Lustre News

The 44-50 degree mornings are about to change to much colder temps. Folks were finishing fall jobs of hauling manure to fields, putting equipment into sheds for winter and gathering the last of produce from gardens into storage. What an exciting time of year!

The Lustre grade school /junior high volleyball team placed third at the junior high tournament in Saco Saturday, Oct. 3. Lustre beat Nashua, then lost to Circle, though they were tied at 20 in one game, but lost 26-24. They beat North Country, and lost to Frontier in their final game.

Basketball has begun for the jamboree age and junior high students. They began at Nashua Friday and played Saturday at home against Dodson. The kids did well. Varsity volleyball won against Dodson.

The Lustre MB Church held its annual Thanksgiving Harvest Missions Festival Sunday, Oct 4. Brent Unrau began by reading Psalm 9:1-2 before the congregation sang “Rejoice”, “I Love You Lord”, “Bless The Lord O my Soul” and “Great is Thy Faithfulness” with the full congregation. Dean Reddig read Psalm 66 and Pastor Frank Lenihan explained the Hebrew word “Hesed” to be “God’s loving- promise- keeping faithfulness”.

A harvest video prepared by Brooke Holzrichter, was shown with all the families working on their farms that began with a clip of the dust storm and “when God turns (the dust-storm) into golden wheat”. She referenced Duet 31:66, Romans 8:28, II Cor. 9:8 and closed with “LOOK at what God has done!” It was wonderful to see it.

El Roi, “The God Who Sees Me” was one of the highlighted missions supported by the MB congregation and Sandro and Alix gave a video report. Mindy Olfert introduced the choir song she directed, telling the story of Martin Richert in 1520, who wrote it as a prayer for his children to sing, after they survived the plague in the 30 years war, where Martin was a Lutheran pastor. He did 50 funerals a day during the plague, including one for his wife, the children’s mother. The 15-member choir, accompanied by Julie Reddig on piano, Meridith Reddig on organ and a five-piece brass ensemble sang “Now Thank We All Our God” and it was fantastic. In the brass ensemble were Lisa Neufeld, Sam Byers, Susan Fast, Joe Olfert, Jennifer Zerbe on trumpets and trombones.

Former Pastor J Epp and his wife, Lisa, moved to Lustre in 1995. It had been 25 years since they left in 2001 to care for his aging parents as his Dad had had a stroke. They were Pastor at the Henderson, Neb., MB church 11 years, and then J became the chaplain/ religion coordinator for the Nebraska State Women’s Correctional Facility at York, Neb. Lisa has worked 21 years with a community agency whose motto is “helping people – changing lives”. They are now in Henderson as one of the pastoral couples at Bethesda Mennonite Church.

Pastor Epp spoke on the Names of God, saying “There are over 500 names referring to God in the Bible, and the names describe Christ’s character, authority, Who He is and how he relates to us. One of these names is Jehovah Jireh, “The God who provides’ found in Genesis 22:14.” “The Great I Am spoke to Abraham to take his ‘one and only son,’ Isaac and sacrifice him on an altar. But God provided a ram caught in the thicket and instructed Abraham to substitute the ram.

It was a picture foreshadowing how the Great I Am would send His ‘one and only Son’, Jesus to be a substitute for sin’s payment, better than rams or lambs, once for all.” He read Psalm 65 and said “we depend upon the earth God made and what He provides like rain. We depend upon people around us placed there in His sovereignty. We depend upon God Who’s covered us in seasons of abundance. God remains Jehovah Jireh. He sees, He knows and God has always been faithful. God answers prayer even when we have great difficulty. God provides.”

A total of 217 people were served a gracious lunch of ham and baked potatoes, salads and pie.

In the afternoon service, Pastor Lenihan read Psalm 67. The LCHS choir sang “Hallelujah” (in four parts), followed by a beautiful offertory called “I Thank You Lord”. Mr. Ayuno, Mr. and Mrs. Cumpio and Miss Balugan led singing “How Great thou Art”. Pastor J. spoke in the afternoon from James. 1. Faith without works is dead. 2. Faith provides for the needs of others, and from Mark 25:31, 3. Serving has eternal implications. He gave examples from their years of working in Nebraska.