This article is based on reflections on field notes from a participantobservation in a socially vulnerable environment, an environmentwhere a Swedish church carries out its daily work. The articlepresents and reflects the initial steps of an action research project,and (en)tangles issues of privilege, hierarchy, power and languagethat researchers are forced to face and relate to. The focus of thearticle is on the question of how to move from a researcher’soutside perspective, to a ground/place where it is possible to,firstly, give room to the study’s participants as subjects, andsecondly to create conditions for mutual, if not equal, dialogue.This process, covering the researcher’s observations and the initialformulation of questions for further work, is explored and conceptualised. In particular, the article reflects on the bridging fromobservation to text.The results show how the researchers’ own boundaries becomeclear; the necessity to problematise these boundaries are underlined. It also becomes clear how the academic language falls short.Instead poetic pieces showed great potential to grasp and expresswhat the researcher experienced during the observations. Thisopened for a suggested method for interactive conversations aboutworking in an environment where unexpected challenges andpeoples’ vulnerability often constitute the normal starting point foruntraditional daily actions in a church.