Cindy Shriver

I have looked at this blank computer screen for hours on end trying to find the right words to describe this person who has had a great impacted to my life! I have prayed many hours for God to guide my words about this person He has blessed in my life! The only way to describe what Cindy Shriver means to me in to start from the begin…

The first time I met Cindy was at my first interview for short term missions to Romania. She sat in the back of the interview in a big black wing chair and barley said a word through the whole processes.  All though she didn’t say a word, I had a feeling that this was not going to be last time I see her! I had no idea what plans God had for her in my life, but I knew she was going to be a big part of God’s plan for me.

After the success of my first short term missions, I was asked if I ever thought about leading a short term team.  I jumped at the opportunity!! Through my process of getting ready for Romania, God was preparing me to take on this reasonability, but not the way I thought!  God never reveals His plan to us, if He did, I would never get out of the bed again!!!  I began taking the course that Cindy taught about become a leader for short term missions!!! This is when I had a chance to sit down and really get to know Cindy on a personal level! She doesn’t know this, but she became my mentor and found a personal spot in my heart!

Once the course was done, I began to think of the possibilities of leading my own team. This would have not been possible if it had not been for Cindy’s training and encourage me. I would have never thought I could do it. But and through my own sin, and God’s correction my life took a turn in different direction of suffering and waiting for God to really reveal the plans He had for me, and what part Cindy would play in it!

Through the year of suffering, Cindy became my mentor, and in the processes, she pushed me to face my sin, and to understand that God had forgiven me. She also reminded me that I could get through this not with my strength, but with God’s strength. She held out tissue to me, and listen to me struggle with my waiting, and my ever process of being refine by God. I lost a lot of friend during this time, but not Cindy, she kept pushing me into a deeper relationship with my Savoir! Telling me that God had big plans for me, and He was preparing me for something big! I just had to hold on to Him.

Then on August 27, 2013, I was getting ready to have lunch with Cindy about the possibility of getting proposal ready for leading a team in 2015 to Uganda, when I got a text that sent me down to depression again.  I now know it was God’s hand in this, and I would never have received what God was going to do through Cindy if I was not totally depended on Him at that time. I came into her office totally heart broken and crying. I started pouring my heart out to her again, and she was there again with tissues, but this time something was different! I began telling her about possibility of running a team to Uganda 2015 when she spoke the words that would forever change my life and my path. “I don’t know if the Church would go for Uganda, but that does not mean you can’t go!”

I looked at her as if she grew horns!! “Cindy! I am totally heartbroken, can’t even get up some mornings, how is God going to use me?” She just smiled at me, and said “You can do this Nikki! Do you remember what you said the first time I met you… You wanted to get up in the morning and hear the Devil say ‘Oh no she is awake’ you always wanted to be a missionary to Africa and this is the perfect time to do God’s work! I am behind you 100% on this!”  I just shook my head, and told her I would get back with her in a week.

Less than two days, I had a place to stay for year! And a plan for reaching the woman and children in Uganda! I will be leaving in September to start God’s work! This would never been a goal of mine if it had not been for Cindy! God has used her and her ministry at Crossroads to show me my true passion!

Cindy is someone that I value a lot, and she is a true blessing to my life. I pray every day for her and ministry that she does! She has mentored me through the highest points of my life, and the lowest points of my life. She allows God to work through her to bring the best out of people, and to push them beyond their comfort zones. I don’t know where I would be if it had not been for Cindy and the work she does! She is a true woman of faith and allows God to work through her to touch many lives that want to work in missions locally and globally.

 I am part of mission small group who does mission locally and will be heading out to become a full time missionary in Uganda, Africa. She took a helpless, broken girl, and with help of God and turn her in to a Godly woman who is ready to be used by God for His Glory!! I am asking everyone this week to pray for Cindy Shriver! For God to use her and to use her ministry that she is so passion about, to reach the people of Crossroad Fellowship, if she had not been leading teams and listening to God then I would still have be moving through life as a Luke-warm Christian, and not an on fire-missionary heading to the unknown!!

God has place Cindy where He wants her and where she is doing His glory! To take her out of this would be going against God’s plans for her! She has a deep relationship with God and would move forward if He called her too! I am very blessed and very thankful that God has placed her where she is!!