Dear Family and Friends,

Michael and I had a wonderful time visiting everyone in California in August.  We want to thank St.  James’, St. Francis’, and St. Mark’s for their hospitality and generosity.

We loved being with our new granddaughter, Evelyn.  She’s a wonderful baby and Tara and Chris are excellent parents.  Her first visit to St. Mark’s was very special.  Robbin included a Blessing for a Newborn into the service.  All of Evelyn’s grandparents and great grandparents were there along with some aunts and uncles and special friends.  Evelyn has a large loving family to be with her as she grows.  She’s now three month’s old and growing stronger every day.  You can see pictures and videos of her at Chris’ web site http://www.mobenloft.com/evelyn.asp.

School started the Monday I got back to Panama.  I’ve been busy with lots of homework. I take one to two tests every week this semester so I’m reading and studying all the time.

Part of my responsibilities with the Companion Dioceses Committee is to host guests form the States.  I love hosting and we had two lovely women from Mississippi visiting a couple of weeks ago.  They were Jo Ann Lee and Betty Jo Dulaney.  I feel blessed to meeting them and having them in my home.  We had a wonderful meeting with Bishop Murray their first full day here.  They were able to visit several parts of Panama that I haven’t even been to.  I had the opportunity to take them to the girl’s home.  We went to a wonderful restaurant to see Típico dancing, a folkloric style of Panamanian dancing that’s very popular.  Unfortunately, I had to study for three tests while they were here and couldn’t participate with them in some of the scheduled activities.

We have been out to Gamboa five times to worship at St. Simon’s since we’ve been back.  Michael is always more than happy to celebrate there when ever Padre Nelson Edwards is away.  We even got to take Jo Ann and Betty Jo there to celebrate the Eucharist while they were visiting us.  We love the congregation.  It’s small so we’re able to gather around the altar for communion.  Two weeks ago we went to their patronal festival which was really nice.  We had a lovely service with the Bishop and Padre Edwards and
dinner afterwards with everyone.

Michael put together a bilingual booklet to use for his visitations to the sick and shut-ins.  He and the ladies were using a service that was on several different sheets of paper and was very confusing.  The booklet has songs, too. He made enough so that even the person they visit can follow along if they’re able.

Michael also wrote an article for the Mission Bell about Global Center.  Global Center came out of the Congress of the Commission for Theological Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CETALC) conference which was in Panama from October 5 - 10, 2005.  Michael discusses how Latin America is not lined up with either Global North or Global South.  The issues we deal with in Latin America are different.

Here’s the link if you would like to read it.

http://www.edecr.org/newsletter.htm  You can find it in the Oct. 2006 edition 18.

Another project Michael is working on is training lay readers, chalice bearers, and lay eucharistic visitors.  There are no materials for him to use for teaching, so he’s been creating them.  He’s writing all the lessons and doing everything that needs to be done for the training.  He has ten students at this time whom he teaches every Friday and Saturday.  We believe the ministry of Lay Eucharistic Visitor to be an important ministry.  This will be the first time that St. Christopher has had LEV’s.

Michael has also started his own blog.  It has our history, the Global Center article with room for comments, and a few other surprises.  We would love for you to visit it and give him feedback.  You can go to it at http://padremickey.blogspot.com/.

We want to thank all of you, again, for support both spiritually and financially.  We keep you all in our prayers.

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.