August 9, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

I want to thank those who were able to help to make it possible for me to go to Boston to see Anne’s new baby, Evannie, in May. She’s really beautiful. She eats almost all the time and growing at a good rate. I had a wonderful time not only with Anne, but also meeting new friends and seeing old friends.

While I was gone, Michael was very busy working at the church. He also had a chance to play in the “Combo,” a band with him on bass, Bernie Murray on keyboards, Ricardo Staples on drums, and Renaldo Taylor on organ. They were the house band for the Mother’s Day program at St. Christopher’s Church. They were so good other groups have asked them to play at other functions. They were asked to play at Balboa Union Church one Sunday to honor people who are a part of the Panama Canal International Alumni Association. One of our own, Emily Butcher was honored as music teacher. Her photo has been included on our blog.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to send Michael to California for the El Camino Real Diocesan convention this year. Hopefully, the funds will be there next year for him. He really wanted to go, but hopes to be there in November for the consecration of the new Bishop.

A couple of weeks ago, we just had 23 young people confirmed and 2 new baptised. There are wonderful pictures of it on the blog if you haven’t seen them yet.

We've also been busy working with the youth choir. They sang for the patronal bilingual service and sound better all the time. Some of the girls who were confirmed have joined us. It’s always nice to have new faces and voices for the choir.

I taught a raw food preparation class in July for three weeks. It was a lot of fun teaching them how to add more fruit and vegetables to their diets. Most Panamanians have told me they don’t like vegetables, so I tried to use recipes that they would enjoy and are easy to prepare. I got really good feedback and invited back to teach again.

Some of the things Michael’s been doing, besides blogging, is working with me on the youth choir, weekly visitations, closuras for classes, planning and organizing funerals and a requiem for the one year anniversary of the death of Bishop Hays. He’s always busy.

We’re looking for a couple of people who would be interested in helping us to continue to get donations by planning fund raisers or other activities. We used to depend on funds from the Panama Project every year, but the Diocese of Panama never got paid last year for the project, therefore, neither did Walter or Michael. The project was cancelled for this year. Please let me know if you’re interested. Donations will help make possible for him to go to the consecration in November.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. We pray for all you daily. Please check the blog for photos of my weekly visits to the Girl’s Home, Raices (a youth camp program for cultural pride), and other pictures. You can also read Michael’s well written essays on the Transfiguration, Feast of St. Dominic and St. Constance of Sonora, St. Columba, Feast of St. Barnabas, Apostle, St. Boniface of Mainz, Bishop and Martyr, Trinity Sunday, The Martyrs of Lyons and many more. He promises a good blog post on St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr this Friday!

http://padremickey.blogspot.com

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

Please pass this letter on to everyone. 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.