Pastor Tom Admin December 25, 2019
Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Christmas Evans – Experience in Anglesey PART TEN of TEN
Evans became very depressed at this stage, and accepted a call from the churches in the island of Anglesey to serve them for seventeen pounds per year, not a noble sum, even then. Crossing the Menai Straits on Christmas Day 1792, his birthday, he made his home on a corner of the island where there was a cottage and a chapel, on a bleak, exposed piece of land. There were ten Baptist communities altogether which he was to serve. The cottage was exceedingly dilapidated. There was a stable for the pony under the same roof, the door was rotten, the ceiling too low to allow Evans to stand up, and the broken-down bed was supported by stone slabs.
The churches themselves presented a dismal picture. Baptists had been established on the island only a few years, but were sadly divided. A previous minister had fallen into open disgrace and the reputation of the communities had suffered terribly. In view of this situation, Christmas Evans called a day of fasting and prayer, and he noted: ‘Then it pleased the Lord to bless us.’ Having waited upon God in this way, he divided the island into four districts. By visiting three places each Sabbath he found that he could give each group a service once a month. In the week he held church meetings and carried out his pastoral activities. As the work prospered, so new chapels had to be built. In two years the ten congregations increased to twenty. Six hundred converts were added to the church. Other preachers emerged, but Evans himself was the pastor and the other preachers functioned under his supervision.
Each year of his stay in Anglesey he made two visits south. The first, in the late spring, would be for the Association meetings and in the winter to plead for funds for the chapel debts. He would go off on a preaching tour to collect money. At that time this was not an uncommon practice when new chapels were being built in England and in Wales. On one occasion he went to a district where there had been sheep-stealers and said he hoped none of these would put ill-gotten money in the offering. It was said that people borrowed money to give! At times his tours were criticized but he said the wealthier south must help the poorer north. His own income was meagre and he wrote pamphlets to eke out his stipend, continuing to live in his poor cottage
Thomas E. Kresal – The Revival Library: Christmas Evans
