In the Shadow of the Mountain of the Blessing of God

This book is a sequel to my memoir, ’Great is Your Faithfulness’ and explores in more detail the family history of myself and my wife, as well as filling out the story of ’Penygroes and the 1904 Revival’. ’No man is an island’ - we are shaped by the people in our lives and the places where we have lived. As I look back, I see more clearly how profoundly the early years of my life have shaped me. Both my wife and I were blessed by being brought up in homes that were Bible-loving, God-fearing, and that honoured the Lord Jesus Christ. Our fathers loved reading the Bible, which gave a wonderful example for us to follow. They were ’Bible People’, who read it, lived it, preached it, and quoted it. What C.H. Spurgeon wrote about John Bunyan, could have been equally said about them in terms of their ’blood was Bibline’.

＂Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress-that sweetest of all prose poems - without continually making us feel and say, ＂Why, this man is a living Bible!＂ Prick him anywhere-his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God.＂ 2

So the content of this book has been shaped by this Christian heritage. The first two chapters explore the impact of the 1904 Revival on my home village and the way it resulted in transformed lives and provided the catalyst for new church traditions and mission initiatives. I am enchanted and inspired by the description of Penygroes at this time, just over a century ago, as ’the mountain of the blessing of God’.

The next chapters provide more detail than I gave in my memoir. A more detailed history of the Rees and Perkins families with more of their life stories and the challenges they faced. A detailed family tree covering both the Rees and Perkins generations is given in the Appendix.

This book, like my memoir, was written for my family, to provide a record which connects us to our historical roots. I trust that it will be a blessing and inspiration to them and to anyone who reads it.