24/08/2026
“Give Me a Bible! I Want a Bible!”
The following report is from HeartCry missionary and Pastor Plinio Orozco in Caracas, Venezuela. Plinio and his church continue to provide aid and preach the gospel amidst the devastation of the recent earthquake.
As we do every week, we had arrived to La Guaira in the middle of a hot morning to distribute more than four hundred breakfasts, bring tools for the rescue workers, and share the Word of God.
On one of our recent trips, we got out of the truck carrying several boxes of Bibles. Before we could approach the people there, they began running toward us, raising their hands and saying:
“Please give me a Bible! I want a Bible!”
It was an unforgettable moment.
They did not want water. They did not ask for breakfast. They were not looking for clothes, as had happened on other occasions.
At that moment, they only wanted a Bible.
Those who received one held it in their hands with a smile. In fourteen years of pastoral ministry, I had never witnessed a scene like it: people who had lost their homes, family members, and possessions—and who did not even know whether food would arrive in time that day—running to receive the Word of God.
Afterward, several brothers from our team were able to sit down with them, open the Scriptures, explain their message, and proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We spent several hours there. When it was time for us to leave, we could still see some people sitting there reading the Bibles.
As I watched that scene, I thought, “not everything is lost.”
Suffering can harden the heart, but God can also use it to tear down our idols, remove false securities, and remind us that our hope cannot rest in material things.
Houses can collapse. Possessions can disappear. Plans built over many years can be buried in a matter of seconds. But our hope does not rest in a house, a bank account, or the stability of our circumstances.
Our hope is found in a person: Jesus Christ.
Those people needed physical food, and we had come to share it with them. Yet they also needed the food that sustains the soul: the Word that reveals who God is, exposes our true condition, and shows us the way of salvation in Jesus Christ.
As our Lord said:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” — Matthew 4:4
Now we pray that those who ran looking for a Bible will not only read its pages, but through them will come to know the Christ who is able to save them.
We pray that the Holy Spirit will work in every heart.
We pray that God will continue to use this season of suffering to break down self-sufficiency, awaken consciences, and draw many people to His Son.
We pray that those who have lost so many things will discover the treasure that no earthquake can destroy.
Among the rubble, there are still open Bibles, people listening, and a church proclaiming that in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life.
Not everything is lost.
