A few weeks ago, I was talking with a ParkLife team member who was frustrated. They didn’t feel that their efforts were amounting to much in their park. They weren’t seeing any changes in the people around them or getting to spend time on ministry projects they wanted to do. During our conversation though, they shared so many stories that I saw God’s hand in. I said as much, and the team member said, “That isn’t ministry though…is it?”

When I first got to Glacier Bay National Park for my summer season, I thought I was ready. I had a few rough sermon ideas, I’d been working on my nerves about public speaking, and I had been involved in ministry all my life. If the church doors were open, my family and I were there! I knew how to make ministry work.

The park was small and there weren’t a lot of guests hanging around in the mornings. My teammate and I advertised and invited people, but Sunday after Sunday it was just us at the worship site. I was bummed but also confused. Was I not friendly enough? Could I do something else to make it happen? Where were the people I was supposed to minister to this summer?

That last question is the one that got me looking at my park differently. I knew there were people around me that God wanted to speak to, I saw it every day in their language, actions, and the late-night drinking parties they were focused on, but they weren’t showing up to the worship services. If they weren’t going to come to me, was there a better way I could go to them instead?

Relational ministry is hard to pin down sometimes because its look and meaning change from person to person. Most of us like concrete definitions and clear expectations. Ways to measure our success and failure so we know whether or not to keep pouring out our time and energy into something, or someone.

The Kingdom of God runs on some different values though, doesn’t it? Many times, Jesus went looking for a specific person that was hurting. And sometimes, he didn’t even go looking for them, but he put himself in situations where they could find him. Like the woman at the well, or the woman in Mark 5 who had been sick and bleeding for 12 years. She’d been to doctors and spent a ton of time and money trying to get better, but nothing was working. While he was passing by on the street, this woman gathered her courage and reached out to touch Jesus’ clothes. A small thing. But Jesus noticed and stopped everything to find her, to affirm for her that her suffering was over and to send her on her way in peace.

In a way, my coworkers were similar to this woman. Many of them were struggling and suffering in their own ways and had been for years. I’d been focused on the tasks that were easy to check off and hadn’t stopped to be present with the people around me. I started sitting in the employee rec room with my Bible in the afternoons instead of in my room. I chose visible places to be and let people know they could come talk if they wanted to.

As I spent more time being available, folks started to talk to me about their lives and their struggles, about their deep insecurities and the things that made them ashamed of themselves. And I sat and listened and felt the presence of the Lord in those conversations. I didn’t always bring up a Bible verse. I sat with them and let them know they were seen and still loved.

In your season and in your park, ministry may look very different from what you’re used to at home, or from what you were expecting to find. Take that confusion, frustration, and anger to God and ask Him to show you where the opportunities are. God is always at work, but if you’re too focused on hurrying down the road to the person you know needs help, you might miss the person who reaches out quietly as you’re passing by. And yes, that is ministry too.

-Deborah Boud (Placement Coordinator)