What a(n incredible) day!

We started our day at 5:30am to see the Taj Mahal. Most of us seem to be still jet lagged so getting up at 5am seems to not affect us much. Besides, various types of noises on the street seem to wake us up; like firecrackers, then there's SUPER loud fire crackers that sound like there's a war from a distance, music playing at 3:30am, dogs barking, pigeons hooting, street vendors chanting, and so on but... all this makes up the beauty of India.

Two other teams also joined us to see the Taj, one of them we are staying with now.

I was under the impression the drive was only two and a half hours away-it was roughly 5 hours. It was quite a bumpy ride-I think it was a combination of bad road and the bad suspension of the bus. What was most interesting on this journey to Agra (city of Taj Mahal) was to see cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles and wheel carts being pulled by either horses/camels or cows all being shared on one road. Truly amazing. The funniest thing I saw today was a cow pulling a wheel cart while the driver was sleeping.

India has absolutely no safety regulations. It's completely normal to see three to four on a motorcycle, a women sitting sideways on the back of the motorcycle holding her baby or 11 people in a typical 5 passenger vehicle.

Anyhow, orientation begins tomorrow for the Truthseekers International footwashing event. Although we are not actually participating in the footwashing, please pray that God will help us capture the right moments (whether it be through interviews and/or the actual event) to expand his kingdom.

The people of India are truly amazing. I have learned so much about this country by being here. Please also pray for the people of India-especially for those that don't know Jesus as their savior.

One more thing, we are all now addicted to "Chai" tea. We look forward to the twice daily compulsory chai.

Sunday 11/18-

Praise God, He has blessed us again with a wonderful day. This morning we had an interview session with Sunil Sardar. It went very well and it was very informative. Afterwards, he prayed for us which was a blessing. Sunil is truly a servant of God and we have great faith that He will use him in mighty ways.

Today was orientation in which all the teams gathered. There are approximately 70 of us. We were told double from last year! Hallelujah!

Tomorrow will be our first foot washing event. Please pray that not only will we be able to capture the right moments but the people of India will come to know Christ through this incredible event. We interviewed a caste leader who said last year's event caused him to come to know Jesus. He saw the westerners washing the feet of lowest people and this caused him to wonder why they would do this. Anyway, pray for more stories like that.