Day 1 - Pharisee & The Tax Collector - Sara

Today was our first day to go to our ministry sites. I was very excited to hear that our site was close enough to the church we’re staying at that we would be walking. Perfect I thought, there would be no chance of us getting lost. I was wrong. Our instructions were to walk up a road by the church for 5 minutes and we would come to “The Lookout,” an organization that helps provide housing and services for the homeless and mentally ill. So I and the five youth in my group set off on foot for our destination. Unfortunately, even though we were walking and even though it was incredibly close to the church we found ourselves lost. Our first plan, look in the binders we were provided for directions, unfortunately we couldn’t find any. Next plan use my cell phone, but wait, Canada apparently hates my cell phone due to the fact that it hasn’t cooperated since I crossed the border, so that was a no go as well. Next idea, call one of the YouthWorks staff back at the site and ask them for help, but all we got was voicemail. So here we were in a strange city with no idea where anything was, with no one to help us and that’s when we met the first homeless person of three that would help us find our way to our destination.

                Here we had left Vancouver to come to Vancouver to help the homeless and broken and here we were relying on them to help us. Sometimes we start to think that we have things figured out, that we are the ones with the answers, but sometimes we are the ones that are really lost. In our worship time tonight, we read the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee thought he didn’t need help, that he didn’t need God. He had his act together, he prayed, tithed, and followed the rules. The tax collector was the one who needed the help, he was the broken one.  Really they both were in need, it was just that one couldn’t see his need.