September 4, 2002

Dear friends,

The rainy season is in full force.  We're having huge thunderstorms.  Lightening cracks right over our house, forcing us to turn off the computer and stay off the phone until the storm passes.

August 27th was our Third Anniversary in Panama. We have extended our stay for another three years, so we will be here until December 31, 2005.

Anne and I started working with the girls at the Hogar de las Niñas every Monday, helping them with homework.  With Anne's help, one of the girls improved her math scores; she went from failing to what would be a B in the US.  In order for us to improve our tutoring skills, we've been brushing up on our third through fifth grade math, using a couple of workbooks from the Hogar that are not in use this year.  The hardest part for me is learning the Spanish terminology.

St. Christopher's annual Prayer Breakfast was held at the end of July.  It was a great success.  Michael's sister, Melanie Castillo, was here to play a few lovely songs on the keyboard for us. This year we honored Adica Moore, Sybil Phillips, and Ruben McQueen, all great pillars of the church.  Prayers for the homeless, the youth, and world peace were giving by guests from the Salvation Army, the Nazarene Christian Church, and our neighbor and friend, Reynaldo Topin from the Paraíso Baptist Church.  A special surprise was giving by Mrs. Acuña who is in charge of the classes given at St.
Christopher's Episcopal Church.  The ladies from the class danced in wearing beautiful polleras that they each made.  Polleras are traditional Panamanian dresses inspired by Spanish women who first came to Panama a few centuries ago.   The breakfast was well attended and the church earned almost $3000, which goes towards the church's Autonomy Fund, and towards our seminarian, Ms. Glenda McQueen's theological education. Glenda is in her third year at the Virginia Theological Seminary.

Anne participated in a weekend with the Festival de Ganar (Festival of winning) at the campground in Santa Clara.  She helped build a small stage and designed the lights for an evening show.  The youth that attended were from the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Colón, the Darien, and Panama Metro.  The Diocese always has a camp for the young people to get together during school break.  This year the decision was made to have a fun camp with various contests.  The theme was 'Everyone is a winner.'  The contests
included sports, drama, music and other talents.  Michael, Melanie and I went up on the Friday of the event to judge a music contest.  Unfortunately, it was changed to Saturday. However, we were invited to judge the drama contest instead.  I was on the Mime panel, while Michael judged the plays.  Each group was very good and had a spiritual message.  Colón won in Mime, while Panama Metro won in Drama.

St. Christopher's ECW invited me to teach them how to make communion bread on their retreat, Aug. 9.  Michael gave a talk about the history and theology of the Eucharistic Liturgy and how it has changed over the centuries.  Among the many things that we learned was the reason for not offering the cup in Roman Catholic Churches for centuries was because during the Middle Ages, people, in their exuberance for the Sacrament, would rush up to receive the Blood of Christ and knock the chalice out of the priest's hand, spilling the wine.  Because we can't have the Blood of Christ spilling
all over the priest and the floor, it was better not to allow the people to participate in that aspect of the Eucharist.  After Michael's talk, everyone received a recipe for the bread and I demonstrated how to make it.  We broke the freshly-baked bread into pieces to pass around for the ladies to taste.  Our hope is they will begin to make bread for the Sunday and Wednesday services.

Michael and I also participated in the Closura (graduation) of the Pollera Blanca (white dresses) class at the end of August. This is the 16th class held at St. Christopher's Multi-purpose Center, known as Casa Amarilla (Yellow House).  The dresses are made of Chinese cotton for its durability, lots of beautiful lace, and consist of two parts; a blouse and a skirt. All the lace is hand sewn onto the dress. Each dress has many pleats and gathers and is complicated to sew. They usually sell between $500 and $1000,
depending on the lace and intricacy of the work.  I've heard of some that sell for even more than $1000.  I'm hoping to get some pictures of them to put on St. Francis' web site within the next month. Michael passed out certificates to all the participants.  A group of dancers preformed for us in their own Polleras Momtumas (white blouses with colorful skirts) with their gentlemen partners.

We hope your summer was restful and full of great vacations.  Have a wonderful autumn and may God bless you.

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.