Summer in the City
(June 14, 2025) A TGC leaders' dinner celebrating God's work throughout the year.
Hello Friends and Family,
Not long after we settled into our apartment at the start of June, I (Tyler) reached out to the pastors at Trinity Grace Church for wisdom on how to spend our first summer in the city. Since Erin manages a café in Soho from Tuesday to Saturday, I needed to discern how best to spend these months—caring for Rowan and Kinsey while also getting to know the staff and community at Trinity Grace and becoming more acquainted with the city.
The pastors encouraged us to spend the season focusing on three goals:
to continue to connect with the community at TGC
to explore the city with prayerful curiosity, paying attention to where the Spirit might be drawing us
to learn how to hear God’s voice—not in spite of the city’s noise, but through it
With those goals in mind, most of our days have been spent outside our apartment, riding the trains to new neighborhoods and discovering the rhythms of life in different corners of New York. Parks and playgrounds, museums and zoos, bookshops and bakeries, cafés and quiet corners—each outing has been an invitation to pay attention, to listen, and to learn. I’ve also been able to connect with other pastors and planters throughout the city. Erin gets to join in on the fun on her days off, making those adventures all the more meaningful.
Summer is HOT. We were not prepared for the heat and humidity we’ve encountered! Though friends assure us it’s an unusually hot summer, we’ve been doing our best to navigate it with splash pads, hand-held fans (yes, everyone has one), and frequent stops in air-conditioned coffee shops.
In these last few weeks of summer, we look forward to celebrating Kinsey’s 3rd birthday, the girls attending their second Vacation Bible School of the summer at Church of the City (their first was at Plymouth Church—a historic stop on the Underground Railroad, visited by Abraham Lincoln and where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached), surprising the girls with a trip to Coney Island, prayerfully exploring more neighborhoods, preaching at TGC, and preparing for the school year to start. (I’m already diving into fall readings for City to City NYC’s Incubators Collective!)
Please pray with us as we continue seeking the Spirit’s leading regarding which neighborhood we’re being called to plant in. We’re also thankful for an encouraging partnership we’ve formed with a church on the West Coast, reminding us that this journey is supported by brothers and sisters far beyond New York. And pray for each of us to form meaningful friendships in our community.
Your prayers, support, and generosity have meant more than we can say. You've been with us as we step into the unknown, and your faithfulness has helped lay the groundwork for what’s ahead in planting a church in this city.
With love and gratitude,
Erin + Tyler Saldaña
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