THE
STORY OF WYLLIE - MISSION IN ACTION.
Marian
Barge.
(Marian
is now Parish Deacon in Mynyddislwyn Rectorial Benefice.)
Wyllie
is a community of houses built especially for the workers at the Wyllie Pit
located at the end of a no-through road, just south of Pontllanfraith.
It consists today of about 150 houses with I pub and a Post office that
opens for a few hours each weekday.
When the community was built in 1925 there was a small Methodist chapel,
but this sadly was pulled down in the early 1970’s.
The parish of Ynsddu for a number of years organised regular Sunday
services in the Miners Institute (now the pub!) but the last service was in the
early 1970’s.
Since then this little part of what is now the benefice of Mynyddislwyn
has been sadly neglected and for over 25 years has had no church or chapel of
its own.
In
2000, 1 was ordained to the Diaconate to serve in the Benefice of Mynyddislwyn.
Part of my remit has been to evangelise and church plant on the Wyllie.
This seemed from the first to be a daunting task, so along with my
husband Brian and another Christian friend John Wigley we started to pray.
First of all, we went to the mountain top overlooking Wyllie and claimed
the ground for our Lord Jesus Christ.
During
the autumn of 2000, we walked the streets of the village; just walking along
asking God what we should do.
At first nothing seemed to happen and I became very frustrated as I could
not see a way forward;
it was like nobody wanted to know.
I felt quite deserted.
But we (the small team) decided to plod on, although we had not yet been
able to make any fruitful contact with anyone living in Wyllie.
Early
in 2000, The Revd. Tudor Griffiths, our Diocesan Missioner, heard of the
situation at Wyllie and wrote to me offering to help.
Tudor and I met several times to see how we could take the mission in
Wyllie forward.
As a result of this, in November 2000, I went to the pub (the old
institute where the Anglican services used to be held) and asked if it would be
possible to hold a Carol Service there.
I was over the moon when the proprietors Mr and Mrs Moffat said yes
we could use their restaurant for the service.
With this in mind we set about targeting every house in the village with
a letter telling them of the planned Carol Service in the pub.
The letter also outlined who I was and that if I could be of help to them
in any way that I would he happy to visit them.
We
had set about praying and walking the village some 5 months before this letter
went to every household but still nothing seemed to be happening.
Once again I began to feel completely alone.
My cry was that nobody cared, nobody wanted to know and anyone who would
listen heard this sob story of mine.
And then on top of this, the pub phoned to say that they had forgotten
that they had a dinner party booked in for that night so the room would not now
be available.
See.… nobody did care …..
or so I thought !
What a fool I was for, of course, our God cares.
In
the middle of November Brian, John and myself went to the Swansea and Brecon
Diocesan Renewal Day in Brecon Cathedral and there we truly saw God in action.
I met a lady called Clarice whom I had known before and I poured out to
her that well worn sob story, in the course of our sharing together. she
mentioned that she had been to Wyllie that very morning!
I could not believe what I was hearing.
“Oh yes”, she said, “a friend of mine has just moved there .. .
would you like to meet her?…. she is just down the front”.
Would I like to meet her ... boy I flew down the aisle of the Cathedral.
When I met Heather, I could not speak, I could only stand there in
amazement and cry …… did I cry!
In the end both Heather and Clarice were also crying, though they did not
know why.
Heather was keen to help, so I arranged to go and meet her at her home in
Wyllie, where she had just moved with her daughter and son-in-law.
She had recently moved from Rorkes Drift in South Africa to live in
Wyllie.
Who says God does not answer prayers?
I
went back to the pub to try and sort out a new date for the Carol Service, which
they did and we seemed to be back on course.
In early December the music group I had hoped to book fell through.
Again I felt deflated but God had it all in hand for in my prayer time he
had given me the name of another friend, Chris Daniel in Swansea.
I contacted him and booked him for the Carol Service.
We
had our first Carol Service on December 11th 2000 in the pub at Wyllie.
About 30 people were there including lots of friends and also 8 who came
from the village. The first service for over 25 years was a success.
During
2001 we had 5 services at the pub as well as a Palm Sunday walk of witness, a
Good Friday “Stations of the Cross” walk around the village and a Barbecue
in conjunction with our friends at the pub.
And by the time we came to the 2001 Carol Service, 18 people from the
village attended and 3 of them read lessons.
In that year we also targeted the homes in the village 3 times with
letters and conducted a survey of what the local people wanted from the church
under the guidance of Tudor Griffiths.
We hope that as time goes by the local Church will he able to implement
some of the requests we received from local people.
We
now have a team of’ 5 leading and praying for the mission to Wyllie, John,
Brian, Grace, Heather and myself.
We also have a music group led by the Revd. Nick Hawkins from the
Diocesan Mission Team that comes regularly to lead worship at our services in
the pub.
In October 2001 we started a Bible Study and Prayer Group that meets
regularly in Heather’s home.
In February this year we plan to use a portable sign outside Heather’s
family home declaring our presence there in the community.
We have a program set out for 2002 with services in the IsIwyn Inn (by
kind permission of Mr and Mrs Moffat), one of them being an Easter Tuesday Songs
of Praise with Rowan Williams our Archbishop.
So
you can see that to plant a church in an unchurched area is not an easy task and
at times I have felt that it would never happen.
But our God had it all in hand.
What I had forgotten was that my timing was not necessarily God’s
timing.
We
would ask you to continue to pray for all aspects of the mission work in the
community of Wyllie: for our local mission team of 5; for our prayer group in
Heather’s house; for our friends at the Islwyn inn and for Tudor and Nick and
other members of the Diocesan Mission Team, who come to help and work alongside
us.
And if maybe you are praying about the possibility of doing something
similar in your area maybe you could think about inviting the Diocesan Mission
Team to work alongside you and your parish.
Your
Servant in Christ
Marian