Cheryl Stoeger: A life defined by faith, family and kids

TORRINGTON – For Cheryl Stoeger, the road that led to her current position as principal of Valley Christian School had plenty of detours, forks and discussions with God.
She grew up in that part of Colorado they do not show on travelogs, the flat, sun-seared plains of southeast Colorado.
“My grandfather homesteaded as a horse rancher,” Stoeger said. “And then when mom and dad got married he gave them their own piece of property. Mom and dad still live there, but they gave up ranching about five years ago because of the drought. Now they just lease
it out.”
After high school, she knew she wanted to go to a Bible College but her pocketbook was a little lean for her choices in the United States, so she found herself at Briercrest College in Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada.
“I was the second of five kids and the schools in the U.S. just weren’t affordable,” she explained. “I knew I wanted to be a teacher at a very young age. When I was three I would line up the other kids and conduct school.
“My parents were strong (Christian) believers and I accepted Christ when I was nine. By the time I was in high school I knew I wanted to go to a Christian college.”
With her teaching degree in hand and Canadian accreditation as a teacher, Stoeger made the 2,000 mile trip to Pensacola, Fla. to teach third grade at a Christian School.
“In Pensacola I began to understand what Christian education was,” she reflected. “The most important thing we do is teach our kids about the Lord.”
She stayed there for two years, but after another discussion with God, Stoeger felt she was needed elsewhere.
“I had gone to Bolivia on a short term mission trip the summer after I left Pensacola,” she said explaining how she came to call Torrington Home. “I felt like the Lord had called me to the mission field so I wanted to be closer to home but also really experience a small town.”

So, she found herself in Torrington.
“It was the year that Valley Christian School opened, August 1978. I was the first teacher they hired. There were two other teachers so we had three classes that first year. I taught third, fourth and fifth grades, but I only had nine or 10 students that first year.”
But as soon as she got to Torrington, her road came to a very large detour, when she met Dave, her future husband.
“I met Dave the very first day I was here,” she shared. “I was helping one of the teachers paint her place and we went to the lumberyard. He helped us find what we were looking for and we were married a year after I
got here.”
A year later, she came to another detour when the couple had their first child and she left VCS to stay home with her son, Josh. Then came Natalie. Then, when their own kids were still pretty young, they began fostering
other kids.
“We had some friends that were doing it and they convinced us to get involved. Quite a few were just overnight or weekends. But some were longer.”
Asked how many kids they had fostered over the years, she furrows her brow and says she has no idea; there were a lot. The Stoegers officially adopted three of the foster kids they cared for, two boys and a girl.
“We took in a friend’s grandson and he wound up being our first adoption. When he first came to us he wouldn’t unpack his bags. When I asked him why, he said ‘in case they come for me.’ We adopted him in 2000.
‘We adopted the next two in 2002, a brother and sister. She was in second grade and he was in first grade.”
In that period of time after leaving VCS, when she helped raise dozens of other kids, Stoeger also worked at the landscaping business Dave started, Diversified Services and provided respite care for handicapped kids. In 2006, she went back to the classroom and eventually faced another fork in the road.
“I came back and taught second and third grade. Then in 2008 the board asked me to be the principle. I didn’t know what to do. I had never been a principle. I didn’t think I had the qualifications.
“Dave and I talked about it and I talked to God about it. I really didn’t want to do it. I liked teaching and wasn’t sure I could be
the principle.”
As Stoeger completes her tenth year as principle at VCS, it is pretty obvious who won
the argument.
“I enjoy children and teaching them and teaching them about the Lord. That’s what Christian education is.
“We do as well as public school teaching these kids. We have smaller classes and give more individual attention, but the most important thing we do is to teach them about the Lord.”
It’s just Dave and Cheryl at home now, and who knows maybe there is another fork in the road in their future.
“Maybe now we can do a mission trip.”