November 9, 2002

Dear friends,

We hope that this letter finds you all with many blessings of God's love.   Michael recently had two excursions that I would like to share with you.  The first was a trip to Colón and the second was a trip to Bocas del Toro.

It is the custom for the three Episcopal Churches on the Atlantic side to come together at the Centro Episcopal Atlántico on the fifth Sunday of the month for a bilingual service, with a guest speaker.  For the service on September 29, the deacon at St. Christopher's, the Rev. Luis Cáceres, was asked to be the guest preacher.  Luis is also the chaplain for Instituto Episcopal San Crisóbal, the school associated with our church.  He invited some of the students, the choir and band from St. Christopher's Spanish Service to go with him. The band asked Michael to join them, after all, he was their bass player for the Sunday services when they visit St. Christopher's.  Michael was able to get the Rev. Diana Parada to take his service and off he went with the entourage to Colón.

When he arrived in Colón, the two priests in charge, the Rev. Canon Edgar Bouche and the Rev. Rogelio Panton, asked Michael if he would like to vest and co-celebrate with them.  But, Michael came to play in the band and politely declined.  According to Michael, they all had a great time and the band was "cookin'."

A few weeks later Michael took the late bus to the Province of Bocas del Toro with Walter Smith, head  of the Theological Education Department for the Diocese. Bocas del Toro is located in the northeast part of the country at the border of Costa Rica.  There are four Episcopal churches that share one priest, the Rev. Milciades Forero.  These churches are not very close to each other, so it's a challenge for one priest to work all four of them.  The plan was to stay for a week to give leadership classes and to help Father Forero.

They left for Almirante on Monday, October 14 in the evening at 8:00.  Around 11:30, all the passengers were asked to get off the bus due to tire that needed repairing. The bus suddenly took off and left them stranded until 2:00 AM when it returned with the repaired tire.  They reached Almirante around 7:00 AM and went straight to work at St. George's. Each morning, they held Morning Prayer then worked with the congregation on
different areas of Leadership. Michael also visited the sick and shut-ins, giving them Communion.  He and Walter also interviewed people to get an oral history of the Church in Bocas del Toro.  (I'm currently transcribing these fascinating tapes.) They stayed in Almirante and worked primarily with the congregation of St. George’s.  Michael also preached and presided at a bilingual Eucharist at Transfiguration in Changuinola on Friday night, and was at both St. George’s and Santa María Virgen in Isla Colón on Sunday.

Michael had been asked to bring his guitar, therefore, when he worked with the Youth Group, they sang a lot of songs.  Two of the young men even made up a Reggae-rap song, "Juventud, Pobre Juventud (Youth, Poor Youth)" that Michael liked so much he asked them to sing it for the Sunday service as the Offertory Anthem.  At their request, Michael played guitar along with it in at the service.  Walter later told me he was impressed with by the insight of the song, which was well received by the congregation.  Both Walter and Michael also helped the Youth Group set up a library for their use.

The Sunday morning service at St. George's started with a half-hour of singing hymns with Michael on guitar.  The organ wasn't working, so Michael asked Mrs. Holda Smith, the 85-year-old organist (and mother of the sexton at St. Christopher's), to "raise up the hymns" which she did with great vigor.

After the service at St. George's, Michael and Walter quickly ran down to the dock to take a water taxi to Isla Colón where Michael preached and presided at a bilingual Eucharist at Iglesia Santa María Virgen. They then started their twelve hour trek home by way of David in Chiriquí then on to Panama.  They enjoyed their week and all the hospitality in Bocas hoping that on the next trip they can bring their wives.

As for myself, I'm still working with a few of the girls at the Hogar de las Niñas each Monday.  Each time I go, I never know which girl needs help or with what.  Sometimes it's math, sometimes vocabulary, and other times it's handwriting.  One girl I worked with is a nine-year-old Kuna Indian in first grade.  Spanish is her second language and she has not learned the whole alphabet, yet.  She's excellent at copying words and I helped her work on her vocabulary list which needed to be learned well enough for dictation in class.  Right now there are a lot of holidays with long weekends and the girls visit their families so I won't be seeing them as much during November.

We hope that you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday.

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

The Inn is always open; if you need a place to stay while visiting Panama, please contact us at the email addresses above.  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' website at www.stfrancisepiscopalchurch.org which includes an archive of our letters and pictures of our mission.