WR: Hey guys how are you doing?
Cindy: We are great!
Tim: You look great Mrs. Bird
Cindy: (chuckles) Thank you
WR: For those of us that haven’t met you, could you give us a little introduction as to who you are?
Cindy: Sure! Well, we are just a family of believers here in Texas. Tim is a realestate agent and I do some life coaching. We’re associated with Adventures in Missions because we’ve been coaches on the World Race. People always ask us what we do and we think it’s a funny question to answer because we love to just do whatever the Lord is leading us to do, which kind of changes from season to season. We’re just believers practicing believing
Tim: The important is that we’ve been married 28 years next month
WR: I’ve heard stories that you guys have been pretty busy lately? Would you like to tell us a little about what you’ve been doing?
Cindy: Well, the whole world is in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. When that broke out, we asked the Lord what He had for us to do at that time. We could see what the Devil was doing, that part was easy, but what is it that you have going on and what does that look like for us? As we were praying, journaling and processing with the Lord we felt like He gave us 3 areas:
- Buy a 3D printer and make plastic respirator masks
- Sew homemade masks for the people around us
- Create homemade hand sanitizer
WR: How do you live in that kind of transition, being willing to move and do whatever you feel God leading you to do?
Tim: So, where do I start? Here’s the thing that’s been absolutely amazing. 10 minutes from our home is the largest manufacturer of N95 masks in all of America. So, we’re faced with this question “Is my purpose to make masks?” If that were my purpose, then we could have just mobilized some workers to work the overnight shift and produced over a million. For those like like math, if this were about making masks for my family, I could’ve made ten thousand more masks a day from volunteering at this factory. So, it’s not about making masks. This is about relationships. So, the way we got started (and the way we would encourage everyone to get started) is to be face down in your closet. Ask the Lord “How do you want to relate to me now? Is there something I’m supposed to do? It’s not about what we’re doing. It’s about how we do it. That involves following what the Lord has asked, even if it’s ridiculous.
Cindy: I think worldwide what God is doing is calling His church into a time of rest. And that’s the opposite of a “doing”. We believe He’s bringing families back into the living room together. So, we don’t have a go-to that says you have to DO something. Instead, we want to ask “What Lord would you have us do?” We don’t want to communicate a message of “Do more” or “Try harder”. Instead, we want to tell people just “Do what He’s asking you to do”
WR: So what advice would you give someone on how to use this time?
Tim: First, it all starts with time [in prayer]. If it’s all day, then take all day. The church has done a great job of responding to this crisis in a virtual manner. There have been prayer lines, worship nights, church online, etc. We’re doing a great job reaching out to our community. What I would encourage people to do is walk outside, look down the street, and start reaching out to those people. Go and look for ways to reach out to your neighbors outside of what’s being done today. You’ll discover lots of opportunities. From there, just follow the Lord and make sure that you’re following this with a deep relationship with Him.
That’s your greatest leverage point in changing the world
Cindy and Tim have said that the biggest way you can help them during this time is to pray alongside them and ask the Lord what He would have you do. However, if you would like to donate financially to their ministry you can find out more by visiting here. To hear more inspirational stories like Cindy and Tim’s, make sure to subscribe to the Hope Rising Blog.
