(ENI)-The Bible Society of South Africa is planning to mobilise more than half a million people nationwide to undertake walks in the year 2000 to celebrate what it has declared to be the Year of the Bible. “This exciting project will be symbolic of the walk of Mary Jones, the Welsh girl who inspired the founding of the first bible society more than 200 years ago,” the Bible Society’s assistant general secretary, Neville Turley, told ENI . History has it that Mary Jones saved up all her money to buy a bible, but had to walk far into the Welsh countryside to the nearest town, Bala, where she hoped to buy one. However, there was none to buy. Her story was taken to London, where it sparked the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. A branch was established in South Africa in 1820.”We hope participants will be sponsored for the Bible Big Walk, to help fund our millennium bible projects,” Turley said. “Everyone will be celebrating the millennium, and we will be doing it by celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.”