Your most valued possession?

I wonder what your most valued possession is? Not necessarily that thing that you own that is worth the most money, but what is most precious to you? What would you grab first if you had to evacuate your home because of a fire?

I doubt many of us would say a Bible. Even though a familiar Bible may have meaningful scribbles and notes in the margin and although we don't know exactly where that verse in Ephesians is - we do know that it's in the bottom half of the left-hand page - but a Bible is easy to replace - at least in terms of the text. 

This afternoon at Oasis Tea we're going to be looking at the story of Mary Jones. Mary was born in Wales in 1784. Every Sunday her family would make the two-mile trip to church and Mary soon fell in love with the Bible, its stories and the God it spoke of. By the age of 9 Mary was determined to have a Welsh language Bible of her own. Mary's family were poor and Welsh Bibles were rare and expensive but Mary was determined. So she started to save up for her very own Welsh Bible. 

After six years she had enough money and set off on foot on the 25 mile trip to Bala in order to buy a Bible for herself.

The man she finally bought her Bible from was so inspired by her story that he went on to found the organisation that is now the Bible Society. You'll find their website here which includes more details of Mary's story.

The Bible Society are passionate about providing people with affordable copies of God's word in their own language. Here's a video of the excitement from a tribe in West Papua who have waited 47 years for the New Testament in their own language.




I wonder how much we take having a copy of God's word available in a language that we can read for granted. We've never had such easy, instant access to God's word and yet I wonder if we read it and value it less than generations before us.

It wouldn't be Oasis Tea without a little craft to entertain and frustrate. Mary Jones' father was a weaver, as to was her husband, and so we're going to weave a simple bookmark - maybe to use in a Bible.

You'll need three drinking straws, these are about 12cm long, and three pieces of wool (about 6 cm longer than your straws) tied together at one end and threaded through the straws. Finally, use a piece of tape to fix the staws together at the knotted end.

You're now ready to start weaving.

Take the piece of wool you want to start weaving with and tie it to one of the outside straws. (This piece is not one of the three pieces you've threaded through the straws.)

Then simply start weaving - over, under, over, under...

Make sure you keep your wool reasonably tight and pressed up towards the knot end. If you want to change colour just tie another colour on and tuck any loose ends into the weaving.

Keep going until you get to the end of the straws and tie off your wool to one of the outside straws.

Now, carefully remove the tape and whilst holding your weaving in one hand carefully pull out the straws one at a time.

Once you've removed the staws tie the three long threads together. You can now move your weaving up and down the strings to get them into the position that you like. Trim off any loose ends.

Obviously, you can make your weaving longer by using longer straws or by pulling your straws down your weaving as you progress. You can make your weaving wider by using more straws.

Lights in the darkness

Once a month the three church communities within the village (Anglican, Baptist and Catholic) put on a joint event called Oasis Tea. We avoid putting ages on our publicity ('for the over 55s' etc) but Oasis generally (but not exclusively) attracts the more senior members of our community.

Each month one of the churches is 'in charge' and responsible for the refreshments as well as leading a short 'service'. This includes a short prayer, a couple of traditional hymns, a Bible reading and a short talk. The themes for our talks are put together at the beginning of the year and sometimes link in the with the church calendar. Several times I have had to put my talk together with 'Wikipedia' and 'Google' working overtime as I have no idea about dates in the Anglican or Catholic calendar!

My last Oasis of the year was back in September and coincided with Michaelmas Day. Anything I can tell you about Michaelmas will come straight from Wikipedia so if you want to know more you know where to look!

One of the themes though, which is a familiar picture throughout the Bible is the battle between 'light' and 'dark'. Some of the traditions around this day are to do with seeking God's protection over the winter months with the long, dark nights. In the New Testament Jesus is described as the 'Light of the World' which is a theme that we will pick up again at Christmas.

One of the things that I like to do at Oasis is a simple take-home craft. Expanding the idea that often our newspapers often seem full of bad news, and that as Christians we have the capacity to punch holes in the darkness, we made small pyramid-shaped lamps.

If you wanted to make one for yourself transfer the pattern below onto the paper you want to use.

I used A4 paper with newsprint photocopied on to it just to give it a bit of extra strength.

Cut it out, fold and stick the triangle sections together - but do not put any glue on the tabs around the square base.

Place a battery powered tea-light on the square base and bring the pyramid over the top - sliding the long tab under the base to stop the top popping open again. There is no need to use glue on this part - otherwise you won't be able to open the lid and turn your tea-light off!

Please don't try this with a real tea-light and a naked flame! It won't end well.