serving in everyday tasks

Ceri Fishwick shows how God worked through ordinary people and places in the history of Wales

My family moved to Holywell in North Wales over forty years ago, prior to my journey to the London area to undergo nurse training.

Travelling through the beautiful scenic countryside of Wales, one cannot help but notice the large chapels built during and after the Reformation years. Sadly, many are now poorly attended, or closed and some sold for private development, as we see in Holywell.

From the early years of the Middle Ages, St. Winifred’s Well in Holywell attracted many people seeking healing from what was believed to be holy waters, and still, many visit to this day. Before the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-sixteenth Century, herbalist monks at Basingwerk Abbey were sought out to heal ailments. The first workhouse in Holywell opened in 1739 and was set up to house the poor and vagrant and to provide them with work. This was supported by the parish authorities, and they were also given some medical aid. These workhouses were often filled with the disabled, the sick, and the mentally ill. The second workhouse, Lluesty, was established in 1779, and later became a hospital. During the First World War it became a military hospital, which was a much-needed provider for the wounded and visited by chaplains.

Holywell Cottage Hospital was converted from ‘The Flintshire Dispensary’ originally opened in 1825 and following each extension there has been an official re-opening religious ceremony to thank God for His mercies.

In the 1840s, life expectancy amongst the working class was 25 years. A range of killer diseases were often responsible, including diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, pneumonia, and cholera. I found the record of a diphtheria outbreak in Holywell. The diphtheria vaccination records showed God’s timing in this situation.
As I read this local documentation, I realised I was viewing the work of the Lord interlaced throughout the general community. I could see God’s overarching power, authority, and supremacy. Driving around the town, as I view the churches as reminders of past revivals, I am reminded how far-reaching and wide is God’s work and purpose.

The teachings of Jesus, particularly seen throughout the Gospels, speak of living a Christ-centred life of faith and service to others through everyday tasks, embracing the ordinary, and daily seeking God through prayer. In Luke 10:2, Jesus reminds us that ‘the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest’. (King James Version) Can we be these labourers for Christ, despite the warning in the following verse that we are sent as lambs among wolves as followers of Jesus? It can often be tough reaching the unbelievers and the opposition we may face, but we know that God is with us always as Scripture promises.

Ceri Fishwick is a retired Nurse/Midwife