Mary Jones – the little girl who started it all …

A Welsh girl named Mary Jones was so moved by the words she read from the Bible as a ten year old, that she resolved to do everything possible to have her own copy of the Bible. Daily with diligence, she knitted socks, grew vegetables, kept bees, raised chickens and helped local farmers harvest their crops, saving just that little bit at a time.

After six years, Mary finally saved enough to realise her dream in 1800. She had heard that Rev Thomas Charles, the minister in Bala, a town in Wales, had Bibles for sale. Excited, she started this arduous journey of 25 miles through a forbidding terrain. Mary finally reached the home of Rev Charles only to be told he had no more Bibles for sale. Heartbroken, she began to weep. Her stoic determination and love for God’s Word touched Rev Charles, who found her a Bible, and made him think what could be done for others such as Mary.

Thomas Charles was central to the founding of the first Bible Society in London in 1805. Since Mary Jones walked that first 25 miles, much has been done to sow God’s Word throughout the world, reaching many people of diverse ethnicities and nationalities. The Bible Societies all over the world exist to translate, publish and distribute the Bible so that no one would be denied the Word of God. But there is still much to be done. By being part of that effort to spread God’s Word to all corners of the globe, the Bible Society of Singapore is in effect going into the world and making disciples of nations.