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