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Lauren Ashley here: Two weeks sure do fly when you are having fun! Greetings from India! India! Our team went around pinching themselves for at least the first week and we still say “We’re in INDIA!!!” on average 3 times a day. The food is delectable and the culture is vibrant with colour and music. Who would have thought that a girl from Texas would enjoy Indian culture so much? I never thought India would strike such a chord with my heart but I can say without a doubt I have fallen in love with this place and these people.

It feels like we have been all over the place, we landed in Delhi and headed straight to Greater Noida, from there we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and our final stop was here in Jaipur where I sit now writing this. I can’t believe our time in India is nearly through. Greater Noida, where we spent time in petitioning the Father for His grace to be over India, feels like ages ago and in all actuality we were there less than two weeks ago. When we left there we were able to take a small detour and go to the Taj Mahal. That’s right the Taj Mahal! What a sight to see! I could hardly believe I was there; I remember years ago just dreaming about one day seeing the magnificent marble structure and now I have. After our detour we headed to Jaipur where we have been working with kids from the Bhatt people group, who are a part of the lower caste in India. These kids are so precious and it has been a joy to love on each and every one of them. For children from slum areas they sure do know how to give. Yesterday I think everyone from our team got a trinket of some kind as well as our hands painted with henna.

My head is swimming with different thoughts to share things like motorized rickshaws may be the only way to travel for me from here on out, they are terrifying but a ton of fun! Another really cool thing is that the rain seems to be following us. First with great lightning shows in Greater Noida and huge rain showers here in Jaipur (where this amount of rain is rare). How cool is it that rain, a symbol of new life follows our path?