The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
92: Finding God in Unexpected Places: Cindi and Mark's Farm
Join in this week as Mark and Cindi share with us how God has shown up in their lives in unexpected ways, including through their place of residence! Together they share their heart for opening themselves up to whatever God gives them. They give numerous examples of the value of inviting others alongside you in your life, faith, and in their particular story, on their farm! Special thanks to Mark and Cindi for sharing with us!
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.live! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
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Welcome to the Meet Hope Podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope our world for the sake of others.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Hope. Hello and welcome to the Meet Hope podcast. My name is Heather Mandela and I am your host today. I am really excited to be here with the Schneiders, mark and Cindy Schneider, and we are talking about the way we can use what God has given us. So, mark and Cindy, hello. It's nice to meet you. Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Speaker 3:So I grew up essentially all over the US but ended up in Pennsylvania. When I got out of college and met Mark, and we actually had a very quick engagement and got married, it just seemed to be the right thing. That's awesome, and he started going to church with me, and the church that we went to brought us both to faith, actually, and so we were involved with a young group there people that were our age and then when we came to New Jersey because we were in Pennsylvania we sought out the same thing, and that's what we've done through our whole life, and our marriage is to sort of seek out people that can help us grow in our faith.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So, Mark, tell me a little bit about you.
Speaker 4:I'm the homeboy. I grew up in Moorestown, I went to Drexel, ended up in Valley Forge where I met Cindy, and then I brought her back.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I met Cindy, okay, and then I brought her back. Oh, there you go. Yeah, we we're. We own a business, that's a third generation business. So it took about 10 years before I decided to jump on board with my father. And and that's what pulled us back into this area.
Speaker 2:Okay. Now we're area, and now we're about to hit 40 years, wow so.
Speaker 3:Cindy, you're like a full fledged New Jersey. And at this point which is funny because I went to a Virginia state school and, like the first week, somebody walked in from New Jersey and said, well, you're only here because you're from Virginia, and I was like, okay, where are you from? So it was like New Jersey. And then here I, am.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my heart is in Virginia, probably Cause that's where I was most of my life. Also Cincinnati, cause that's where I was born. But I'm a diehard sports fan, so I love rooting for the Phillies and the Eagles, unless they're playing my teams. Understood.
Speaker 2:Understood.
Speaker 3:My girls were born here, so you know this is home now.
Speaker 2:This is home. This is home, yeah, yeah, absolutely Well, tell us a little bit about how you came to Hope, which is home now.
Speaker 3:So I walk my dogs about three miles every day and when we moved to Voorhees about three years ago and I tried to find different routes to walk, and so one day we live on Evesham Road so I turned left on Centennial and I just kept walking and I walked by Hope and this became sort of one of my regular routes. And so I'd walk through Hope and walk through Hope and this became sort of one of my regular routes, and so I'd walk through Hope and walk through Hope and we were going to a church that I didn't feel like we were part of the community. And I said to Mark, because it was in the city and it's hard to cross the bridge and those things. And so I said to Mark I really want a church where we can get involved more and don't have to cross the bridge to speak because that makes it harder and have a sense of community.
Speaker 3:I said so, would you go to Hope with me? And so I brought him.
Speaker 2:Seems to be a theme. Yeah, I'm sensing a theme in your life.
Speaker 4:But I mean, once we got involved here, the openness, the people, the connections, that's what kept you. Yeah, I mean it's great you can see how God's working in people's lives and how they're growing. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mark and I I guess sometimes I mean married couples are very close all the time and stuff, but when it comes to faith, a lot of times they go sort of their separate ways. And that you know, men do men's Bible studies and women do women's Bible studies, which is fine, but we've also always enjoyed doing it together, you know, so that we can sort of talk about it at home and do those kinds of things. Yeah, so we've enjoyed the opportunities and to serve together. You know that we don't and, again, there are obviously outlets where you go your separate ways, of course, but we enjoy working together and serving together. Our theme is, he said, we're third generation family business. We work together. Because I work with him, we live together and we race sailboats competitively, we sail together. So, yes, we don't hate each other no, you like each other clearly.
Speaker 2:Clearly now, how long have you guys been married?
Speaker 4:coming on 40 years 40 years.
Speaker 3:40 years in november, that's awesome, so yeah that's awesome, crazy yeah and so we've liked the opportunities that hope that we've been able to sort of jump in together as well as separately. But it's really been sort of gone right into what we enjoy.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. I'm glad to hear that Because I agree, I think it's really important to be able to have your stuff for just you. But then that couple stuff is so important and when you can find those areas to be able to serve together, to grow together, to learn together, it's what really keeps the foundation, so that when life is hard you've got something sturdy that you're standing on right Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure, yeah, so tell me a little bit about your move to Voorhees.
Speaker 4:Well, for starters, since we're in this business together and we're at that age where we should be retiring and there should be a fourth generation, which really isn't going to be a fourth generation.
Speaker 4:I mean, our two daughters are off doing their own thing. So I found a guy that's going to be the president of the company and I need to get out and we would keep our sailboats in that plant and I had to get them out. So I was looking for a place to put them and I need to get out, and we would keep our sailboats in that plant and I had to get them out. So I was looking for a place to put them and I couldn't find a place and Cindy had talked about maybe going to Florida and all the standard stuff that- Sure that you do when you retire right, yeah, yeah, more New Jerseyans in Florida than Floridians.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I looked at Florida. We put offers in, happened and I got frustrated. And then one day I looked and I saw this property that was in Voorhees. I says, hey, cindy, look at the garages in this place that could hold all the boats with its eyes closed. And the house was a single-story house where I didn't have to go up and down stairs, which she wanted, and it was, I would say, unique. So we drove down and looked at it. It had been for sale for about a year and a half and hadn't sold, and prices, houses were going up crazy. Yeah, I thought, well, shoot, let's lowball it.
Speaker 4:And we gave them a good offer, but not yeah, yeah and they took it yeah, because they've been on the house, on the market for a while for a while right and uh, and so we looked at it like, well, okay, god, put it in front of us. They took the offer we're going to put our other house up for sale. We did that. Um, we had our work cut out for us because this was a fixer-upper type scenario.
Speaker 2:Yep, it needed some work.
Speaker 4:And we like to do that stuff together, and so for the last three years we've been changing the dynamics of this property.
Speaker 2:I would say yeah. So tell us a little about the property.
Speaker 3:So the property does, he said single story, but the master's on the first floor, so that is easy for us to get older. Sure but it's got bedrooms upstairs, but the entire house we've repainted the inside. We've gutted the kitchen, we're in process of gutting bathrooms. We've redone the outside because a lot of it was structural that we had to make sure that we got the house structurally sound.
Speaker 3:As well as people who know the property there were horses there- but, the fences weren't containing the horses adequately, so we had to replace fences before we brought horses back to the property. And the same with the barn. They had stalls, but they were too small for horses, really, really.
Speaker 2:So we had to expand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, redid the barn so that it was a good space for horses. So it's been one of these things, that sort of every time we turn around there's something to do, but in a good and bad way, Like some of the things structurally to be sound we had to do. But also, as my girl said to us, when we said this is what we're thinking of doing, they said well, you're not going to wake up any morning and say I have nothing to do.
Speaker 2:You'll never ask what will I?
Speaker 3:do today Between feeding the animals?
Speaker 2:and just doing the normal life stuff.
Speaker 3:People are surprised. We cut the grass, we do the weeding. Yes, we have some people to help redo a kitchen and those kinds of things. But the daily upkeep and stuff we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because that's sort of the stuff we enjoy. We decide to pull out a bush, we're doing it. Yeah, you know, yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think that's good for, especially if you own a business. You spend your life in this business. To pull out of it, you've got to have something else to do. Yes, this is easy. Yes, something else to do, yeah and uh. You know, this morning I got up. They went and walked the dogs, I got the wagon in the, in the hoe or whatever. What do you call that? It's a rake yeah, and I picked up the manure in the freaking pastures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there's always something. Always.
Speaker 3:Yeah, always, but it's a fun something and people think that that may be crazy, but it's just like enjoying being outside and just enjoying.
Speaker 2:Nature God's creation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, God's creation and our little animals that you know. I tell people it's the crazy farm because we have this collection of animals and it's just fun because people who don't know we have two horses, we have five chickens, we have two dogs, we have some fish in a pond that are multiplying.
Speaker 2:I'm sure.
Speaker 3:So we have a menagerie, but it's just fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I can attest to that. I personally love your property and I love everything that's going on there, so we visit often, which kind of leads me into my next thing is that you guys have been so open and generous with your properties. Tell us a little bit about where that comes from.
Speaker 4:Our faith. I mean it's definitely. I mean everything that we've gotten. I mean we've been through our ups and our downs. I mean some really decent, pretty hardships that God's pushed us through. It's all His. The house is His, property is His, everything around us is His. It's just we're blessed to have it yeah, yeah and what are we supposed to do? We love people and, yeah, share our faith and the doors open, you know, and it's it's kind of neat. It's unique in that not too many people have horses and chickens and well, right in the middle of the suburbs right like.
Speaker 2:So that's yeah, yeah, you is literally in the middle of a development.
Speaker 3:It's amazing, right, yeah, we see it just as he said. We see it, as you know, that other people should be able to enjoy it as well as us. You know our job is to make sure it's safe, which is you know some of the work we've done to make it safe, but everybody should be able to enjoy, and so that's why we want it to be open. You know, our neighbors come and can we pet the horses? Can we look at the chickens? You know it's like.
Speaker 3:Please come you know, and that gives us joy because other people are enjoying what we've been able to have the benefit of, and we do believe that it's only through God. I mean, god led us here, obviously, and led us to the property and made it something that could happen, so we just want to honor him and have other people enjoy it like we do.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's beautiful.
Speaker 4:And I mean you know it's right when things start to flow, that that's beautiful yeah, and I mean, you know it's right when things start to flow. Yes, for example, rachel is our nephew and she was into horses and we hadn't brought the horses in and we were looking for horses and we were looking for rescues and, uh, all the rescues were, I would say, nasty, because they'd been hurt and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 4:And lo and behold, there's this phone call. We've got these two lovely horses that I can't put down. Can you put them in? Think about taking them? We went, looked at them. Rachel came and looked at them with us and when she walked out she says Mark, I expected I had to go find you horses. These horses are incredible and they are. I mean, they're loves. Yeah, we had 20 kids hanging on one of them and he wanted more.
Speaker 2:Winston can never get enough attention. There's never enough attention for Winston. Yes.
Speaker 4:Unfortunately, we lost mama after a couple of years, but she was similar she had to warm up to you.
Speaker 2:She was lovely, but she wanted the attention.
Speaker 4:Yes, and you don't get that without.
Speaker 2:And so open to so many people too. Like both of the horses, it wasn't like they bonded with one and weren't. Yeah, no, and that's unique as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that makes us feel better, because then people can approach sure instant, for example, and climb all over them and not feel like that horse is going to stomp on them or bite them or anything like that yeah, we're not scared to have people sure interact because we know that they're they're good yeah, yeah, they're good horses, so that makes it even better, yeah and you've been able to host some unique events there and to have some unique groups come out and be able to enjoy and play farm right, to be able to be with those animals and just kind of experience, what it's like to live on a farm, an experience they might not have gotten any other time or might not get again, and that's awesome.
Speaker 3:We were able to host our daughter had a Bible study through a group in. Philly and they came over quite a few times and you know, just for families who live in Philly to just have a wide open space.
Speaker 2:Yes, With kids, yes With kids, you know. Yeah, let those kids run around, right, yes. And then we've had some of the urban.
Speaker 4:Take them up to the hayloft and watch them climb in the hay. I mean that's really kind of fun to watch.
Speaker 3:We've had Urban Promise girls over, you know, and it's just fun to see them experience things that a lot of us take for granted. Like even going to the zoo and seeing animals there. But not being able to touch them. To be able to touch them is something that people don't realize, that not everybody has.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And especially something as big as a horse.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I don't think my husband had ever ridden or anything before we got together. I mean, I think his first time actually being up close to a horse was on our honeymoon, because I made him go horseback riding with me. It was like, but it was no, it was not an experience that, regardless of your background, that everybody has.
Speaker 3:Right, when you're used to it, yeah, you forget that others just don't. You're kidding me, right? Yeah, so it's fun to see people experience that and just the joy that they have from doing that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it gives us a lot of joy.
Speaker 4:There was one girl that walked one of our horses for probably a good half an hour. She said can I? Walk him and we're like go at it, go at it yeah.
Speaker 2:And just walked and walked and had a great time just you know, like just leading, yeah, just leading and guiding, and yeah, yeah yeah it's a gift.
Speaker 2:It really is, it's, and and I know my family has been blessed by it. We enjoy coming over and playing with winston and d and um and spending time with them and rushing them all that kind of good stuff. But, um, it definitely. You're being willing to open up your home and your property in that way has made a difference in the lives of a lot of people, and sometimes I think people feel like they have to have certain qualifications or they have to know certain amount of things, or they have to have an expansive whatever to be able to give and to or to offer something back and you know, and that's what.
Speaker 3:We're just normal people and we weren't farmers. You know, we're learning as we go, that that's why, you know, we joke all the time like things happen well okay, but we're just normal people and and we're just trying to make the best of every situation as we go along and let people in yeah to the craziness as they want to be in, because that's what it is. It's just everyday life that's going on. It's nothing special.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that idea of letting people into the craziness, because that's where real community happens, right.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's not in the pretty pictures, it's not in the tied up in a bow situations, it's in the messy, crazy.
Speaker 3:And see in the reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is it.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:And you know it's, I don't know. I mean talking about that stuff. The mess is so important, whether I'm in the mess or you're in the mess. You know, talking about the mess with other people helps yeah.
Speaker 2:Because we don't realize. We idealize everyone around us and we tend to think that everybody else has it together and we're the ones that are falling apart, and the reality is we are all in it up to our neck and just trying to wade through it Right and keep our eyes on Jesus in the process. And yeah, and it is truly a gift when you are able to allow someone to see that in you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're just going along and doing it and we just yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know people ask do we muck the stalls? Yes, we're out there mucking the stalls, we're right into it. But also, my daughter asked me that, especially one day, because her son loves to do it with me. He said why? I said I come out here, who's going to bother me? Yeah, nobody. I can turn on my Christian music and I can sing to my heart's content. No one's going to be here, nope. And so I'm mucking stalls. Yeah, big deal. It's a great way to find some alone time. That's right. But and that's what we find a lot of times on the farm is that, you know, in unexpected places you find God just because of what you're doing, and we are blessed because of that. Yeah, very blessed.
Speaker 3:Well so Well.
Speaker 4:I appreciate that and I mean, when you retire, what are you going to do? What are?
Speaker 1:you going to do?
Speaker 4:I still ask that question. And I've asked that to many people.
Speaker 2:We have our answer.
Speaker 4:You have your answer? Yes, you do. We have busy work.
Speaker 2:Yes, you've got lots to do.
Speaker 4:You've got lots to do. It's not bad? No, it's not, it is.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and thank you for sharing that experience with us and for literally sharing your home and your property with us, and I just want to encourage everyone listening that God will use you, right where you are, if you are willing to say yes. And so, if you are looking to get connected and go deeper into community, please don't ever hesitate to reach out.
Speaker 1:You can reach out to us at heatheratmeathopeorg, and we hope that you will have an awesome week and we'll talk to you next time. Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch.