Passing through

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 22nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a fleeting mission field.

The Grand Canyon attracts millions of visitors every year. It’s also home to a large workforce of seasonal employees who come and go quickly.

WORLD’s Todd Vician reports on Christians at the park who are working to beat the clock, building relationships quickly with people who need them.

TODD VICIAN: Lisa Spencer is one of about 3,000 people living and working for the National Park Service or concessionaires at the Grand Canyon.

SPENCER: The transient nature heightens my awareness of how much time do I have to develop relationships with these people. Here there's no guarantee; they could be gone in an hour.

She remembers a coworker she spent a couple of days getting to know. He greeted her in the hallway one morning, and then she never saw him again.

SPENCER: He's like, ‘Go get him, Lisa.’ ‘I will John, you too.’ And then an hour later, I'm like, Where's John? ‘Oh, he quit.’

In a place where 4 million visitors come annually to marvel at the views, many of the seasonal workers come here each year just to hide for several months.

SPENCER: A lot of them are not rooted in the typical society. I think when people come here, there's also a part of them that's like, well, I know if I don't make it here, I can go to another park.

Spencer works in the employee cafeteria.

SPENCER: It is running around four to six miles every shift, carrying things, cleaning things, making things. I can't believe I'm in my 60s and I'm doing the same kind of work I did in my 20s.

A lot of her coworkers came here for the beauty of the canyon. But she’s also noticed a good number of them come carrying a lot of baggage. They’re hiding or running from things such as substance abuse or failed relationships, and want to be somewhere they can be left alone.

GLASSFORD: There's a lot of people here who do their job. They go to the market, they get a six pack, they go back to their dorm, and they sit for the night. Their relational connection is at work.

Darwin Glassford sees that isolation as an opportunity. He’s the interim minister for the Grand Canyon Community Church. As the coordinator for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks’ activities here, he also helped Spencer and others on the small ministry team land their jobs. He encourages Spencer and her teammates to walk alongside their hurting coworkers because sharing struggles, hopes, and dreams allows them to share the gospel too.

KATIE: [Serving] How are y’all doing today? My name’s Katie; I’ll be taking care of y’all.

Katie Ruiz works six days a week serving hungry sightseers in the Harvey House. It’s a restaurant in the Grand Canyon’s historic Bright Angel Lodge.

RUIZ: Working in the restaurant industry in general is challenging to hold your fruits, like your anger. I guess with me, this job, specifically the restaurant, shows me where I need to work on my fruits and just how to be a light.

Vocational ministry can be exhausting, especially working 8- to 10-hour shifts in the hospitality industry. But Ruiz often reminds herself why she’s here.

RUIZ: Your biggest goal is to make connections and to bring people to Christ. Maybe just the little seed that you're planting is making the difference in someone's life, just sitting down with them or saying hi to them, you know…that'll make their day.”

The ministry has found that most of the meaningful conversations occur near the end of each season. Jordan Doffing-Shlador came to the Grand Canyon from a small town in Minnesota a year ago. It took three months of on-the-job conversations before one of her coworkers shared his religious experiences. He confided on a nighttime hike that he had gone to church for years but still didn’t trust Christians or even God.

SCHLADOR: We had our headlamps, and we were just walking down, and it was really peaceful and the stars were just so bright that night, and it was so beautiful.

After seeing a satellite streak by and bantering about aliens, Doffing-Schlador’s ministry teammate who was also on the hike veered the conversation toward the vast universe visible from the dark canyon.

SCHLADOR: And so that just led into a conversation about God being our creator, and our need for him, and how he loves us.

Hiking back to the rim, they stopped to rest.

SCHLADOR: I just asked him, like, ‘Hey, do you have a Bible?’ He said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, if I gave you one, would you read it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’

After a career running her own business, Lisa Spencer now spends her days at a cutting board in the cafeteria. It’s here where she sees hearts open up.

SPENCER: Because of the harshness that this life does bring and the hardships that go with it, the people who, who I've found here are, are very open, I believe, to the Holy Spirit and to God, and into learning more. They may not present that way, but when I sit there, you know, chopping vegetables next to someone, and the conversation will come up about God or life or whatever. I see and I hear an understanding of God.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician, in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona.

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