The Story of Cumbre Family Missions
Meet the Looby Family
Pat and Shannon Looby met at a Catholic summer camp in Northern New York when they were 12 years old, but it wasn’t until they were both back at that same summer camp as counselors at age 20 that they fell in love. Their entire 3-year dating relationship was long distance while Pat finished his Theology and Philosophy degree at Wadhams Hall Seminary College and Shannon earned her degree in French from Colgate University. For six months of that time, Shannon was living in France and this was 1995, in the prehistoric days before email!! Good old-fashioned letter writing and payphone calls (gasp!) kept their love alive until they were married in July 1997.
In the 27 years they’ve been married, Pat and Shannon have lived a life of ministry, starting with youth and music ministry in the Diocese of Albany and the Diocese of Ogdensburg and then transitioning into Catholic education. Pat began his teaching career while in the Diocese of Dallas and continued in his current Diocese of Arlington, VA. Answering an identified need for a rigorous classical curriculum Catholic high school in the Fredericksburg area, Pat co-founded The Summit Academy in 2016. What started with 19 students in 9th and 10th grades has grown to a 6-12 middle and upper school program with over 115 students.
With a passion for education and a heart for service, the Loobys began to discern how they could make more of a global impact beyond their immediate community. And the seed of full-time missionary work was planted. It’s actually something that they’ve had in their hearts for a long time, but the circumstances have never aligned that would make it a possible consideration. For years they were a stay-at-home mom and a Catholic school teacher dad with 6 small children - just trying to make it paycheck to paycheck to get by. But as their kids have grown (1 out of college and getting married this summer and 2 more in college this fall), they’re at a different stage in life and ready to embrace a new challenge with their remaining children still at home, feeling that the whole family would benefit from and contribute to a missionary experience.
The purpose for incorporating Cumbre Family Missions as a charity is to fund their current and future mission work, but also to directly support the people they serve.
​
The beauty of a commitment to being full-time missionaries is that you give yourself freely - your time, your talents, your everything. And you expect nothing in return. But it does take a village, of family and friends and benefactors, to make it possible to serve in this way. And we are so grateful for that support.