Lustre News
The Lustre Junior High volleyball Lions hosted the Frontier School Junior High volleyball Mustangs on Sept 21, in their last home game with the song “God’s Not Dead” greeting fans. The Lions took the set 25-17, 25-17 (with the teams tying repeatedly along the way), and 153. The jamboree teams split their games.
Jones and Melissa Cumpio came Sept. 12 to be LCHS’s new dorm parents from the Philippines. They have two children, a son, T.J., in grade 10, and a daughter attending teachers college in Indonesia. The Cumpios (pronounced Koom-pe-oh) were teachers at Crossroads Christian Academy in their city, he for 20 years, she for 19 years. He was the school’s chaplain, and Bible teacher, developing curriculum to meet the standards set for each grade level (grade 1-10). She was academic advisor, served on the board and was on the teaching faculty. She taught the humanities and English.
They found out about Lustre on the ACSI website. “The LCHS and Cornerstone Christian Academy are both members of the Association of Christian Schools International and their website is designed to include a job opportunities menu to help schools find teachers.” She said, “We knew we were called into Christian education 30 years ago, so we only looked in that area for job opportunities. Because of the COVID pandemic, our school faced dire financial constraints and the board had already retrenched, laying off teachers to survive. Because of my position on the board, I knew we were considering another round of layoffs.”
Jones said he had been praying since the beginning of the year that the teachers would not lose their jobs. He loved what he was doing, and by now felt comfortable in it. But Melissa “was restless, sensing their time at the school was soon complete.” Jones gave her leave to begin looking. She said “I found openings in Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, but they wanted us to already have our work visas and teacher’s certificates in hand for the U.S. Our school was struggling, so we could not put away savings. I was familiar with the urban areas of the States, especially New Jersey and California, and really did not like their atmosphere and attitudes for my family.”
Jones listed the factors that made Lustre the place chosen, emphasizing how The Lord brought trials to move them out of their country to rural Montana. 1. LCHS was the only school who responded promptly to their application, showing interest to pursue their contract. The other schools began calling only after their contract was signed. 2. They had set a standard that they would not be separated as a family and LCHS needed a couple. TJ could attend the high school. When Jones replied “Yes, I like this.” In checking out the link of LCHS’ website Melissa had sent him, she knew in her heart it was time to leave her country. 3. They had been reading a chapter a day with a Facebook page group, and were in Genesis reading about Abraham being asked to leave his family and his country and go where he did not even know or had been before. Melissa said after much prayer, she told the board “If they need to take out teachers, let it be us”. Having added up their salary totals, hers and Jones would be exactly what the school needed to cut to keep the other teachers. That convinced her mother and brother, who were also on the board, God was in this move. Then “the verse of the day on that same Facebook page was Psalms 86:9-10, the same verse God had called me into Christian education 30 years ago. It was a reminder of my calling.” It reads “All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord and they shall glorify Thy name forever.” Jones replied “The sermons at church were from Acts 1 and we became aware we had done many volunteer things in our church, but nothing in evangelism or missions, and Acts 1 talked of going ‘to the nations’. It dove-tailed Ps 86:9 - ‘All the nations shall declare Thy praises.’” “We wondered how we could go to many nations! Then we read the list of where the students were from and the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. The Lord would take us to one rural place, and bring the nations to us!”
When Austin Neufeld called with the dorm committee to interview us, “we braced ourselves for the expected harshness Melissa had experienced in the urban centers of U.S., but they astounded us, being kind and understanding and warm-hearted!” We got off the Zoom and said, “Was that for real? They like us!” “Mr. Curt Neufeld, the chairman of the board, contacted us next and his statement was the fourth reason we have come. He said they would spend on our behalf to petition to bring us to their country. We would only need to cover the cost of travel and work visa application. 5. Our home needed repairs before we could sell it. We had been required to take a pay-cut for a year to help keep Cornerstone open. When Melissa asked if I might be sinning against the Lord in being so comfortable at Cornerstone, it hit home. When I confessed that to the Lord, the doors started opening”, and it has “caused us to go back to living by faith, not self-sufficiency. We now pray for His help to understand the kids, to cook the meals well for them, to lead their spiritual direction rightly. We are so glad to be together here as a family.”
Melissa’s dad had died 5 years before and they had a piece of land ‘down south’ on the market. No matter what brokers tried, it did not sell. But one day her mom called with good news. “Melissa, your papa’s land sold today.” Melissa replied. “Good. It will take care of you for many years.” Her mom replied, “No, you don’t understand. The land was in your papa’s estate and that is divided three ways: 1/3 to me, 1/3 to your brother and 1/3 to you. Melissa, you are going to Lustre.” They added all the costs to repair their home for sale and the travel and visa costs and it matched. Jones said, “The exactness of God! It covered all the fees and expenses exactly. The house was done one week before we left for the U.S.!” “It is such a bonus from the Lord to be able to go, in obedience, to one place, and He brings all the nations!” Jonas declared. On a lighter note, he explained “his American name happened because the month before he was born, his mother was watching an American movie and gave him as his first name, the last name of the lead actor!”
We give our condolences to Maxine Strader and her family (LCHS former student), in the death of her husband, Glenn, of Wolf Point. They have been solid, longtime supporters of LCHS.
