Luke 5 gives the account of The Miracle of the Fish, when the Savior worked a miracle for the apostles. Jesus was standing in Simon’s boat preaching to people on the lakeshore. When He had finished speaking, He told Simon to take the boat out farther into the lake and to cast his net down again. Simon told the Lord that they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, but that he would do as He asked.
When Simon obeyed the Lord, he was blessed with a catch so large that his net broke. Simon had to call for James, John, and their father for help. They filled both boats; the catch was so great that the boats began to sink under its weight.
Something not unlike this happened in Venezuela this past April, on the weekend of Palm Sunday at the beginning of Holy Week. For anyone that might not be aware of the situation there, the country has been facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis that began in 2010. It has been marked by political instability, water shortages, recurrent power outages, and a virtual collapse of the healthcare system. Inflation has skyrocketed, which has caused the price of food to increase exponentially, resulting in widespread starvation.
Many Venezuelans can’t afford to eat three times a day. It is often necessary for them to stand in line for days to buy food at government-regulated prices, as what little food the stores have is unattainable for most. It’s not uncommon for people, including children, to dig through the trash to find food. The severe food shortages have led to a mass exodus from the country that was formerly the most prosperous in South America. Those that remain have little hope for the future.
But one weekend in April, on a Venezuelan beach, as you can see in the video, there was an abundance of hope for many. Miracles can happen, in the Lord’s time and in the Lord’s way. As Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the seventy said, “No matter our ethnicity, no matter our nationality, no matter what we have done if we repent, no matter what may have been done to us—all of us have equal access to these miracles. We are living a miracle, and further miracles lie ahead.”