be in church at midnight so God will bless us with a wonderful year.  Michael's timing was terrific as we said the post-communion prayer exactly at midnight.  It sounded like a war zone for about a half hour because of all the fire-crackers going off.  They are not illegal and were sold right on the street at stop lights.   This year, Michael bought some to set off
after we got home from the service, around 1:00 am.

Michael was the preacher at the Baccalaureate service for the graduating class of Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal, the school connected to our parish. He and Deacon Luis Caceres, who is the Deacon at Iglesia San Cristóbal, officiated at Evensong (in Spanish) with a blessing of class rings and medals. The Rt. Rev. Clarence Hayes, recently retired bishop of Panama also participated. Deacon Caceres is the Chaplain at Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal and is also the head chaplain for all four Episcopal
Schools in Panama.

The San Crisóbal ECW held their annual  Christmas party at the church last Friday.  Volunteers read parts of the Christmas story and we sang Carols between readings.  The best part was hearing about West-Indian Christmas traditions and how they spent Christmas as children.  It was great hearing stories of their favorite dolls, how they made all the clothes for them, the traditional holiday food, their Santa experiences, etc.  They also served us a delicious meal and gave out gifts.

Last Sunday Anne left for Santa Clara to be a camp counselor for the children from ages six to eleven.  Michael campaigned for scholarships so all our kids at St. Christopher's can go to camp.  We were able to send off six of our little ones along with several youth counselors for the first week. We're hoping that we receive enough to cover all the children.  Most families can't afford it and we believe the experience would greatly enrich the children.  This is the first time for a couple of the children and we hope it will become an annual event for them.

Michael is co-chair (with Mr. Walter Smith)  of the Liturgy Committee for Diocesan Convention at the end of January and is busy planning all the liturgies for the Convention. He was hoping to attend the Convention of the Diocese of El Camino Real this year, but with Campamento and the convention for Panama he can't get away! Here in Panama, Summer time is just as busy as any other time of year!

Please keep the diocese in your prayers. ARI is a department of the government who is in charge of the former Canal Zone and wants to displace many of the people in our small community of Paraíso to build a highway and a bridge.  They also want to move the Diocesan Offices off the property in Balboa.  We ask for your prayers to help us with this political battle.

We hope your holidays were as busy as wonderful as ours were.  We would also love to hear from you.  Please feel free to write us any time.  We love to receive news from the States.

May the peace and glory of Christ always be with you throughout this new year,

Mona and Michael Dresbach
mgdbach@hotmail.com -Michael
mldresbach@hotmail.com -Mona

Please feel free to check the website of St. Francis' Episcopal Church at www.stfrancisepiscopalchurch.org which includes an archive of our letters and pictures of our mission.