I'm back.

Hello, 

I’m aware that I was supposed to post this 4 days ago, however I got caught up in some things. A guy named David Sohmer from Chicago came to CEM Campus for friday night, saturday, and sunday morning. It was great having a bit of a faster paced conversation and I learned some cool things from him, especially about the silicon chip and how it works. 

Somehow I managed to hear his testimony 3 times in the 2 days he was here. It was inspiring to see him connecting with the kids and community so quickly. He probably had more of the boys names memorized within 20 minutes than I’ve memorized since I got here.

Anyways, not much has happened since I last blogged. This past weekend I didn’t have much time to spend with God but I’m getting back on that schedule now.

A couple of days ago, God gave me another thought. I don’t know if God gave me it, I think he lead me to it which is essentially the same thing. After finishing the book, “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years” by Donald Miller I was left with a question, “How am I suppose to balance the unimportance of my life with the amount of love God has for me?” 

I’m going to copy a page out of Millers book. 

The oldest book of the Bible is supposedly the book of Job. It is a book about suffering, and it reads as though God is saying to the world, Before we get started, there’s this one thing I have to tell you. Things are going to be bad.

Job is a good man whom God allows to be destroyed, except for his life. God allows Job’s family to be taken, along with his wealth and his health. Job calls out to God, asking why God could let this happen.

God does not answer Job’s question. It’s as though God starts off his message to the world by explaining there are painful realities we cannot and will never understand. Instead, he appears to Job in a whirlwind and asks if Job knows who stops the waves on the shore or stores the snow in Wichita every winter. He asks Job who manages the constellations that reel through the night sky. 

And that is essentially all God says to Job. God doesn’t explain pain philosophically or even list its benefits. God says to Job, Job, I know what I’m doing, and this whole thing isn’t about you.

Job responds, even before his health and wealth are restored by saying, “All of this is too wonderful for me.” Job found contentment and even joy, outside the context of comfort, health, or stability. He understood the story was not about him, and he cared more about the story than he did himself. 

Maybe now you understand the question a little better? God has so much love for us that we cannot comprehend it, yet our lives as humans are unimportant. There is a greater story going on that has greater importance. 

For me, reading about Job didn’t answer my question. How can God love us so much, and yet our lives be so unimportant that he can allow everything to be taken away from us?

It wasn’t until I read the quote that Miller uses of Victor Frankl and the verse in the bible that I read when it clicked. Victor Frankl once said, “I am a tree in the story about a forest.”  And the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree.

I think satan wants us to believe that our lives are unimportant. And I think he shoves failure in our face to prove it. And you know what, Satan is right. As humans were are unimportant, but once we accept God into our lives we become a part of the story about the forest. We become a page in the book that defines the forest and tells the story. So it is because of God that we are made important, and it is the recognition of that, that we humble ourselves before him, as Job did. 

The most amazing part about all of this is the unconditional love that God has for us. God has more love for me than he does for everyone else combined. And that’s true for every single person on this earth. You cannot try to understand God’s love, It’s not a human love. 

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hill side and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.”

Matthew 18:12

It may be a stretch, but to me this verse gave me an idea of God’s love. He has more love for the one sheep than he does for the ninety-nine. And that can be said for all of them.

All that being said, I’m having an amazing time so far and I’m really being challenged in some areas. 

Right now if you could continue to pray for my health, my family and that God would continue to work in me and reveal himself to me while I’m here.

Thank you so much guys!

Love you all.

~Caleb

Silence

Hey guys,

Again, I’m very sorry about the lack of blog updates. It feels like I don’t have enough time in the day to do everything that I want but I’ll try and make more of an effort. 

Time is going by fast, it’s been 6 days since the team left but it feels like 2. Knowing that I still have about 7 and a half weeks left is comforting. Maybe not so comforting to my parents but it is to me. 

Sometimes I feel like I’m on vacation at a hotel. Why? let me explain my morning to you. I woke up to my alarm at five to 7, (which is actually pretty late) I put some of my new Indian shorts on, flicked the water heater switch on, sat on my bed and read a little bit of Acts while the water heated up. At 7:05 I got a nock on the door from Mani, one of the paid house maids/servants but for me she falls more under the definition of room service. The only difference between room service in India is that instead of picking up the phone and dialing 001, you just yell at the top of your lungs, “MANI!!”. Okay, I don’t do that but Jaya and Lakshmi do. You’ve got to keep in mind, it’s a different culture so that’s completely normal. 

The cool part about Mani is that she always has a smile on her face and she seems so happy to help. She’s Hindu and has been working for Jaya and Lakshmi for 5 years. I think it’s cool to see Hindu’s and Christian’s living life together without conflict. 

Anyways, I get a nock on my door at 5 after 7, and hear Mani’s voice with an Indian Accent, “Calleebb.... Coffeeee?” I open the door and she comes in holding a cup on a tray and sets it down on my desk. I say thank you and she smiles, bobbles her head and walks out. 

I then get in a burning hot shower with my cup of coffee, making sure not to let any of the water splash in it. Afterwards, I head downstairs to the lobby/dining hall, Lakshmi instructs me to sit in the big leather chair and brings me a plate of rice patties with some delicious spicy sauce and an omelet. Lakshmi makes sure that Mani already brought me coffee and then usually offers me more or a banana or something. As soon as I’m done with breakfast Mani comes around the corner with some steaming hot Chai Tea. I nicknamed this stuff Jesus juice, It’s amazing. After a cup of Mani’s Chai Tea you don’t have a care in the world. All of the sudden the pig snorting around in the sewer doesn’t seem to bother you.

                                                                                                         After some chai tea, I go to my room, grab my bible, another book that I’m reading called invitation to solitude and silence, my journal, my prayer journal, my iphone for worship music, this little wooden cross that one of the GCH kids gave me, and a bottle of water.

I head upstairs to my prayer room on the roof. I spend a lot of that time praying for people, listening to what God may want to tell me, just being in his presence and focusing on that, journaling and occasionally napping. 

Honestly this is my favorite part of the day, I cannot tell you how rewarding it is. After spending that time just in silence I’m filled up with so much peace and joy and confidence in God. My Grandma sent me an email yesterday and in it she said, “Once you start a prayer time you won't want to stop. The more you pray the closer you get to Jesus.” It’s so true. I’m so excited to see how this develops over the next two months.

I’m going to try and get more personal in these blogs because I feel like that’s important, and that way you people will know exactly what I’m going through and what to pray for me. 

I had an amazing experience today. What may be amazing to me may be quite boring to you, so sorry if it is. After reading a few chapters of this book “Invitation to Solitude and Silence” and after talking with my mom about the author and her other books, I was inspired to try something new while praying. 

The whole idea of the book is that we need to stop praying about things, and even stop trying to listen to God and instead just be in his presence. A lot of the time when we do that, God will really speak to us, but most of the time we just get overwhelmed with peace and Joy. 

So this morning while you were all sleeping, I went to my prayer room and sat in the chair by my desk and I leaned my head on it. I tried to just become aware of God’s presence. I offered every worry and concern I had to God and told him, “Here I am.” After a few minutes of solitude and silence, I started to picture God in my mind. I imagined that I was sitting in a small square room with no doors, and sitting right in front of me was God. He was holding my small hands with his big hands and starring right at me with eyes that seemed so big and beautiful, they were all I could focus on.

As I was in this room with just God, I would start to think of a memory I had that brought me joy or made me laugh. As soon as I would think of this, God would get the biggest and brightest smile on his face. It was so contagious that I would almost start laughing, in fact, I did laugh a couple of times. 

After 15 minutes of doing this I cannot describe to you how amazing I felt. This experience wasn’t real, I made it up in my head so that I could connect to God on a deeper level. However, It brought to me one of the realest feelings I’ve had in my life. I think the peace, joy, excitement, laughter, and meaning that I was experiencing was triggered by my realization of God’s unconditional love for me. I think the holy spirit lead me to this idea of picturing his eyes and smile so that I could truly focus on being in his presence which as it turns out, it’s all I need.

I have a fear that that experience was all really triggered by my Jesus juice this morning. 

Right now if you could continue to pray for my health, my family and that God would continue to work in me and reveal himself to me while I’m here.

Thank you so much guys!

Love you all and I already have a blog for tomorrow :)

Oh, and please email me any prayer requests you have. Calebmayes@me.com

~Caleb

Alone

I’m going to get fat. One of my biggest worries was that I was going to get sick of the food and stop eating it. Well, I’m honestly enjoying the food and Lakshmi is making sure that I eat about 6 pounds of rice, handfuls of chicken, bread, eggs, and fruit every day. They also bring me coffee and chai tea 2-3 times a day and periodically offer me snacks. If this wasn’t enough, I still have 33 cans of tuna, 4 cans of chicken breast, poptarts, nutri-grain bars, beef jerky, fruit snacks, fruit cups, crackers, goldfish, dried fruit, chewy bars, peanut butter, and protein powder + a few other things I probably left out. There is no way I’m going to be eating all of that! Man carbs are filling!

Yesterday morning my Dad and the KCC team left CEM campus to make the 33 hour trip home. I imagine my dad is probably about to land in Amsterdam about now. I had a very hard time saying goodbye to my dad, harder than I thought I would. I’ve never been away from my parents for more than 3 weeks, and every time that I’ve been away from them I’ve always been able to call them and even come home if I really needed to. This time I can’t come home and I can’t call them, I am truly on my own. 

My dad wrote a blog on the Communitas website (http://www.communitasnyc.org/craigs-blog/post/leaving-something-one--behind) about how hard it was to say goodbye and in a sense, give me over to God. I’m only here for 2 months, but when I get back I’ll be in NY for 9-10 months and then who knows where I’ll be going to college. I’m growing up and I don’t like it, I feel like I should still be 7 years old and playing starlight moonlight out side late at night with my dad, brother, sister, Josh Griffin and the Droste kids.

The fact is that I am growing up and my parents can no longer give me the protection and sense of security that I had when I was 7 years old. As soon as I said goodbye to my dad, and got on the bus to head back to CEM campus it sunk in and took me by surprise. I was alone. My dad was about to get on a plane and start flying away from me at 600 mph and right then that feeling of security that I’ve had since I was 7 left me. And I know I will never have that same feeling again, at least not from my parents. 

Luke 14:26-27

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” 

I came to India because I want to devote my life to God, I want to follow and obey him, I want to be his disciple. And if I’m going to be his disciple I have to be willing to put him before my father and mother, brother and sister, and before myself. Leaving my mother in NY and letting my dad leave me in India was the first real step in putting God before them and myself.

The amazing part about this is that God offers me so much more than my parents can which is honestly hard to wrap my mind around and I constantly doubt it. God gives me unconditional love, overwhelming peace, he shows me constant patience and he is my rock in whom I take refuge in.

Now that the team is gone I’m going to have a lot more time to myself. I’ve brought 8 books with me, 9 including my bible, and 3 journals to fill. This is what I think my schedule will look like, wake up at 5:30-6, go to chapel with the GCH kids, eat breakfast and then somedays I will walk the kids to school. Once I’m back from that I will go upstairs on the roof where I have my prayer room. I will pray, read and journal and maybe blog until 1:30 and then I’ll take a break for lunch. I will continue praying until 4:30 when the kids get back from school. I will play with them for a couple of hours and then have dinner. After that I will spend some time with Prasanth and Deepthi and then have a quiet time before bed, at 9.

It will be interesting to see how I do with being alone for so long. 

Prayer request,

1. God reveals himself to me.

2. God speaks to me and gives me clarity in how he will use me

3. Pray for my parents and sister. Pray that God gives them peace while I’m away.

4.Pray for my health, a lot of eye infections are going around, nothing serious though

Packing up.

Waiting to leave for the airport.

Saying goodbye, I will be standing here in 2 months.

Pulling away from the airport. 

~Caleb

Chapter 1

Hey guys!

I’m finally getting settled in, adjusted to the time zone, and over the jet lag. At the moment I’m with a group of 9 people from Kensington church which is in Michigan. I haven’t had a lot of alone time because of the KCC (Kensington Community Church) team is here, so that’s my excuse for it taking so long for me to blog, and I’ve been having a lot of trouble with uploading photos. I honestly feel like this adventure of mine won’t truly start until I’m alone.

Nevertheless, I have stories and pictures to share with you all. So much has already happened that It would take me several hours to write it all, so I’ve decided to narrow it down to a few things. 

The Travel

This was my sixth trip to India and really my eleventh time traveling across the world counting there and back. I have to say, I’m getting good at it. My dad and I left for JFK airport thursday morning at about quarter to 12, and by 1:30-2 pm we were sitting in a Chili’s Too enjoying our last solid meal, beef. 

We had a flight to Amsterdam where we would meet the team from KCC and then fly on to Mumbai, and then to Hyderabad, and finally to Rajahmundry. In total it takes about 36 hours. The first flight went well, we didn’t have the little TV’s on the back of the seats but it wasn’t that bad, 6 hours went by fast and before I knew it I was sitting in the Amsterdam airport casino watching a guy play blackjack. The rest of the travel is a big blur, I slept for 6-7 hours on the flight to Mumbai, and the last two flights were only 1-2 hours long. 

The highlight of the travel was us landing in Mumbai and waiting for the Indians to pull the stairs up to the plane. I could see the stairs 20 feet away from the plane, and six Indians sitting on the luggage carts talking. After about 20 minutes the pilot (who’s American) comes on the intercom and announces, “Hi folks, um I don’t really know what’s going on. I can see the stairs and the Indians sitting around but no one’s really doing anything. Um, I’m really sorry, hopefully something will happen soon. Welcome to India!” 

Another highlight was the funnel line concept. There’s no such thing as order in India. Lines DO NOT exist. So when my dad and I are putting our luggage through the X-ray machine and an Indian who has less bags than us, walks in front of us and puts his in first, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. And to me it didn’t come as a surprise. It was a very different story for my dad, ask him about it sometime. 

Arrival 

We arrived at CEM campus and were greeted by all of the orphans and 50 dollars worth of flowers. Trying to keep in mind that most of you who are reading this have never been to CEM campus, I took some photos of the property and a video of us arriving that I thought I’d share with you. (I couldn't upload the video. The connection is too slow.)

                                                                                         CEM Campus Gate

                                                                  

                 

                                                                                         Flower welcoming 

More Flowers

Vita Getting Covered In Flowers

What we’ve done

Nothing crazy has happened yet, and that’s probably a good thing. I’ve spent as much time as I can playing with the kids. It’s so exhausting but you mean the world to these children, and I think it’s important that I give them every spare minute that I have. I have to sacrifice very little to bring the biggest brightest smile to their faces. 

October 3rd (October 2 for you) was a very fun day. We dedicated the hospital which gave me a taste of how much of an impact this hospital is going to have on the community. I have a picture of the front of the hospital that's almost finished. 

That night Greg, Jim, Prasanth, Deepthi and I filled up some water balloons and launched them from the roof down at the kids playing in the courtyard. It was so much fun and the kids love it. For those of you who don’t know, Jaya Sankar started this orphanage, his wife’s name is Lakshmi, they have 6 kids, 4 of which are adopted. Devi and Prasanth are their biological children and then they have Deepthi who is 4, Keerthi who is 2 or 3 and lastly twins who are 1. I can’t pronounce their names let alone spell it right. 

Deepthi is the cutest little girl and has so much personality! Jaya told me that when I left last february she was calling my name and asking when I’d come back. At first she was really shy with me and might run up to me, poke me in the leg, and then run away laughing. This night she really opened up to me and we had so much fun playing tag and running around laughing. It’s amazing how much joy children can bring to you, Jaya and Lakshmi are the luckiest people in the world. I know I’m going to have a very hard time saying goodbye to Deepthi. 

                                                                                         Deepthi and Prasanth  

Deepthi and Jaya

And Deepthi again

At the moment I’m feeling very anxious. I haven’t had a lot of alone time and I’m really looking forward to the KCC team leaving so that my journey can truly begin. All of my previous trips here have been more of a sprint, you have 7 days to do as much with the children as you can and then you get on a plane and go back home. It’s so nice to not feel rushed like that. 

Other than feeling anxious I’m doing very well. I honestly don’t mind the food, I’ve been eating a lot of it and I have about $175 of food that I brought with me in case if I get sick of it anytime soon. 

Prayer requests are that:  1. God will take away this anxious feeling and allow me to enjoy my time with the KCC team. 2. That I’ll stay healthy and keep up the positive attitude toward the food. 3. that God will continue to use me and reveal himself to me on this trip. 

I’ve attached a few more random photos for the fun of it. 

Landing in Rajahmundry, it was sunny.

The airport control tower.

A few of GCH (Grace Children's Home) kids doing chores. 

Chapel 

Praying

Gumya laughing (I think that's how you spell her name)

GEM students

Courtyard

Where I'm staying

One of the orphanage buildings.