Walking down the street of what will soon be my neighborhood, my eyes dart around at the diversity of my surroundings. Men are yelling across the street to each other in Arabic, standing under their shops with storefront signs written in Arabic. Women dressed in niqab pass by shoulder to shoulder with men in tank tops and young girls in short dresses. My roommate finds a nearby ice cream shop, and we step into a family owned business of over 120 years, where we are served by a young native Brooklynite with expressive eyebrows and a thick Brooklyn accent. As we wander down the street past brownstones and eclectic homes, we make it to the pier, with an unreal background of the Manhattan skyline and a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty. Each family and individual we pass is speaking a different language, from Spanish to Arabic to Russian, and I feel as if I can imagine what it was like to be surrounded by immigrants entering America for the first time. Staring out over the East River, the Lord brings Exodus 23:9 to my mind: “You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were a sojourner in the land of Egypt.” As always, my mind switches “Egypt” to “India,” and the Lord reassures me in my calling to engage international people groups in New York City, because I know what it is to be displaced, to not know the language, to struggle adapting to a completely different culture and country. Because of the experiences and the places the Lord has taken me through, I know the heart of a sojourner. After getting my first taste of Bay Ridge, I am even more excited for this next season and to begin building relationships with the sweet people the Lord will bring into my life!