August 29, 2004

Dear friends,

Michael was very busy doing lots of great things with the Panama Project at the end of June.  All three participants were from CDSP this year.  They were: Rev. Lucinda Ashby, Ms. Sabeth Fitzgibbons, and Mr. Peter Schell.  We had the usual BBQ at our house welcoming the group to Panama.  They were a great team of seminarians.  Walter Smith and Michael took them to La Chorrera to visit Iglesia San José, the church there and the Episcopal School.  They went to Tortí near the Darien for a day.  The church in Tortí was having an Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving Service) for the newly elected Mayor, who is a member of the congregation. The local Legislator and other government officials were at the service. Bishop Murray couldn’t go to Tortí, so he asked Michael to represent him. This was Michael’s first time in the Darien.

Walter Smith drove the Panama Project group to Bocas del Toro for their assignments.  Michael flew up a couple of days later and stayed with them for 10 days.   This year, they worked in Guabito, Changuinola and Almirante.   Each of them had good Spanish speaking skills which made being in Panama easier for them.

I took the group on a shopping trip to find molas and other indigenous artwork.  My favorite place to shop is at Cinco de Mayo Plaza where several booths are set up with wonderful molas, shirts and other crafts.  That night we went to their farewell dinner at a terrific restaurant on the Causeway.

In celebration of St. Christopher’s Sixty-fifth anniversary, we held a prayer breakfast at the Waikiki Restaurant.  Three members of St. Christopher’s were honored: Mrs. Mildred Whitehead, Mrs. Albertina Pusey (everyone calls her ‘Patsy’), and Mr. Carl Scotland.  These breakfasts are very popular and this one was sold out.  My sister-in-law Melanie Castillo (who was here to get her daughter Colleen) also attended.  Colleen
entertained them with a couple of songs on her accordion.  Melanie accompanied her on keyboards.  They played a couple of pieces from the Spanish service from their church in the States.  The breakfast was a great success and everyone I spoke with had a wonderful time.

St. Christopher’s is also collecting things for our time capsule.  We will put it in a place in the church and it will be opened in 25 years.  We recently commissioned a new group of young acolytes and ushers as part of our Sixty-fifth anniversary service.  We are very proud to have so many of our youth interested in participating in the various guilds and groups in the church.  Others have expressed an interest in joining the Altar Guild.

One of our teens at St. Christopher’s, Ray, comes from a very poor home.  His uncle is our Senior Warden and has hired Ray to work around the church so he could earn some money for his mom and himself.  Michael is also always finding jobs for him to help him out, too.  A few weeks ago, he came up to Michael and told him he would like to go to the Festival de Ganar (Festival of Winning).  It’s a week long annual Diocesan program held at our campground in Santa Clara for the youth in our diocese.   All the activities are church and bible focused.  They have bible games, drama contests, sports games, music contests, and many other fun activities for the kids.  This is a wonderful camp that is held every year during semester break.  It cost $45.00 per person.  Michael not only sponsored Ray, but a few other kids at St. Christopher’s.  It is with the help of your donations that he was able to donate $200.00 to help enough of our kids to go.  Fourteen of our youth went.  Some of them were leaders and some were participants.  It’s really important for Michael and me to encourage as many or our kids as possible to
participate in church activities such as Festival de Ganar.  Ray had a great time as did the rest of our kids who went.  Thank you for helping us to make it possible.

Colleen went home with her mother and brother Richie this month.  We enjoyed having her with us.  I know she was looking forward to going home to see her friends and brothers again.  It’s very quiet around the house right now without her.  We hope that she’ll come back to visit us next year.

Your missionaries in Panamá,
Mona and Michael Dresbach
mgdbach@hotmail.com -Michael
mldbach1@yahoo.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.