JB NICHOLAS FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
It was a gift from above, miraculously recovered from the ruins below.
A decades-old Bible from the ravaged Spanish Christian Church was pulled from the East Harlem gas blast rubble by firefighters, an incredible find amid the carnage on Park Ave.
“The Word was preserved,” said the Rev. Rick Del Rio of Abounding Grace Ministries, who turned out for a Saturday prayer service on 116th St.
“We thank God for that,” he continued. “The building has come down, but the spirits are alive.”
ALEC TABAK FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSThe Rev. Rick Del Rio of Abounding Grace Ministries on the Lower East Side displays the Bible that was discovered by firefighters. ‘The building has come down, but the spirits are alive,’ he said at a Saturday prayer service on 116th St.
The Bible was the original used by founders of the storefront church, a Harlem fixture for 80 years.
Carmen Vargas-Rosa, financial secretary of the small evangelical church, offered a prayer of thanks after hearing that the Good Book survived.
“I thank God,” said an emotional Vargas-Rosa. “It was wonderful. I really didn’t think that anything that was paper would survive.”
GOOGLE MAPThe Spanish Christian Church was destroyed by Wednesday’s explosion and lost five members of its congregation.
The FDNY discovery Friday invoked a biblical passage from Isaiah: “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
The Spanish Christian Church was reduced to rubble by the Wednesday blast. Five of its 60 parishioners died.
The investigation into the leak that killed eight people should kick into high gear on Sunday once the last bits of debris are removed from the scene, Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said.
ALEC TABAK FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSThe Bible is the original used by founders of the church, which has served the community for 80 years.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the NYPD will check the basement gas meters and pipes in search of a cause.
The Rev. Thomas Perez was overwhelmed to learn that the church’s venerable Bible had emerged from the ashes. The pastor was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center as a precaution after he complained of chest pains before the Saturday prayer service began.
“When he saw this Bible, that’s when he had the palpitations,” said city Public Advocate Letitia James. “Through all of the rubble, through all of the destruction, his Book survived.”
