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