19 March 2003

Dear friends,

We started off the year with Campamento de Verano (Summer Camp).  Michael served as Chaplain at the  Jr. High age camp.  The theme this year was "The Dilemmas of Youth" with the sub-theme of “What Would Jesus Do?”  Each day had its own topic: Friends, Personality, Sexuality, and Society, that was discussed with various activities during the day. Michael created Bible studies for each day’s theme. The camp leaders are young adults who did a very good job planning the daily topics and activities.  Michael had to come home on Wednesday to do some work at the church (planning the annual Parish Meeting) and I went up on Thursday morning with him.  I became the driver for anyone who needed to go to the nearest town for some shopping.  We stayed in the cabin with the nurse and another volunteer from the States.  Jane  McCarron (the nurse) and Linda Vaill  are from the Chicago ECW.  They stayed in Panama for four weeks as camp volunteers, helping at the Hogar de las Niñas, and mola shopping for fundraising. It was wonderful meeting them and we hope to have future contacts with them.

I started teaching swimming two days a week to the girls from the Hogar de las Niñas in January.  We use the pool in Paraíso which is down the street from my house.  This year, missioner Sue Williams and I divided the girls into 5 groups of 3 to 4 girls per group. This made handling them easier since they all demand so much attention.  It's really exciting to see them actually learn since my Spanish is limited.  They are very good at helping me with words I don't know.  This year I can explain things better to them, so there is improvement in my language skills.  I also recruited Mrs. Olga Kelly (my neighbor and fellow St. Christopher’s member) to help me with translation and discipline.  She’s been a real blessing, especially during the month Sue went back to the States to visit her father.

Also, Jan Hill from St. Jude's Episcopal Church in Cupertino, California, helped at the pool on occasion as well as continuing to work with the girls at the Hogar on Mondays.  While school was out, we played games with our girls, Odette, Rosa Mari, Eveliana, and María Elena. Sometimes the other girls join us, especially when I brought  coloring books.  School began on March 17, so we’ll start working with homework again.

Michael worked with the students from Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal who volunteered as Vacation Bible School teachers.  The teen-agers gave a two week bible study with games, art and music.  All High School students in Panama must perform some sort of Social Service before they graduate, and the VBS was one of the options at Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal. This year we had many neighborhood students in attendance as well as other youngsters from various churches.  Graduation took place at St. Christopher’s Church during the Spanish Service.  It was well attended by the students and their families. The walls were beautifully decorated with the students’ artwork.  Bishop Murray presided, since his daughter Jewel was one of the students.

This year the ECW held their conference in Colón.  We arrived on Wednesday morning, February 19, to visit a home for the elderly, Hogar Atlánica.  It is run by volunteers. The kitchen was in the process of being remodeled, and the new floor, walls, and counters are beautiful.  The food is being cooked outside during the remodeling since there are no appliances yet in the kitchen. They described an old run-down kitchen where the neighborhood cats used to be able to enter through the windows.  A different church is sponsoring each of the residential rooms for remodeling.  The residents were
gathered into a TV room where we held a small service with prayers and music.

As the Head of the Liturgy and Music Committee, (co-head on the music committee is Bernardo Murray) Michael was in charge of the liturgies for all the services for the week of Diocesan Convention.  He kept busy with the Healing Service  on Wednesday and the ECW Service on Thursday.  Both were held at Christ Church by-the-Sea in Colón.  He planned and supervised the Daily Offices and the closing Eucharist for the Diocesan Convention. He also played guitar in the band. He was exhausted at the end of the week!

We just finished the Carnival weekend;  four days of loud music and parades.   Now that we have entered the Lenten Season, we hope that this will be a time of contemplation and spiritual growth for you.

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.