Stepping into the hearts of Jonathan, Aaron, Timothy...

Sorry for this late post!

I look back over my time here so far and think: He could have called me here for the sole purpose of doing just one of those things or having just that one conversation with so and so person, and yet, He's blessed me with so many amazing encounters.

Today, God used me to encourage Christians. And I seriously think I got blessed more. In encouraging them, in sharing scripture with them, in reminding them of God's faithfulness, goodness and promises, my own faith was refreshed.

Please pray for a dear friend I've made at Carrubbers. I'll keep her name under wraps to respect her privacy. I went to her flat to cheer her up a bit as she was feeling really ill. God had placed several scriptures on my heart to read over her. I was so puzzled when she started crying. She told me that ever since the Fringe started, she and so many others at Carrubbers have been experiencing incredibly heavy spiritual warfare, to the point where people are in pain and nauseous for no apparent reason. She talked with some pastors and they said that most everyone serving at Room 65 has been feeling the weirdness and heavy oppression. She was crying because she realized how much God loved the Christians laboring in Edinburgh because He sent someone like me to encourage them and bring in a freshness of His Spirit. She said that God knew how much of a toll the Christians there would have because of the great evil that was proliferating in their city during the Fringe, so He sent in reserve Christians like me to hold them up by praying for their city and serving alongside them in their time of need and discouragement.
I was blown away by what she shared. How great - how vast are the sum of His thoughts towards us! Ps 139

Jane and Dan - probably in their early 50s. Dan was a really quiet sort of man. Said he was a Christian, but really struggling with his faith. He's lived very discouraged for the last 10 years out of his 30 years knowing Christ. He tried to kill himself last year. I told him that in all honesty, I've been a Christian for less time than he's lived as a discouraged Christian; that I hadn't walked in his shoes, and that I didn't really know what he's gone through, and I won't know until I've walked with Christ 22 more years, and that there are definitely times of grief that I've experienced that I have no idea how to explain or why God allowed it. I empathized with him.
I shared with him the basic disciplines in Christ I employ that have helped me in getting past discouragement or the enemy's lies: reading a bit of scripture - God's promises to me - everyday, praying and giving my thanks to Him everyday, hanging out with God everyday, being in good solid fellowship, memorizing bits of scripture to fight off the enemy's whispers, blessings others to feel blessed myself, etc. He and Jane realized they both weren't doing but needed to.
I told him just how incredibly loved and valuable he was to the LORD. I prayed over him before I left. Jane, who was also struggling in her faith, and Dan were both crying when we finished up. He said that it's been very rare for him to meet a Christian in Scotland who's shown him compassion and Christ's love when he admitted to being suicidal and discouraged. Most Christians he's confessed to to get help have condemned him. :(
He said that He felt, after so long, that God indeed was trying to comfort him and encourage him to keep pressing forward.

Praise the LORD!!!

Lastly, Bella and her son, a homeless lady I came by while I was pray-walking.
I sat down beside her.
Me: Hi. Has anyone told you about Jesus?
B: Aye. A Christian told me about him yesterday.
Me: What did you think of what he'd said?
B: I liked it.
Me: Why?
B: [Long silence. She pulls out a slip of paper from her pocket.] He said if I believed in Jesus Christ in my heart, there'd be hope for me.
Me: He's right.
B: Here what he gave me. But I can't read it.
Me: [I took the slip of paper and read it. It was a scripture from Isaiah].
If you know what you know about Jesus, why are you out here?
B: Tomorrow morning my son and I are catching a bus back home. I wasn't supposed to come here, but I did. But I know now I got to get right with God. I'm going to church when I get home - a good Christian one, not one of those cooky Jehovah Witness ones - and get my life turned around again.
Me: Good. Go to a church that preaches Jesus Christ. If you don't hear his name in a sermon, leave and go to a church that does.
B: Ok.
Me: I won't give you money, but I'll buy you two dinner.
B: Thank you!
Me:The food will fill you up for tonight, but Jesus Christ inside you will fill you up for a lifetime. You've got to stick close to Him. Read your bible, pray to Him, listen to Him.
B: Yes, I see. I understand.

In all honesty, I purposely didn't feel like taking her through the sinner's prayer. I know we talk about giving people the choice to choose Christ in their hearts that day, but I need to pray about this more. I just don't remember Christ or his disciples leading people through sinners' prayers to accept Jesus into their hearts. He expressed how imperative it was to repent right away, but it just seems like He left the actual sinners' prayer as something they were to do in secret in their heart. That the evidence of their choice would come out in their lifestyle. Anyways, these are just my raw thoughts.

God bless!

Shruti

God Uses the Weak

I've got to crash soon before church in the morning. Patti, one of the missionaries here, asked me to sing with her while she leads worship as the usual person is out. I've never sung before other people like on stage. Please keep it in prayer.

Thursday I had a wonderful day with Jenny Tait, a friend come over from Glasgow. Twice in the day I felt called, mid-sentence talking with Jenny, to talk to a few girls. The first time I totally biffed it. Hesitated way too long to a point where I would have had to awkwardly chase her down.
I wish I had.
3 days I didn't feel led to talk to anyone whilst walking around, and when I finally did, I froze.
The other girl was on the bus. Decked out in black everything. Chloe, if you're reading this: I knew right away I was just supposed to give her your CD with the Gospel poem on it. I tried. But the girl practically curled herself in the corner and refused to take it or converse with me. My heart majorly hurt for her. She had these blood shot (from tears?) yet soft, Russian eyes.

The Underbelly evangelism got canceled because the leaders were out of town. So I've been at Carrubbers the last two nights at the Room 65 Cafe. 600+ people have walked in those doors and received the gospel!

Please pray for the following gals I talked with at Room 65:

Deepti & Sneha - two hindu/Indian girls from London. Pray they understand that worshipping all gods, like Jesus and Allah, and Hindu gods, doesn't mean they're saved and have their bases covered. Sneha was resonating, Deepti was acting self-righteous.

Alba & Martha - two girls from Spain. Hi? Can I please disciple you?! Please?
My heart was so wanting to take in Alba and just hang out with her and edify her in her faith. They're both Catholics, recently moved here, and still looking for a church. A really cool convo about needing to know Jesus Christ and not church tradition. Alba really understood. They didn't have Bibles, so I sent them home with a few and dogearred the Gospel of Mark, to learn about Jesus, and Phillipians, to learn about the fruit we bear in Jesus. They both said they wanted to come to the midweek Bible study.

Jessica - a gal who is traveling on her own. She knows the LORD! Please pray for her to fall more in love with Him on this trip.

Please pray for the following folks my new friend Christina and I talked with on the streets:

Keith - such a awesome convo. He said he really needed a Savior. He was getting really scared at how much his sin was piling up. He even played a song on his guitar for us about wanting God to find him, and unbeknownst to him, there was some scripture in it! Grew up Catholic. He said he kept getting stuck in dedicating himself to God because he knew he'd backslide and couldn't keep up righteousness. We told him that he must come to God as he is, trusting God will do the work to cleanse him and sustain him. We shared Romans 7:13-25, that even Paul struggled with doing what he didn't want to do and not doing what he did want to do as a Christian, but in Philippians 3:12-14, Paul resolved that "I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
I love how Keith was seriously considering his committment to follow Christ before making the decision; please pray though that he understands Christ's grace and power to affect change in his heart.

Hippie girl and post-modern girl - sorry, can't remember names. This was a crazy convo, but really good. And we totally experienced a miracle. Hippie girl was nuts. Like all over the place, not letting us talk and twisting everything we were saying. And then it was like magic (well no, the Holy Spirit, duh) and she totally calmed down, listened, and followed along! Pray she understands that the Jesus she follows isn't the real Jesus, and that she desires to know the real one. Pray also that she understands she is a sinner, and that God will judge all sinners one day. Post modern girl was quiet the whole time and then out of nowhere asked a brilliant question: Why did God bother to make humans if we're such screw ups? And if He made us to worship Him, God seems arrogant.
I had asked this same exact question about 6 months before I had gotten saved :) It was actually one of the major reasons I'd dug my heals in to not going to church when invited.
Please pray for her faith to return to her, and that it would be grounded in Jesus, and not man or church. She was burned by a church that fell apart because of corruption.

On a last note, it's crazy how God has opened up friendship with Emma (from Carrubbers Church) and Christina (from CC Edinburgh). We just have such similar testimonies, and all of us are the only believers in our families, and came to him as such unlikely candidates. Sharing the Gospel with Christina today was like walking around with a prophetess. She has such a gift of knowing and proclaiming the Word of God.

Anyways, it's 1 in the morning. Good night and thanks for praying!
Shruti

Edinburgh

I can't tell you enough how wonderful it was to come home yesterday from the day to very encouraging emails/prayers from George and Kristina and little notes from several other friends. They lifted my spirits. A day without an agenda, only praying, is really really tough. What I found happening most of all were certain worrisome thoughts incessantly resurfacing that I didn't realize I gave such leeway to before, because of how busy life kept me. These thoughts were really lies, uncertain assumptions I had made about the future, and even about the present and the past.

I look back through the blog postings at all the the perfect ways God provided for me over the last week - Ugh with the bags, Giovanni and Noami with the way to King's Cross, the "Take Courage" sign in my moment of fear... and I can't help but wonder, 'If God has His eyes on me for all the little things, why don't I trust Him completely with the big things that have yet to be fulfilled?' The things that He knows mean the most to me. Why don't I trust that what is important to me is so much more important to Him?

A man who loves giving gifts to the one he loves always finds her desires fascinating, and even more so, the opportunity to fulfill her desires.

It has become so apparent that this is 1/2 of what He wants to teach me here. To dwell in Him. To trust Him with my whole heart. To banish the assumptions and worst case scenarios I tend toward. To trust that living as a living sacrifice doesn't mean living as an ascetic. He wants me to live with full expectation that God has such blessing in store for me for this life too, and not only the eternal one. For someone like me, it takes greater faith for me to believe this than the opposite.

The other 1/2 of what He is teaching me - rather, breaking me into - is His desire to make me into a ministering person for Him, rather than doing ministry. It's been 2 days, and I have yet to feel led to talk to anyone. In this specific exercise He has called me to here, He wants to develop in me a sensitivity to His voice, to Him leading, to His agenda. He wants me to have no agenda except this: delight in Him in whatever I am doing and listen attentively for His voice. Be ready to help, to show kindness, and speak of Him when He brings occasion. I look through the gospels, and that is what I see Jesus doing. The Father was the one that brought together Jesus and the personal encounter.
I don't think this opposes outreach activities, but rather I'm learning that God wants me to be available and ready and flexible, and then trust Him for the encounters. That the number of encounters I have means little. Living every moment with a sensitivity to His Spirit and voice means everything. This is His version of success for me.

At every given moment, He knows who will listen today and who will just hear. He knows who will taste and swallow today and who will taste and spit out. He knows who is ready for the entire Gospel message today and who still needs to experience Christ's love with a simple "Praise Jesus" as a reply to their thank you. Our God is far more faithful and invested than we are in making sure every person has the opportunity to choose Him as their ransom. It just hit me today that if I do more or less than what the Spirit told me to do during an encounter - as in speaking vaguely, or speaking forcefully or out of cold routine - I may be complicating the person's appointed time to hear the Gospel when they're able to actually receive it. The last thing this world needs more of is someone who thinks they're saved because they know the Gospel message, and yet have no relationship with Jesus.

Anyways, check everything I say against the Word and against the convictions the LORD gives you.

As for Christina at the Forsythe Tea Room, God baited and switched me. She wasn't the one who needed encouragement; she pretty much drenched me in encouragement! If the Shaw twins at church are like rainbows, Christina is sunshine. She has terrible arthritis and osteoperosis, to the point where her fingers and toes are all crooked, and yet her joy, her steadfastness, her confidence in the LORD was overflowing. She worked in pain, and yet served her teahouse guests with such love and selflessness. I hadn't said but a hello when we hit it off, unable to get out fast enough all our favorite verses and what God had been teaching us lately. She told story upon story of all the little miracles God had done for her in her little teashop. The power went out a few times. As I bused tables and washed dishes for her in the dark, we sang hymns together and I sang her some Shoreline worship songs. Tuesday we'll sit and just read the Bible together.

I've gained a most precious grandmother.

Lastly, Room 65 is awesome. I just sat and took it all in last night. Guys, I love - absolutely love - their boldness to speak the Gospel, to speak of Jesus, to speak of repentance and restoration in between each worship song. It is so easy here to speak vaguely, to not want to offend people. But the Christians at Carrubbers are unafraid to speak the truth in love. And God gives them incredible favor because people are truly repenting and coming to the LORD. Please pray for my friend Emma I've met there (not the Emma of London). She and Pastor David are doing a sort of intensive Alpha course every Tues and Fri afternoon for people who indicate during the nights at the cafe that they want to learn more about Jesus. I think this is awesome - Carrubbers has a true heart to not only make Christians, but to make disciples of Christ. I prayer-walked with Emma today for a bit and...yeah... it's just amazing how God orchestrates people to minister to us and mature us in our faith.

Tonight I'm staying in and getting into His Word again. Thurs night is Bible study at CC Edinburgh. Fri night is evangelism in Edinburgh's Camden Town equivalent, dubbed 'The Underbelly". Sat/Mon/and Tues nights I'll be serving at Carrubbers. Please keep the encounters in prayer and that I can just been servant and blessing to the Christians there!

Christ's peace and love to you!

1. Fri & Sat night street witnessing/evangelism in Camden Town, London

Wow. Camden Town, London on Fri and Sat nights is like sin city without the gambling. Well actually, people were gambling everywhere in the spiritual sense: women gambling their bodies and health, desperate to be told they were beautiful, men gambling their money on women & alcohol, desperate to be told they were cool, wealthy, and handsome. People right and left gambling their state of mind to drugs, desperate to keep at bay their misery.

We were only 5 on Fri and 3 on Sat. They were thousands. And yet when it was so tempting for me to despair at the odds, the LORD had placed this comforting thought in my heart: we were His lanterns, just giant transparent vessels shedding piercing llight in every direction. The darkness scurries when the light enters. Where the LORD is present, and He was within us, even the darkness is as noon day. Job 11:17, Isa 58:10

Our crew included Luke & Frida, Landon, David, and me. I can't really express how blessed I was to be in their company, and the joy that welled up within me as I saw God using such ordinary people as us, with our fears and shyness, to convey His salvation and love to the craziest sort of people.

Please pray for these folks as you feel led! We encountered many more people, but these were the ones I could remember or was somehow a part of the conversation.

Ahad - a man from Bangladesh who received the Gospel. There was a major language barrier, but he was attentive and I was able to convey it with hand motions (charades!).

Andrew (I believe) - Landon shared with him, and he really truly was following along, agreeing in his need for Jesus as his Savior! He was about to accept Jesus, when his lady friend came by and began unloading a bunch of philosophy. She was definitely a distraction, but she also got the Gospel. Andrew was very interested in attending the Bible study on Wed.

Kelly - oh man, my heart was just punched around for this girl. Talk about a young woman who all but invited men to toy with her heart and then leave her. She believed in God and had a cold respect for Him as sovereign, but refused to hear that God was loving or that Jesus had done anything for her. She said God couldn't be loving if He allowed her to be hurt so often by men. She is 21, a single parent, and with a 5 year old son. She was out partying because her son was at the dad's house a few days a month. How I wanted her to understand that she and other sinners, and not God, had invited in all those times of being used, and that God wanted to rescue her from herself. But she wouldn't budge. Her pride hadn't been broken yet. She basically said, "I'm not a mean or bad person. In fact, I stand up for others who get bullied. I won't believe in this Jesus fellow or God being loving. If He was, then He wouldn't have made people so evil."

Amanda - yay Luke and Frida and David!! See? This is why each of us are vital to God. About 30 minutes before we ran into Amanda again, I had tried to speak with her, but she had cussed me out. But when these three spoke to her, she ended up wanting to get the directions to the Wed Bible study! God used Frida, Luke, and David to work through to her heart the way the rest of us couldn't. She was struggling a lot with how God could forgive her sins... she just felt so ashamed as she rattled off ones that she felt were unforgivable. It was so awesome to see the three not even phased and reaffirm to her that Jesus paid for her in full.

Trevor - for whatever reason, I don't feel like this is my story to tell. Please chat with Landon and David who can fill you in on how to pray for him and really, his significance in both of their hearts. Is is saved now, but please pray for his sanctification and hunger for the LORD.
Same goes for Rudy, a drug dealer that Landon and David had a great conversation with.
I was tagging along as an armor bearer, praying for each of them and for Trevor and Rudy.

Emma - ok this is going to have to be a separate post cause this was awesome and I'm way too tired. It's 1:30am right now, and I need to catch the bus into Edinburgh at 9am to walk the streets & pray to our wonderful and beautiful God, and be ready to testify of Him to whomever He has appointed to me. Plus, I check in with Room 65 Cafe tomorrow and dear sweet Christina, a tea shop owner I've been asked to encourage. Can't wait!

God bless you!
Shruti

Prayer Requests

Brace yourselves. This post will be long and chopped up. There's so much the LORD's put on my heart to share over the last few days, and I'm sorry, I can't make a call on what to edit out. I've listed out the topics, so choose to read whatever is on your heart.

But before I start, I'll put out my personal prayer requests:
- Transition from London to Scotland. I've gone from a buzzing home in London's heart with 8 missionary friends with whom to constantly fellowship with to a large Bible college dormitory with just me, one student who lives in a separate wing, and the missionary couple running the facility. An active aloneness (as in where I'm focusing on the LORD and actively listening to Him, versus reading and gardening..hobbies I do solo and can zone out in) is really hard for me.
- For tomorrow, my first day walking around Edinburgh and praying for it's inhabitants and speaking only when He prompts me to, as the LORD had directed me to do so on May 13th. (Today I caught up on desperately needed sleep, laundry, quiet time with the LORD, and having dinner with the missionaries I'm staying with).
- I've asked the LORD to make me culturally sensitive, and yet I keep feeling like He's telling me not to hold anything back in terms of joy, fervor, excitement, etc. He said that this isn't being American, it's being a Christian, the way it ought to be! Please pray I don't feel intimidated to just be myself and go all out.
- That the LORD would direct my path; that I would trust Him and lean not on my own understanding.
- The Fringe Festival has started and will arouse a lot of temptation and fleshiness in the visitors. I pray the LORD directs me to the broken and weary.

Post Topics
1. Fri & Sat night street witnessing/evangelism in Camden Town, London
2. Shruti is not gifted in travel planning, but God is :)
3. Tentative activities in Edinburgh this week

Rest

The most precious times I've had in London have been the times of fellowship and the times when the LORD directed our paths to a broken person.

On the other side of the cross, there is no one more beautiful than a broken person. A person who has stopped resisting. A city declaring ruin. A filthy white and tattered flag hoisted for all to see. These beautiful girls were Emma and Amanda. We talked to several others as well. The stories of encounters to follow soon.

On this side of the cross, there is no one more beautiful than all my friends - my family - who are delighting in Jesus' grace for them and allowing themselves to be used and delighted in by our God.

I've experienced both here in Camden Town, and I felt at times as though my heart was bursting and sloshing all over. The day with Tobi by the Locks and at the Heath, the coffee date with Trista, the Indian food feast with everyone, the night of fellowship at the Merrills', the walks through Camden Town's night life with Landon and David, barbie dolls with Chante and Ruthie...and then thinking back on all my friends I love dearly back at Shoreline CC in Morro Bay. No earthly wonder compares to the bonds of fellowship, the love, I get to have on this side of the cross - what I dearly wish for people like Amanda and Emma. No wonder the Spirit groans what words cannot express when He intercedes in prayer for us: His overwhelming love for us just spills all over the place past the meager attempts by any human instrument such as language in containing Something so intense.

I know I owe many updates! It's just hard when the only time I've found to write them is at 2am in the morning after a full day! Thank you for being patient with me and for wanting to read up on what the LORD is doing in and through little me here. Christ's peace and love to you from me!

Shruti

Arrived! + Day One in London, Camden Town

HELLO beloved friends! I arrived safely and with a running start on people our God wanted to use me to love on. Please pardon my brevity - it's 12:26am as I right this and I am exhausted from a full day.

I'm sorry I can't do justice to how wonderful today was because of the ministry we got to do in and unto the LORD. Today included a time of prayer by name over all the people the team has shared the gospel with so far, evangelising in Camden Market, a sprawling upon sprawling flea market, and the Bible study and worship time at Yumchaa Cafe, where non-believers/customers could hear the entire talk. We started at 10am and didn't wrap up the day until 10:30pm.

SO SO SO SO SO blessed beyond any proper words by Erika, George, Amy and Jason dropping me off to SFO airport and by Kristina and Alycia for helping this hopeless trip planner to finish (well, and start) her packing. Who goes that out of their way to serve someone? These 6 are such encouraging, servant-hearted friends that God has blown me away by. I am so undeserving, but that's just it: God - Jesus Christ - is in the business of giving us everything good we don't deserve and taking away from us everything bad we absolutely deserve. One of the sweetest moments on the drive up was when the gang went through the alphabet: each took turns saying prayers for me that began with each letter of the alphabet.
On the way we stopped by my parents' house who blessed our socks off with delicious Indian food (Shawn and Stacey - I made sure to sent some to you via Amy). My mom was so blown away by my friends willingness to drop me all the way for SFO. Thank you 4 so much for lovin' on me by lovin' on my mom with your act of service.

As you feel led, please pray for these folks we talked with. Praise God for every encounter.

Stateside:
Kay from the airport security check line- her father recently became a Lutheran believer (Praise God!) and is in major health problems, which is why she was visiting him. She was nervous about him seeing her again. I told her that parents are always blessed when they see their children, no matter what. That seemed to comfort some unspoken fears. She comment several times on how amazing it was that Jason and George were waiting for me on the side the whole time we went through security. Lots of people do this, which is why it was so interesting that she took such notice of them. Finally she said, you must be such good friends. I told them that I only got to know them this year, but that we were more than good friends - they were my family, my brothers, because we shared Christ - God - in common. It was a really good convo. I told why I was going to Edinburgh and she didn't really know how to respond, but in a good way, like she couldn't believe someone would take time off to do that. She was really receptive and very grateful for the prayers for her time with her dad.



London:
Sofia - gal on train that dressed like a prostitute, but said she was a waitress (it was also about 1am at nite). Was convoing well with me until I invited her to Shoreline London's bible study. She scrambled to the door at the next stop.

Karen and Maria - sweet sweet Israeli gals who also came from the airport and got lost on the Tube! God, being the incredible loving and rescuing God He is, put them right in Pastor Tonye's, Landon's and my path. They accepted our help to show them they way to their hotel, which if you saw Camden Town, you'd see why accepting help from strangers is a rarity. I told them we were missionaries, and that we believed Jesus is the Savior. The convo didn't go further. But praise God that they trusted us, all the way for 3 train and bus transfers and waiting around at bus stations with us at 2am in the morning. Pastor Tonye pays for their tickets, which totally blessed them. They shared their chocolate with us. I could see this look in Karen's eyes like 'O my goodness, these guys are legit. I can't believe they're so nice.' Then out of nowhere, like 45 minutes later, Maria asked me what sort of a Christian we were, and why we were Christian given all the rules you have to follow. She said she couldn't deal with so many rules. Woo Woo! Thanks God! I replied with the gospel and that Christians have been freed from the law because we live by 1 rule only - to love God and love your neighbor with all your heart. That we're not living for rules, but to bless God. She thought a moment and said with a smile, 'She could live with 1 rule" :) They totally blessed me and I'm hopin' the Spirit will keep prodding them.

Sevita - a Nepalise flea market vendor who ironically said she never wondered about her purpose in life or whether there was something bigger or if she was loved by God, but was wearing a t-shirt with a face of a girl crying.

Mihaela - a Romanian flea market vendor who totally engaged in convo with us. She is a Eastern Orthodox believer (I think) and processed Jesus with the only way for her, but also said that everyone could believe in whatever worked for them. She also believed that when you repented, God forgave you 50%, and then you had to make up the other 50% over time with good works. My heart was so burdened to have her be discipled! She looked at Tobi and me and said she could tell that we really believed in what we were sharing with her because we were so optimistic and joyful. Praise God for doing this in us!

Rakesh - an Indian flea market vendor. David and I had a great talk with him. I asked him why he bothered worshiping gods that had no power, when he could worship God who had all power. He looked at his laxmi goddess statue above the door and said, 'yeah, she has done nothing for me.' He seemed interested in coming to the Bible study. He also said his Indian friend at college is a new Christian and keeps talking to him about Jesus :)

Karla - another immigrant flea market vendor. She was a Catholic (but professed that Jesus was the only way) and was so blessed that we would pray for her openly for her health issues. Doing this is very uncommon here!

We met several people I whose names I just can't remember, but God knows them!

God gave major favor to the team here when a cafe owner (of Yumchaa) let them have their bible study and worship time in their cafe on Wed evenings. Again, if you saw Camden Town, you would think everyone here wouldn't do bible study or host Christian music if their life depended on it. But God made the way with this shop owner's heart.
For Niavase, Andrea, and Sofia from Spain who stayed at Yumchaa for the entire worship time! They were so sweet and really liked the music. I got to pray for Andrea to find a job. I told her she only needs to cast her cares to God, Jesus, and He will provide for her. Shared scripture on how if man is imperfect and gives decent gifts, how much more God who is perfect gives to His children. She really resonated with that. I told her to remember this conversation when God gives her her job.

For the Yumchaa staff who were such servant-hearted, amazingly sweet pre-Christians! Pray for their salvation, that the gospel and teachings about God would sing in! Talk about a captive audience :)

For the London Team - Pastor Tonye, Suzanne, Chante, Ruthie, David, Trista, Landon and Tobi. For the LORD to continue to bless them, give favor to them as they proclaim the gospel, and steer them both in their calling as missionaries on this team and in their personal walks with Him.

Glory and honor and praise be to our King, Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father Most High! I love you God!

Love and blessings,

Shruti

Friends

Erika Bennett nonchalantly said, "By the way, at least four of us going to drive you up to San Francisco Airport on Monday night. Jason Byard, George, me, and Xiane." (I later find out that Amy Ransom is also jumping in).

I didn't really know how to react. I still don't really.
My flight is at 11:45pm on Monday. SFO airport is about 5 hours away from Los Osos. I can't leave before 4pm on Monday because I work in the daytime. That means each of these friends will likely be home and in bed around 3am. All of them work the next day.

I feel so incredibly amazed and with lack of words that the LORD would bless me in such an amazing way. I just feel so loved and nurtured, that friends would go out of their comfort to such an extent to send me off as with a team, and not by myself.

The LORD really has provided me a team; until the flight they are going with me in person, and after wards, they are going with me in spirit, which is even better!

I've been thinking more and more how good, loving friends are an absolute miracle. They are completely a gift from God we do not deserve and are incapable of keeping long without God's mercy. I just think: we're sinners. Our hearts are deceitful. We often do the things we don't want to do, and don't do the things we want to do to one another and to God. The list of our "unlovablenes and unlikeableness" goes on.

And yet we love, and we forgive, we suffer for, and we desire to bless. I can't explain our ability to feel this way towards others or invoke these feelings in others towards us, without God. It's not wonder He says to give thanks in all circumstances: even in seasons where I feel stripped down, the bare necessities I have are undeserved gifts from Him.

Blessings!

Shruti

Passport found!

My dad saved the day, who found it for me back at the home in San Jose. I think that if I hadn't lost it, I wouldn't have been able to have that sweet moment on the phone with my dad, whom I hadn't really talked to yet about the trip. My parents are not believers, and we've all been through a lot in our family in dealing with me becoming Christian instead of following my parents' religion of Hinduism. Knowing that both my mother and father are somewhat excited for my upcoming trip (instead of the reactions they would give in the past to my living out my Christian faith) is something that I'm blown away and absolutely blessed by.

It's funny how God gave me the personality He did, and brings everything back to His good purpose. I am forgetful. I'm not the best trip planner. I was rather afraid of telling my dad that I was going on a trip to Scotland (and paying a decent amount of money for it) to tell people about Jesus, instead of saving up for a new car.
In my forgetfulness, I misplace my passport. My dad, of all people, finds it. We start talking about the Scotland trip. I face my fear and find out his reaction wasn't adverse as I thought it would be. I'm quite humbled as I realize God has taken him a long way and that I hadn't truly been faithful in expecting God to change his heart. This was the opportunity God orchestrated for me to gently realize it.

Our God is good. So good.

God bless you friends, Shruti

Passport

I realized my passport isn't where I left it after my trip to Boston in January. I've moved twice since then. Please pray I find it!

Edinburgh Core Map

I wish you could see the City Guide Map I am looking at here on the table. It's in full color. This will have to do.

I am hoping to roam these streets in the core of the city.

Scotland Tourism Map

Google Map of the city

The church, Carrubbers Christian Centre, that I'm hoping to help at during the evenings when their evangelistic cafe is open, is located about 3 blocks to the right of Edinburgh Castle, on High Street, and John Knox's House. Yeah... that's pretty central. Interestingly enough, the Edinburgh Dungeon is a few streets away as well.

Bless ya guys! Shruti

Room 65 - Evangelistic Cafe in Edinburgh

Hi Guys,

Here is some info about a serving opportunities I am super excited about. It combines my love for coffee house ministry and evangelism, one and one dialogue, and a bold presentation of the Gospel. This is a cafe that opens for a few months a year during Edinburgh's Fringe Festival in the summer. Last year, more than 3000 visitors came through their doors - that's 3000 people getting the Gospel and the opportunity to sit with someone one on one and talk about living in and for Jesus.

Here is an excerpt from this site. Please pray I can serve there! I am pretty much light headed just thinking about the Spirit presence shrouding that cafe, of laboring towards the common goal of blessing Christ beside believers I've never met before and yet they'll feel like family.

http://www.carrubbers.org/room65/

"If you have no idea what Room 65 is, then there are other "outward facing" pages that explain all about it; this page is all about how to get involved. The event requires a lot of people doing a lot of different roles to make it happen. The majority of these helpers come from the church membership, but others are very welcome to join us too. In 2009 we had 3000 through the doors which clearly requires a lot of man power to make sure they are comfortable, but most importantly engaged with the gospel either directly by conversation, or indirectly through the very act of being in a church amongst God's people for an evening. You don't have to have any specific skills to be involved, nor do you need to commit to being there every night or for a whole night. You just need to be willing and able."

God bless ya'll! Love and Christ's peace, Shruti

Progress

Just bought the plane ticket. Departing July 26th to London, arriving in Edinburgh on the 1st of Aug, and returning on the 12th of Aug.

(exhaling)

Pastor Jack graciously emailed Pastor Dan of CC Edinburgh to introduce me and see if a family could host me. I am praying to hear back with a favorable answer soon. My hope is to be able to encourage and serve his congregation with their outreach efforts, if opportunity arises.

Blessings, Shruti

Prayer Request...

Dear Family in Christ,

I am often in awe of the time and affections you give me, especially knowing just how much they can be pulled at from different directions. Friendships are blessings no sinner deserves; they are one of the greatest evidence for me of God’s grace.

Instructions…
May 13^th, evening:
Go to Edinburgh for a few weeks in the summer.
Long silence.
But God, there isn’t a Shoreline trip happening that I know of. No one’s going.
Long silence.
I don’t want to go by myself.
Go where I tell you to be.
Long silence.
God, I really don’t want to go by myself.
You’re not. I am with you.
Long silence.
Ok.

****
Sitting on a swing the following week.
Father, what am I to do in Edinburgh?
Silence.
The sunset was spectacular. Some hours later, I headed home.

****
A few days later, on the same swing:
God, what is Your will for me in Edinburgh? What will bless You?
Walk around the city everyday and pray for its inhabitants. Talk when I prompt you to talk.

Preparing Me…
“Seek first the kingdom of God, and all else will be given to you.” Matt 6:33

1 in 2 people in Scotland are not Christian. 1 in 3 claim no religion at all.
Six years ago, I had traveled over to Scotland. Imagining it to be as wild as Ireland, I, an immature two-year old Christian, was sorely disappointed as I road tripped around the nation. Besides a few castles in ruin, this nation offered me nothing more than the California scenery and vibes I was aching to escape. The craggy hillsides, the simple, rustic people: they resembled none of the exoticness that my flesh sought in my cravings for adventure. Thus, I was puzzled during the trip, and for years afterward, as an inexplicable desire to embrace and love on the Scottish people came upon me at various times. I wouldn’t realize until later that this anomaly was the stirring of the Holy Spirit giving me cravings for spiritual desires such that my flesh had no comprehension of.

My heart has been on an odyssey since the day Christ entered it and willingly locked Himself in. He’s the only One capable of hugging us from the inside out – wrapping His arms around our spirit and telling it over and over again, ‘Being with you is the hope set before Me. You are honored and precious in my sight. I called you by name, you are Mine. I long to be gracious to you. Every day I desire to show you compassion. You are a sweet fragrance to Me. I sing over you! My delight is in you, My beloved!” (See Heb 12:2, Isa 43:4, Isa 43:1, Isa 30:18, 2^nd Cor 2:14, Zep 3:17, Isa 62:4, respectively)

I’ve come to realize in the last year that Jesus’ preparation of my heart isn’t about loving the Scottish people in particular. God has been teaching me to love….. people. Doing so in Scotland this summer is the circumstance and command He has given me. The lost are lost no matter where we are and God’s heart is wretched for reconciliation no matter who they are. Why is this lesson so crucial to me? For years when I had been seeking His will with questions like, ‘Should I become a missionary doctor? Is it Your will that I become a Christian fiction writer? Should I become a full-time missionary? Where?’ I had really just been fooling myself. These questions didn’t really concern the Spirit but my circumstance, and tended to make me walk in front of Him. The questions that concern the Spirit are, “God? Am I doing now what You would want me to do no matter where I am, and no matter what ministry I am in? How else can I bless you today? Lord, please, will you show me Your presence?” These questions keep me walking beside Him.

Our God has been teaching me not to confuse the zoe life with the bios life. The greatest adventure we get to go on is the LORD Jesus fleshing our hearts of stone. No adventures full of new sights, exciting tasks – whatever – compares to Him renewing our mind, to its growing vigor and capacity to understand His love for us and the love for others because of the bonds He steadfastly tears. His ‘calling’ for each of us is this: “Love God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt 22:37 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1st Th 5:16-18. That’s it. Our calling is abiding in Jesus, out of which flows the deeds that express our faith and trust in Him. So whether you’re like me evangelizing in Scotland, like those starting a church in London, a single parent raising her kids to serve others before themselves, a couple adopting an orphan, or a family opening their home to the homeless, we’re all missionaries called to the field which are the lost and believers around us.

If this is hard for you to read, trust me, this is hard for me to write. Every day I have to recapture my thoughts for Christ. Every day I have to make the effort to discern the zoe from the bios, choose it, and then not look back. Come, let’s walk together in pursuing contentment in God’s presence alone. Please reach out to me as I would love to come alongside to pray over and encourage you.

Spiritual Needs…
“Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” Psalm 94:17-18

I can tell you this much when I step out onto the streets of Edinburgh: In less than 7 minutes, I’ll be distracted. In about half an hour, I’ll feel awkward. Within an hour, loneliness will gnaw at me. In a few, I’ll ache from fatigue. By mid-day, it will hit me that I have 11 more days of this ahead.

Beloved family, I greatly desire your prayers. I am walking into a major test. This mission trip is as much for my heart as a series of divine appointments for the lost to hear the Gospel. I want to trust that the LORD in me will conquer my flesh’s cries of loneliness, fatigue, awkwardness, physical fear, and self-condemnation that I know will come. I want to remain at all times under the torrent of His grace, His presence, His singing over me. While He has given me a sobering view of the trip, He has also told me that He longs to show Himself faithful and strong! He is my Shepherd, I am His lamb. He is my Husband, I am His bride. He is my God, I am His delight. And His blessings aren’t just sufficient, they are abundant! Perhaps He will call others to evangelize with me. Or if He doesn’t, perhaps at about the time I cry out to Him in spiritual fatigue, He’ll lead me to someone reading their Bible at the park who will end up ministering to me. All I know is when we cast ourselves onto the LORD, He gifts us in amazing, unbelievable ways.

Please pray that

· I will be faithful to His faithfulness.

· I will remember I already have victory in Christ.

· I will remember that the trip is already successful in the LORD’s eyes, because all He requires is my obedience to go.

Financial Needs...
To bless me and love on me with your generosity, I ask this: please donate to the LORD’s work through Tobi Chauvet, whom the LORD has planted as a full-time missionary in the UK. She is an immense blessing to so many in the Body and is in need of financial support. Go to www.shepsstaff.org, missionary # 1016.

Yes, I do have needs of my own to carry out this choice of obedience, but all week, God impressed upon me an unshakable image: how struck Jesus was by the widow’s offering noted in Mark 12. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Jesus was blessed. He saw through her deed her faith and trust in Him alone. Our God longs to show Himself strong and trustworthy to us as the Provider of our blessings so we can freely pour blessings onto others. In fact, this is the one area He actually encourages us to test Him in (He is so merciful and gracious!) as He says in Malachi 3:10, “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put Me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

I want my heart to be like the widow’s. I want to trust that when I seek first Christ’s heart, all else follows. Perhaps I’ll find a pbj sandwich at the foot of my bed, covering my need for lunch that day. Or a perplexed Scotsman will come up to me, saying, “I haven’t the foggiest, but I think I’m to give you 20£,” to which I could say, “I know why! Jesus. Please, give me two minutes of your time…” It’s liberating to have no hand in the blessings God wants to orchestrate for us! Of course my flesh says it’s scary. But the Spirit reminds me of God’s track record: Heaven parted to feed Peter, water sprang from dirt to quench Hagar, a pillar of fire comforted Israel, and so on. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Rom 8:31

In parting, know with full assurance that you are loved and treasured by our God in Christ Jesus!

Abundant blessings,

Shruti

To come alongside with this specific trip and receive updates, I’d love for you to contact me.
shruti.maniar@gmail.com, 206-595-5351, 343 Lilac Dr. Los Osos, CA 93402, Facebook: Shruti Maniar