attempt at NYC Trip 2010 blog_1

Hello all, this is Eddie, broadcasting from the splendid city of New York. It’s been….fun so far. We’ve already had our fair-share of African food, walking and hospital visits.


We’re here to work with West Africans in Harlem. Our friend, Chris Clayman, has been here with his family for the past four years. He spent some time in Mali, and has a huge heart for the people from that entire region. He actually speaks one of their trade languages, Bambara, more fluently than most Malians.

We found that out yesterday when I guy we met in front of an African grocery gave Chris a call and began talking to him in Bambara. When he got off the phone, he was shocked at how well Chris knew the language.

The grocery store we were standing in front of is owned by a lady from Senegal. She really wanted to talk about the difference in Islam and Christianity, which she said is “Jesus.” She thinks our beliefs about Him are our only differences. To them, He’s a prophet, nothing more. To us, He’s everything: Messiah, Savior, our greatest love, the Son of God, and God Himself. That last bit is very confusing to them (how he can be both God, and the Son of God). And, honestly, it’s a bit confusing to us. As I tried to explain to them, though, the everlasting God is big enough to do something our finite minds can’t quite comprehend. It’s pretty cocky to think our little coconut brains, which we only use like 10% of, could ever fully understand the depths of God. It’s strange that this doesn’t set with them, since one of their big ideas is that God is all-powerful.

While with her, we were treated to some awesome African food and tea. We don’t really know what it was. I just asked her if we could have tea together, and she had her daughter bring over some really strong tea, a drink made with sour cream, and a big bowl of rice with some sort of vegetable, meat, sauce thing and we shared it with her and her employees. Us four, the lady (I don’t know if I am allowed to say her name), and two dudes that work for her sitting around a bowl of food drinking cold sour cream and talking about Jesus. ‘Twas fun.

Anyway, pray for her. We gave her a copy of the New Testament (the Injeel) in her own language, Wolof, and we meet with her again on Tuesday.

When we left her, we came back to our Hostel. This was fun. We had to switch rooms because some guy that works here at Jazz on Lenox likes to come in and clear out reservations and give the rooms to groups of his friends. Then, when we got our new room there were people in our beds. They just decided not to check out. So we went to dinner at “Good Enough To Eat” on the Upper West Side.

While at dinner, I went to the restroom and checked out my foot.

I recently got a giant bruise on my leg which has caused a lot of swelling. The location of the initial injury has had me a bit worried about blood clots. When I looked at my foot in the restroom it was completely white. So we went to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, instead of our planned Staten Island Ferry trip.

Since we’ve been here, the two on the trip who’ve never been to New York have done nothing touristy. I think it’s time to change that. Please pray that everything from-here-on-out goes well, and that our Senegalese friend has a soft heart.



Oh, and don’t worry, I’m fine. 

(I'm tired.  This post is already out of date, as I am sitting here at midnight in the hostel, talking to people from all over the world, and having a great time.  Love this.  Maybe it's time for a hostel ministry!)