January 8, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you all have had a wonderful Advent and that this Christmas season was blessed. For us Christmas lasted until January 6 when we celebrated Epiphany and our youth and children put on a program. It was a sweet little service. Michael was the sole musician. Five-year-old Hilary played Jesus. She’s really cute and you can see her picture on Michael’s blog at http://padremickey.blogspot.com/ .

Advent was a time for giving. St. Christopher’s raised around $1200 for the “Love Baskets” that we put together every year for the poor. This year we gave 100 bags of food. This tradition started in 1977 and grows every year. You can see pictures of them also on Michael’s blog. He also explains what we put in each bag and goes into more detail about the project.

Sunday the 17 was our Advent and Carols service. That’s where we read six lessons and sang carols after each one. I sang a solo, “Comfort, Ye” from the Messiah. Mr. Thomas was sure I could sing it in my soprano range, and it worked out fine. I got tons of compliments.

Michael decided to do Morning Prayer with a Eucharist on Sundays for Advent. He discovered we didn’t have enough Spanish Prayer Books, so he made a booklet for it. He titled it “Oración Matutina con la Santa Eucaristía: Adviento.” He included only the canticles he wanted to use and Eucharistic Prayer D.

The Youth Choir came to our house for a Christmas Party. They helped put ornaments on the tree. We ate pizza, talked, laughed and sang. They learned that Michael knows “Silent Night” in four languages so they wanted to sing it in the four different languages. Michael wrote up the words both with correct spelling and phonetically. The kids loved looking at the Japanese. But phonetically it’s pretty easy for them. German was more difficult, but they liked it.

They sang it Sunday evening at the bilingual Watchnight service. That was a lovely bilingual service where everyone dressed in his or her very best. They go out to parties afterward to celebrate the New Year. The belief is that it’s important to be in church at midnight on New Years so God showers His blessings upon you throughout the year. I took lots of pictures, which were posted on Michael’s blog. One photo was mentioned on Ship-of-Fools, so Michael’s blog is now known World Wide. It’s a picture of our thurifer Patsy Pusey swinging the thurible as she’s processing down the isle with the choir behind her.

Every year, St. Christopher’s offers classes in making Christmas decorations. This year they outdid themselves. Everything was so beautiful. We’re really proud of our women who participate in the class. You can se pictures of some of the work at Michael’s blog. It’s titled
“Clase de Adornos Navideños.”

My last final was on Dec. 13, so I got to relax a couple of weeks. The spring semester starts up on January 8.

The Hogar de Niña’s threw a wonderful Christmas party for all of us who help with the girls and the Board of Directors. They do this every year. Not only do the girls get presents, they plan a special meal for all us guests. Bishop Murray arrived after we ate and gave out gift certificates to those of us who work with the girls. That was a really nice surprise.

Michael posted pictures on his site and Tía Sue wrote more details about the party on her blog. I encourage you to check out her blog at http://tiasue.blogspot.com/ . She writes about what she does and has an amazing story about how one of girl’s located her family after being separated from them for eight years.

Michael will be going to Epiphany West this year in Berkeley. He’ll be staying with John Kater. He also plans to visit Tara, Chris, and our granddaughter Evelyn.

I would love to encourage you to go to Michael’s blog on a regular basis if you’re not already doing so. He posts something every day. He puts up pictures of our ministry on a regular basis. He also posts about saints on their feast days. There’s also a lot of fun stuff and ranting. Please make comments—good or bad. It’s always good to get feed back.

Also, summer camp is starting up next week and, as always, our goal is to send all of your children to camp. The price has gone up to $60 for the week. Michael and I always contribute to the scholarship program. We want to thank those of you who helped up make that possible last year. We hope you will be able to help us again.

Bless you all and thank you for all the help and prayers you have been giving us. Please feel free to pass this newsletter around to anyone you think would be interested in reading it.

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

January 27, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Michael’s Blog is doing great. If you haven’t been there in a while, he is now featuring his walk to church, the inside of St. Christopher's as it’s being repaired, and our service on the school patio. Please come check out the photos. He’s posted other fun things in between.

I’m the guest blogger while he’s away in Berkeley. So far I’ve only made one post because I’m so busy studying. Please drop in and check out the great photos of our parishioners at church.

Hope you enjoy. Please feel free to make comments. We'd love to hear from you.

In Christ,
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.