“and you shall not glean your vineyard and you shall not gather what has been left of your vineyard: you shall leave them to the poor and the alien; I am YHWH your Elohim.” Leviticus 19:10

Poor – We glean.  We reap.  We take everything we can get.  Capitalism without holiness results in wrath.  It pollutes the earth and the people on the earth.  Just as Leviticus instructs us that the manifestation of holiness within the family results in protection and provision, so it instructs us that societal holiness cares for the poor and the stranger.  But when the society gleans everything it can, some are turned away empty-handed.  There is no holiness in accumulation without conscience.

Haiti is a place of death – slow or swift, it doesn’t matter much.  97% of the water will make you sick.  Diarrhea is the most common cause of infant death.  Malnutrition and starvation take their toll.  One in five children die before the age of six.  Twenty percent of the population has tuberculosis.  In ten years, Haiti will be a mass grave.  The world has abandoned Haiti.  It has nothing for the world to glean.  It is filled with the poor – the ani – the oppressed, destitute and destroyed.

Three years ago I met these children.  When I took their pictures, I was saying goodbye.  Some are already dead.  The world doesn’t care about this harvest.  What does the manifestation of holiness look like here?  How many presents were under their tree?

Want to make a difference to real people like this?  Talk to Scott.

scottmandl@aol.com

Executive Director of Christian Flights International, a reader of Today’s Word and the man who introduced me to these wonderful children in Ranquitte, Haiti.

Topical Index:  ani, Haiti, holiness, poor, Leviticus 19:10