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Summer 2003 | Volume 26, Number 3 | Alumni | |
| Keeping the Customer Satisfied,
Espresso
Stand Owner Makes Listening a Ministry ON ONE WALL OF The Grinder � a longtime espresso stand just off Seattle Pacific University�s campus � is the daily trivia question. For customers who guess correctly, the owner takes 25 cents off their tab. Kristin Swanson �94, sole owner and barista, loves to ask her customers questions. Only a few could be called trivia questions; one might concern a student�s job search and another a regular�s relationship gone awry. �I ask lots and lots of questions,� says Swanson, �because I want customers to know I�m more interested in them than myself. People don�t get asked enough about themselves. I�m astounded to see their answers are just as deep as the questions I ask.� For Swanson, who was a youth ministry major at SPU, it wasn�t much of a leap from being a junior high ministry intern at a church for six months to running an espresso shop for the past nine years. �I just went from youth ministry to adult ministry,� she laughs. �Essentially, it�s the same job every day in a 10-by-12 tent. But I can honestly say I love my job, not because I�m my own boss, but because of the relationships the Lord creates in here. I put a cup of coffee in someone�s hand, and that�s where it starts.� Keeping connected with SPU, Swanson plays softball on the alumni team. She led a Bible study for three women students for all four years of their schooling. She even covered a staff member�s desk one quarter so the worker could attend a noon class. Seattle Pacific Professor of Theology Rick Steele, a regular at The Grinder, has high praise for Swanson. �As I�ve often told people, �The head of SPU is in Demaray Hall, but the heart of SPU is at The Grinder.�� He explains: �Kristin personifies in her profession and in her carriage what an alum should be. She�s got a buoyancy of spirit, a genuine interest in her customers just because they�re people.� Every day, Swanson sees about 100 customers come to her stand on the corner of Nickerson and Dravus. Seventy-five percent come in by 11:00 a.m., and the rest trickle in until 3:00 p.m. Those afternoon people are the ones who come to talk. Many of those who talk want to know what makes Swanson shine. �Often,� she says, �people will tell me, �There�s something different about you � what is it?� Since 90 percent of my business is corporate, I try to use non-churchy language. I tell them I have a faith that�s important to me, based on Jesus Christ. Some look confused, but most nod and walk away � thinking, I hope.� �There�s a way she�s sort of the mother confessor for her customers, a spiritual director, someone with whom one can speak freely,� Steele says. �Besides that, she�s a Mariners fan. And she makes very, very good coffee.� |
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 From the President Americans today are searching for a new tone for their lives. �We are talking here about another set of values � not the giddy sense of entitlement that emerges out of exuberant times,� says President Philip Eaton.
A Gift at Any Age Like Grandfather, Like
Grandson The Retiring Class of 2003 Second Wind
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