Mary Jones and Her Bible

Christian Focus prints some extraordinary little books -- some of which may be lost in antiquity never to be printed again, if not kept in print by one of my favorite publishers. One such book is Mary Jones and Her Bible by Mary Ropes. This sweet book is the true story of a young Welsh girl, Mary Jones, who wanted to buy her very own Bible, and worked and saved for six years to buy one. She walked 50 miles, barefoot and alone to find a man who might have a Bible she could buy. At that time (early 1800's) Bibles were no longer being printed in Welsh, and Bibles were terribly scarce. Mary's love for the Word and devotion to Christ are inspirational to read about!

The man responsible for selling Mary her precious Bible began the first Bible society in England, which grew and grew. It is a bit hard for a westerner to appreciate what a blessing these societies were -- working to print the Scriptures in the languages where there was great need for them. We live in places where Bibles are sold in nearly every bookstore in every color, size, translation, with notes for every age and situation in life. If we are informed, we might consider places where the Bible has not yet been translated into the language, and pray that the Word would go forward in those parts. But what about people who live in places where Bibles are scarce? Reading this book opened my heart to consider those people in a fresh light. Bibles Unbound is a ministry of Voice of the Martyrs that enables Christians to send Bibles as gifts to places in the world where they are hard to come by. I highly endorse their program! Why not read this terrific little book, and then sign up to send some Bibles through Bibles Unbound? Sounds like a fitting activity for late summer when our minds tend to start thinking of "back to school", and we can start to get self-focused and materialistic.