the wales backstory.
A snapshot of the
spiritual heritage of Wales
Wales is a nation that punches above its weight.
There’s a story in the Bible about a prophet called Samuel who’s tasked with anointing God’s future King. He was guided by God to set apart the chosen one who was going to take over the reins. He ends up outside Jesse’s house, because one of his sons was to be the new guy for the job. What transpires is a holy line-up of all you could hope for in a King – looks, brains, braun and all of the above – ‘surely it’s this guy God?’ asks Samuel, ‘No, go fish’ says God… again and again, until he goes down the line and God confirms it’s not any of the usual suspects.
Sam ends up asking Jesse something along the lines of,
‘Uh...so you got any other sons?’
‘Well, yeah – there’s David but he’s out herding the sheep.’ Replies Jesse.
David was a Shepherd boy and an afterthought.
He didn’t even make the line-up. But he’s the one that gets the call-up.
The story of David reminds me a bit of Wales. On paper, we may not tick all the boxes, we may not be the most extravagant nation, we may not be the smartest, or richest, or the most recognised for creativity. If you could take the best attributes of different nations and make a dream team – we won’t be top 11, we wouldn’t even make the bench – but spiritually speaking it’s a different ball game.
God in his mercy, has used this little nation to punch above its weight and be a blessing around the world over centuries. God has used an on paper ‘insignificant’ nation, to be a megaphone that rings out the good news of Jesus. To paraphrase Hebrews 12, this is a snapshot of Wales’ great ‘cloud of witnesses’ through the centuries.
6th century…
The foundation of Christianity was laid before castles were constructed.
With the likes of David, Deniol and Dyfrig – all Saints who ploughed the Christian faith into the very soil of this nation - (even St Patrick is said to have had a welsh accent!)
16th century…
- Salesbury and Morgan translate total truth so it’s no longer exclusive to the Latin linguists – it’s accessible.
17th Century…
- Rees Pritchard the puritan weaves the Gospel into rhyming couplets to help the masses make sense of the message.
18th Century…
- Harris outspoken but spoke out about Jesus,
- Rowland – from man of drink to man of God,
- Williams – sweet singing hymn writer who was guided O, by the Great Jehovah.
- Christmas Evans – a Baptist with one eye firmly fixed on the Father.
- John Elias – Prolific preacher
- Gruffydd Jones – creates a culture of book mania, south waleaons become a bunch of book worms, with the end goal of reading the Bible.
19th Century…
- Mary Jones takes a 26-mile stroll for scripture and in turn inspired a global Bible movement called ‘Bible Society’.
Then three Thomas’…
- Thomas Charles – takes a leaf out of Gruff’s book and teaches the north how to read through the God book.
- Thomas Jones sets up camp in the Khasia hills of India, declaring that when we look to the hills, our help comes from the Lord.
- Robert Jermaine Thomas treks to South Korea to serve out scripture. It costs his life but the reward is eternal life for many.
- Dafydd Morgan and Humphrey Jones hold revival meetings up and down the country, Slate miners from Bethesda end up holding prayer meetings with pic-axes.
20th Century…
- Florrie Evans – putting her florescent faith colours on a mast, she makes a stand in a youth prayer event and ‘fesses up to the fact that she loves Jesus with all her heart.
- Annie Davies – belting out revival chart toppers like ‘Dyma Gariad fel y moroedd’, here is love and it is as vast as the ocean.
- Evan Roberts – a 20 something collier who knew that the word of God was a miner’s lamp to his feet. Evan changed his pursuit from coalface to the Father’s face and ended up becoming the face of a mighty work of the Holy Spirit in Wales.
- Watcyn Wyn – poet, preacher, teacher.
- Rees Howells – who believed, prayed and interceded.
- Martin Lloyd Jones – The Doctor of sermon exposition.
- Selwyn Hughes – a man who knew what it meant to spend ‘Every day with Jesus’.
These are just some of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. They didn’t always get it right but to think, all these and so much more from Wales ‘the land of our Fathers’, ran the race and are now egging us on as we run ours.
The heart of SOW, is to be creative people who story tell, rhyme, sing, pluck, strum and make – (for) these sounds (to) join the chorus of creation, heaven and our forefathers,
to give thanks for,
point people towards,
and give glory to
Christ Jesus, our Living Redeemer God.