June 9, 2004

Dear friends,

Michael and I want to thank all of you for helping us make the trip to Anne’s graduation possible.  I wish I could thank you all personally, but I don’t have address, e-mail or street, nor everyone’s name.  Bless you all.

Anne’s graduation was great fun.  We are proud to announce that she won an award for Best Lighting Designer at Emerson College’s annual EVVY’s Award Show.   She designed the lights for this years EVVY’s show, so it was fun to see her work.   She graduated two days later Cum Laude.  Of course we’re very proud of her and all the hard work she’s done while attending Emerson College.  It was also a family reunion.  Both Michael’s and my parents came.   Our daughter Tara and her fiancé Chris were there.  My mother’s cousin and family who live in Pennsylvania came, too.  All of us gathered after the EVVY’s for hors’ devours and dinner at Day’s Inn where they were staying.  Between the graduation and Tara’s upcoming wedding (next year) we had lots to talk about.  Michael and I stayed in Cambridge with our dear friends Rick and Terry McCall.  They were wonderful hosts.  Rick is a professor at EDS and Terry is Interim Priest at Our Redeemer in Lexington.  This was Michael’s first visit to Boston.

Usually we don’t leave the country, but now that we are temporary guardians of Colleen, Michael’s sister’s daughter who’s attending school here, we seem to be traveling a lot.  In April, Michael and I went to Mayan Tulum near Cancun, Mexico for a missionary retreat offered by Mission Personnel Office of the Episcopal Church.  The best thing about the retreat, at least for me, is visiting with the other missionaries in Latin America.  It’s great to learn their situations,  hear their experiences and get to know them better.   Michael was asked to do the music.  He took his guitar and song sheets he
made for the occasion.  We had Morning Prayer every morning, then discussions on what is mission.  On our last afternoon we held a Beach Mass.   It was windy so, I helped hold Michael’s music during the service.

Several weeks before the retreat, we were asked to participate in a short documentary for the Mission Personel Office.  They have hired a young journalist/filmmaker, Philip Carr,  to make videos of several missionaries throughout the world. While we were at the retreat, we saw a couple of short films focused on some missionaries in Africa that Philip made.  Philip shot some footage of us at the retreat and then came to Panama with us to interview us and shoot footage of our work.  It was quite strange to be filmed while doing things around the house and working at El Hogar de Niñas (the Girl’s Home), but he was really easy to get along with and put us at ease for the whole process.  Michael caught a cold in Mexico, so his voice was all but lost during the filming.

Just after we returned from Mexico, Panama held it’s presidential elections on May 4.   Everything was supposed to be closed down on election day (no excuses not to vote), and because it fell on a Sunday, many churches were closed, too.  So, like many other churches, we held our service the evening before.  Phil came with us and filmed most of the service.  He was also able to interview some of our parishioners.    We had a bilingual service, but attendance was low.  Many people have to go to the Interiór to vote.  Several of our young adults were also in the Interiór working with the Tribunal Electoral at the polls. Even Ingrid and Ceisy, the girls who live with us, were working at our neighborhood polling station.

While we were gone, Colleen stayed with Bishop Murray and his family.  They have been wonderful in helping us with her while we’ve been traveling.  Ana Murray, the bishop’s wife, works at the school (Instituto Episopal San Cristóbal) and takes Colleen to school for us. They also have a daughter about Colleen’s age and a son who is about five years old.

Michael is currently in the midst of working with this year’s Panama Project. We’ll tell you about it in our next letter.  We’ll let you know when the video is ready so we can share it with anyone who is interested.  

May God Bless you all.


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.