Life in God’s Vineyard

02届的辛迪·斯坦贝克和84届的史蒂夫·舍德勒都在 Directors of Christian Education (DCE), supporting Concordia in various ways, and walking through seasons of great personal hardship. Now, as spouses and partners in the Voice in the Vineyard Ministry, 他们正在创造支持牧师教学的方法, renewal retreats, and the healing power of relationship.

“Our passion is to care for and support church workers and church leaders,” Steve says. “Our ministry provides a place of rest, encouragement, 以及dce和其他教会领袖和教育工作者的成长.”

This mostly takes place on a storied, 圣路易斯奥比斯波县北部450英亩的葡萄园, where Cindy famously takes visitors on teaching tours in her rusty 1958 Willis Jee—a ride that has even attracted Christian author and speaker Beth Moore, 让辛迪在她的一本书的视频系列中出现.

斯坦贝克葡萄园在辛迪的家族里已经传了七代了, under her leadership, launched its own winery and tasting room. 这是她在担任了15年DCE之后回到家的地方, 这也为她的演讲事业的发展提供了肥沃的土壤, author, and host.

For most of their lives, Cindy and Steve walked parallel and occasionally-intersecting paths. Cindy came to Concordia (then called Christ College Irvine) in 1980 and then transferred to Concordia University Portland to play sports (Concordia Irvine had no women’s sports programs at the time). 史蒂夫是圣地亚哥人，六个月后进入了CCI.

“这是一个非常不同的地方——150名学生和四栋建筑，”他说. “I joke that I went to a college that was smaller than my Lutheran elementary school. 在欧文大学与朋友和教授相处是一段很棒的经历.”

The land was calling me home.

Both became DCEs. Steve served at Peace Lutheran in Camarillo, then Redeemer Lutheran in Ontario for 10 years, before coming home to St. 保罗在圣地亚哥，从那以后他一直在那里服役.

他说:“成为DCE意味着要做很多伟大的事工。. “You get to hang out with kids, share life with them, lead and guide, talk about Jesus, and be a servant in the kingdom.”

Cindy served as DCE in churches near Portland, Oregon, and Lancaster, California. But her heart was drawn to the family’s Paso Robles vineyard, which has sustained them since 1884.

“土地通过我的儿子召唤我回家，”她说. “他从出生起就是爷爷的助手，一直想种地. The business was growing, and my son was in seventh grade and really wanted to farm the vineyards.”

In 1997, 她搬回帕索罗伯斯，开始在葡萄园工作, driving a tractor, 做着“现在男人在牧场上做的所有工作”,” she says with a laugh. “I fell right into it because I’d had lots of experience growing up doing that.” 

斯坦贝克葡萄园向大型酿酒厂供应葡萄——主要是解百纳. But while riding a tractor ten hours a day, “my ministry kicked in,” Cindy says. “I got up early and studied the Scriptures, especially the gospel of John chapter 15. 当我看着父亲做藤蔓修剪工时，我有时间冥想.”

耶稣对她说:“我是葡萄树，你们是枝子。.在《博彩平台推荐》22章中，他称自己为“耶西的根”.这些图像与她每天在葡萄园里看到的相符.

“I watched grafting, where they take a deep slice into the flesh of the vine,” she says. “The vine is what we call a rootstock—a non-fruit-bearing grape vine propagated by the nurseries. 我们使用它是因为它不易感染疾病. 我们从赤霞珠(Cabernet Sauvignon)取一根芽木嫁接进去.”

In the same way, 基督徒是通过嫁接连接在一棵真葡萄树上的树枝, which in the Lutheran understanding is baptism, she says.

“The old is gone, the new is come, and the rootstock is not susceptible to disease,” she says. 基督不受罪、死亡、撒但或试探的影响. We abide in his holy life. 罗马书11:16说，根若圣洁，枝也圣洁.’”

These and other lessons came vividly to life while she did the daily work of tending, watering, and harvesting.

“While I love the outdoors and tractors and farming, I was still a DCE at heart,” she says. “回家的召唤变成了事奉，即使是在这片土地上.”

Cindy often captured her thoughts on a blog, which came to the notice of Concordia Publishing House. They asked her to write three books. Eventually, 辛迪开始吉普车之旅，向人们宣传可持续农业, 并通过葡萄园的视觉例子来教导福音.

“‘可持续’是一个非常时髦的词，”她说. “可持续农业意味着我们做出的每一个决定都是用水, growing grapes, 等等——所有这些都着眼于未来和可持续性. We have to have profitability, 为我们的工人和家庭安全使用化学品, and never over-use the environment.”

The other tour—called Sustainable Life or, more informally, “我的约翰15耶稣吉普车之旅”——也获得了牵引力.

“We get in the Jeep and see Jesus in his words of ’I am the vine and you are the branches,’ in the vineyard,” she says.

On the business side, 游客们不停地询问在哪里可以品尝到斯坦贝克家的葡萄酒, 辛迪厌倦了把他们送到购买他们葡萄的酿酒厂.

“That’s when I pretty well had it in my mind that it was time to start the Steinbeck wine label,” she says. “It was very scary to step out and make a product that would have our own name on it, but I knew in my heart that it was right.”

我每时每刻都在祈祷，祈求上帝保佑这个地方.

The Steinbeck family launched their wine brand in 2006 and opened a wine tasting room in 2009. They completed a processing facility in 2017, 允许他们在现场自己装桶装瓶.

Yet even as the wine business and ministry were ramping up, Cindy’s marriage ended.

“我不得不意识到这是家庭暴力. I could not see the mistreatment,” she says. “I was so convinced that God wanted me married that I gave God no other option. I prayed for peace in my house for 20 years and did not ever anticipate that divorce would be how God worked to bring peace in my house.”

与此同时，史蒂夫也走过了同样痛苦的道路. His first marriage ended in divorce, and his second wife, Joyce, succumbed to leukemia in 2016. “It’s been anything but a smooth and easy ride, but God has been incredibly faithful in how he has provided for me and for our family,” Steve says.

Widowed, Steve continued a tradition of traveling north every spring for a wine festival in Paso Robles, as he and Joyce had done for years. There, he visited Cindy at her vineyard. 这对夫妇在服事时彼此很熟. “When Joyce died, it was traumatic for Cindy as well because we were all friends,” Steve says.

Steve and Cindy took walks in the vineyard to talk about life’s hardships and victories, 以及他们如何看到上帝的手在这一切中运作.

“她在很多方面帮助了我，”史蒂夫说. “It’s been a huge part of my healing process. Jesus says, ‘Abide in me.’ When you wander around the vineyard, 你看那些嫁接和这个季节的时代, the different growth, the sap flow. It’s a very spiritual place.” Cindy reflects the same sentiment.

Initially, neither had in mind a new relationship, but over time a new perspective developed. 他们于2021年结婚，刚刚庆祝了结婚一周年. “It’s totally a God thing,” Steve says.

Part of their bond is sharing a great excitement for Concordia University Irvine, where Cindy has served twice on the board of regents, Steve served as president of the alumni board, and both have guest lectured. Cindy earned her master’s degree in history and theology 2002年从亚洲体育博彩平台毕业，史蒂夫获得了学士学位 Religious Studies in 1984.

“我对康科迪亚的人们产生了极大的喜爱，”她说. “My passion grew as I became very good friends with not only the admin team but my regent compadres. Professors invited me to come speak on marketing or in a business class or theology class. 作为一名董事，我能够将自己融入学校环境.”

She recently spoke to Townsend Institute students and led a devotion at a recent kick-off event for a new student cohort. John Townsend, 是谁让她成为领导力/高管培训研究所的研究员, 辛迪的贡献“对我们的公司非常有价值” Organizational Leadership and Executive Coaching and Consulting students.”

辛迪说，她对母校的爱多年来与日俱增. “Being able to donate wine for the Gala of Stars and have so many faithful people visit me on the ranch and experience the Jesus Jeep Ride has been great,” she says. “Dr. Michael Thomas 一个令人惊叹的领导者——不仅风度翩翩而且有远见卓识. He gets it done. He sees a vision and is going to carry that out. 他所组建的内阁是一支充满活力的力量, 他给了他们实现他愿景的工具. 他设定路线，然后把工作交给他们，而不是对他们进行微观管理. He’s a great leader. There is a tremendous synergy taking place.”

She calls it a “domino effect of success” when components such as building projects, fundraising, 和新项目的建立一起发生.

“God has been so good,” she says. “We’re enhancing our campus. 我们有忠实的捐赠者，他们非常活跃，非常慷慨. The long-term strategic plan is phenomenal.”

Steve is excited to be part of “so many cool things about the mission and ministry of Concordia,” he says. “It’s a bright future.”

It’s been anything but a smooth and easy ride, but God has been incredibly faithful.

Today, Steve also provides leadership and mentorship to the Pacific Southwest District’s DCEs.

“Both Steve and Cindy have had a powerful impact through their various ministries,” says Tim Jaeger, 亚洲体育博彩平台的副校长, Marketing, and Communications. “看到上帝把这两个特别的人带到一起真是太棒了.”

Steve is preparing to move north to join Cindy at the vineyard and put his efforts fully into their shared ministry, Voice in the Vineyard. 除了辛迪的耶稣吉普之旅和演讲活动, the couple is transforming an oak-filled park on their property and putting in trailers where people can stay in the vineyard itself, enjoying group dinners and wine, conversation, and encouragement.

史蒂夫说:“我们一起支持和关心我们所爱的人。.“We will be supportive and caring through hospitality, Scripture study, and talking to people. 我们帮助那些强壮但疲惫的人休息和恢复.”

辛迪的儿子现在负责斯坦贝克的农业业务, 她女婿是他们的助理酿酒师. 辛迪最近自费出版了第四本关于她离婚经历的书, and she still works the land.

“In a few minutes, 我要跳上一辆拖拉机，去割一些让我烦恼的杂草,她在接受《亚洲体育博彩平台》杂志采访接近尾声时说.

斯坦贝克的品酒室每周七天欢迎客人, and its winery produces 1,500 cases annually, 将剩下的99%的葡萄卖给更大的酿酒厂. Her mother and father, 也有支持协和女神的历史吗, are healthy and strong in their early eighties. Her father, “a true farmer at heart,喜欢举办可持续农业之旅，是游客的最爱.

让辛迪和史蒂夫继续在一起的是祈祷. “I pray every moment,” she says. “I sit at the top of my driveway regularly and ask God to work through this place. It’s his land; I’m a steward.”

Their journeys, separately and now together, have been “absolutely God all the way,” she says.