Lustre News
James Gibson informed the community that the bridge across Porcupine Creek was impassable due to a hole in the road. It is now being repaired.
Lustre Christian High School alumnus Evan James Bartel of Wolf Point married Kaylena Rose Atnip of Cody, Wyo., on Saturday, July 15, at the Cody Alliance Church. Attending were Dan, Melissa, Hannah and Sarah Marasco.
Roberto and Heather Atienza gave a report on the Children’s Shelter of Cebu, Philippines, on Thursday evening to a group gathered in the Marasco home. Heather Atienza is an alumnus of LGS and LCHS and the daughter of Dwaine and Vivian Wall. Roberto Atienza has served as the director for 4½ years. They will be returning on July 30. In a city of 2½ to 3 million people, they are the only children’s shelter to specialize in keeping sibling groups together with adoptions. In a city that large, only one family came forward to adopt children. Thus, most of the adoptions need to be international. The orphanage can house 90 and right now is at 83.
The elementary school on campus is for pre-K to grade six and educates 30 of the shelter’s children. They are accredited and are seeking the highest accreditation, planning to offer training to other shelters.
Thirty teenagers who have “aged out” of their ability to be adopted are being cared for with plans for vocational training and the organization is raising funds to build a dorm-like facility to house 36 teens. Many of those adults who have been successfully launched into careers still consider the shelter their family. The shelter has cared for more than 1,000 children in 40 years. They believe “every child deserves a family” and “you can change the life of a child.”
English, Tagalog (Filipino) and Cewano are the languages in this second largest city in Philippines. The Atienzas experienced a strict lockdown due to the COVID-19 restrictions two months after they arrived, lasting for almost two years. It was followed by Typhoon Odette with its destruction hitting their city, requiring soup kitchens. Fires were also a major difficulty in such a densely populated area.
The family joined the shelter children in a city-wide run to raise funds so the Rotary club could send babies to Manilla for needed heart surgery. Roberto Atienza said there were 244 surgeries in the last two years.
