Gleaning...how to eat when your poor.

     Thursday mornings we (the guys from Hogar De La Roca) go to the market with no money, empty sacks, and high hopes.
      I am going to dedicate a post soon to explain thoroughly exactly what "Hogar de la Roca" means, but for our purposes so far it is important to know that it is a faith-based residential program designed to help people in Guatemala with life controlling issues such as substance abuse, learn to lead productive and meaningful lives. It is also important to know that we have little to no funds as the Government doesn't support us financially and most of the people who come to the program come with literally only the clothes on their back.  We have money in our budget for tortillas and  black beans, which we literally eat for breakfast and dinner every single day!  The lunch is the big meal of the day in Guatemala and that is where Thursday morning market runs come into play.

Ruth 2:2  One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "let me go out into the harvest field to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it"      That is called gleaning and that is exactly what we do.  What you see in the photo above is a student from our program, Edgar, going with myself to every merchant and is asking for any vegetables or fruits that aren't able to be sold due to being damaged, nearly rotten, or too small.  We have a flyer that explains what our ministry is about and it is kind of an ID tag for us.  However most of the people spot edgar a mile a way by now and either wave us over or shoo us away.

   This is a beautiful example of people in need helping people in need, as well as a testimony to God's faithfulness.  The vendors are under no obligation to give us even rotten vegetables, yet often times we leave with stuff that is in pretty great shape and just needs a good cleaning and maybe a section cut away.  We learn to work with what we get too.  For example we may get three cartons of broken eggs, so we load them on the truck carefully and bring them home.  We pour the eggs out of the broken shells into a bowl and have scrambled eggs ready to go in the fridge for the next week or so.  Scrambled eggs go great with beans and tortillas by the way.

     Whether it is a good day, or not so good day at the market there are always a few faithful people we can count on consistently to help us.  This woman fills a bag for us every time before we even ask.  Today we gave her a couple of the sweet bananas we got at another stand as a thank you.

     We literally filled a truck with avocados, carrots, papayas, eggs, limes, oranges, cilantro,verduras, and some other veggies I don't know the name of yet.  Not bad at all for a day of Gleaning in a third world country!

Leviticus 19: 9-10  When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.  It is the same with your grape crop-do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall onto the ground.  Leave them for the poor and foreigners living among you.  I am theLord your God.
     Why does God allow people to starve?  This is a seemingly reasonable question that is commonly asked.  However when we really look into it, we see that world hunger isn't so much a problem that God created, as much as it is a problem we create and re-create on a daily basis.  The text from Leviticus above is part of God's original plan for his people. It's part of the "sabbath laws" outlined in Leviticus 19, and more predominately in Leviticus:25.  If you have a bible i strongly encourage you to read chapter 25 as God outlines a plan that if followed by his people would end permanent poverty and hunger.  It's brilliant and fool-proof but it comes against our human nature too much and was never followed properly.  One thing remains clear however, God has a heart for the poor and expects us to use the same abilities we care for ourselves with, to care for the poor as well. 
     God didn't make too many people and not enough food.  In fact I once read a statistic that said the U.S. harvests enough grain in one year to feed the whole world two times over.  This is easy to believe when you think of every dunkin donuts, bakery, subway, and fast food restaurant across the country throwing away garbage bags full of good food every single night.  So it quickly becomes clear that world hunger isn't a creation problem, but a distribution problem.  We as people have complete dominion over our food and too often we either hoard, mis-distribute, or waste precious food that our fellow-man desperately needs. 
     I may be in Guatemala now, but I'm from Hartford CT, and there are plenty of hungry people there too.  Looking back, I wasn't the best steward of my food.  I encourage all of us to find ways to actively contribute to end world hunger, even if it is just by one meal and mouth at a time.  Let me tell you from experience, even a bag of nearly rotten vegetable is wildly appreciated when your hungry.