Mary Jones and her Bible

As a young girl of about 10, I was given a book to read, ‘Mary Jones and her Bible’. Being from a Welsh family this story was known; how a 16 girl crossed the high mountains of Wales determined to own a Bible in her own language. Although we weren’t a religious family her story gripped me and I still remember us visiting her ruined cotrage as a family whilst in Snowdonia. I never forgot the story and it became even more meaningful once I became a Christian.
 

Mary Jones’ home: Welsh pilgrimage 2026

Lord here I am weeping by the stream next to Mary Jones’s cottage. This young teenager had such hunger for your word. In 1800, in response to the preachers of Welsh Methodism, her courage and determination led her to cross the high mountains of Snowdonia,  in the winter barefoot through the snow to get a copy of the Bible in Welsh.

Out of her hunger for your Word a whole movement was formed and four years later the Bible Society was birthed; not just for the Bible in Welsh but other language translations right across the world. The fruit of her life is enormous way beyond Wales right across the globe.

Lord, thank you for this young woman for the fruit of her life and thank you for her hunger after the word of God, her deep love for the word of God. I pray that you would raise up teenagers in our age like Mary Jones like Evan Roberts a century later,  who have a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, who have a hunger for the things of God. Lord have mercy on our nation.

There were several things that struck me as we sat by the tiny ruined cottage where she’d lived. Firstly, of course, her deep desire to read the Bible in her own language. But secondly, this came very shortly after the death of Howell Harris whom God used to birth Welsh Methodism. It was the dedication of Methodist preachers crossing the mountains from Bala to preach in the tiny hamlet of Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, where Mary lived, that sowed the seed of faith in her heart. However, there is a further older connection too, back to the original Celtic prayer cell in that hamlet. Was this another ancient well reopening in response to centuries’ old prayers? I’m inclined to think it is because 226 years later her faith is still bearing fruit with the Bible Society.

Also I was surprised how deeply moved I was sitting by the stream next to her cottage. I could feel the pain in God’s heart that his Word is no longer honoured and sought after with such devotion. A wave of repentance came over me as I remembered how much God has blessed Wales previously but also the earnest faith of those young believers. It caused a cry of intercession to rise in my heart for God to move once again.