播撒未来:忠诚的种子

20世纪70年代, Kelly and Cheryl Keithly heard a pioneering educator named Charles Manske, 康科迪亚的创始主席, speak at their church about the vision for a Lutheran university in Southern California. 他的演讲鼓舞了这对年轻夫妇.

“我们的孩子都还小，上大学似乎还很遥远, 但我们对这个愿景感到非常兴奋,谢丽尔说. “At the time we didn’t have much, but we gave, and little by little we were able to increase it.”

Kelly Keithly was working in the seed 业务 and in 1981 he stepped out in faith to start his own company. 谢丽尔不相信这能奏效.

“When we started we were so poor we couldn’t pay attention, is Kelly’s expression,” says Cheryl. “The only thing I could picture was him going door to door with seed packets selling to housewives. I started crying and saying, ‘How are you going to support us doing that?“我没有按磅出售种子给种植者的概念. 一开始我就想我们会抚养我们的孩子, 希望有足够的钱送他们上大学.”

凯利接受过农业方面的培训, 没有业务, but from the beginning he dedicated the company to God and spent much time praying for the company, 他的顾客和他的雇员.

“他就像员工的导师，”谢丽尔说. “他们觉得带着个人问题来找他很舒服. 他总是把他们指向上帝. A lot were not church-goers or Bible-readers but through the years we’ve seen them start going to church. 他不仅对员工这么做，走到哪里都这么做.”

基斯利的种子公司不断发展壮大, 在神的引导和祝福之下, Keithly-Williams Seeds is the largest seed dealer in North America with $110 million in annual sales and 150 employees. The company finds and distributes seeds from all over the world. They test seeds in certain growing areas so farmers can see the results. 他们已经扩展到移植领域, 在温室里把种子培育成幼苗, then shipping the seedlings to growers who put them in the ground. 许多种植者更喜欢这样而不是自己播种.

The Keithlys also sow seeds of generosity in many Christian ministries, including 肯考迪娅.

As God blessed us we were able to increase our giving,谢丽尔说. “肯考迪娅 is right at the top of our list next to our church.

We give to quite a few of the ministries in our church body but especially 肯考迪娅, 路德时刻和世界传教会. 那是我们的心所在. 我们给了很多其他的东西, 太, but we like to concentrate it w在这里 people will be hearing the gospel.”

谢丽尔说，她的父母是“一流的父亲”. “They taught us from the time we knew what a dollar bill was to tithe. 这是很自然的事情. My dad never made more than $385 but was very generous and very, very happy.”

虽然是在不同的教派中长大的, Kelly began attending a Lutheran church with Cheryl when they were dating and jumped in so enthusiastically that “you would have thought he was the original Lutheran,谢丽尔说. He served as an elder for years at their church in Holtville and is now the head elder at their present church.

谢丽尔说:“他有一颗肩负使命的心。. “I’m always amazed at how he witnesses to people sitting across from them at dinner, 低调地分享他的信仰, urging people to get into the Word and go to church if they’re not. He sends Lutheran Hour devotions to quite a group of people every day and checks up on them to make sure they’re reading them.

他真是个小传教士. 他有一长串他为之祈祷的人. 他早上起得很早. 我会带着圣经和祷告单出去看他.

基思利的女儿卡拉1992年和苏安就读于崔. 苏安的丈夫是种子公司的推销员. The company’s vice president of operations is married to the Keithlys’ oldest daughter. Cheryl is a gift-planning advocate for the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and has served on CUI’s Board of Trustees since the 1990s, “which I was tickled to do because it allowed me to become more involved,她说。.

Cheryl says she and Kelly are “amazed at all of the new programs 肯考迪娅 is offering now, the growth not just in undergraduate students but in adult programs, 硕士学位, 在线课程. 它变得如此庞大和深远. What it has done in the community as far as outreach with faith and 业务 forums, 公共政策项目, the theatre and music departments that reach into the community, the big gala that raises over half a million dollars for scholarships. To see the campus change since our daughters were t在这里, t在这里’s no comparison to what it is now. 他们正在培养的领导者, 不仅仅是教会工作者，神学院学生和教师, but 业务 leaders with a Christian worldview—that’s so badly needed. Business leaders often are able to reach more lives, like my husband. He was considering going to the seminary in his early thirties but decided not to. 我想到他用生命影响了多少人. He goes all over the world and is influencing people in a way he couldn’t do from the pulpit.”

The American Seed Trade Association recently gave Kelly its Lifetime Honorary Membership Award, 它颁发的最高奖项之一. “God has blessed us far beyond anything we ever could have imagined,谢丽尔说. “The reason I love it so much is because it has allowed us to share the gift. 我们可以过得很简单. The joy comes in being able to share those gifts and use God’s money in that way.”

当他们死去, the Keithlys’ estate will go to six different Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod ministries including CUI.

“It’s so exciting that God’s blessings will continue long after we’re gone,” says Cheryl. “Anything invested in the lives of students at 肯考迪娅 is going to be blessed manifold over the generations as these students go out and use what they’ve been taught, 无论是在教会工作中, 学校, 业务, 医学, 工程, 无论. They’re not just learning academics, they are learning a way of life.”

She is excited to think that she and Kelly have been giving since before 欧文康考迪亚大学 started, 当时它还只是一个愿景,她说。. “Back then if you’d told us what our involvement would be at this point in our lives we wouldn’t have believed you. 这是不可思议的. 这是一段令人兴奋的旅程.”