Creepy abandoned church

(DISCLAIMER: As an overall nice human being, I do not force entry, vandalize, steal, or disclose means of entry or location if it isn't obvious. I do this to protect locations and respect them. Trespass without forced entry is a civil offense rather than a criminal one, which isn't worth acting on unless one causes damage, steals, has ill intent, etc. I simply photograph and leave everything as I find it. I do not condone breaking and entering, and I do not condone what I do. I'm a danger to myself and a terrible role model )

 This blog post contains some morbid imagery due to what we find. If morbid content disturbs you, feel free to click off the blog.

As a quick recap, Operation Cobra is our nickname for a road trip into Wales. We had our sights set on a mysterious abandoned house out in Wales, and just in case it was a wasted journey, my accomplice Tree Surgeon and I found a route that would give us plenty of adventures to have along the way. We gathered a group and we hit the road.

So today we're checking out this modest little chapel.

It doesn't look like a chapel, does it? We're out in the depths of Wales at this point, far from any village.

Chapels like this owe their existence to the days before the industrial revolution, when Wales was still remarkably rural, and people lived off the land in tiny disconnected communities. These communities lacked the funds or manpower to build places of worship of any significant architectural magnificence, like churches in more populated areas, but the communities would come together to collectively build a place where they could worship. These were built mainly with granite and slate, as these are common materials throughout rural Wales.

Nowadays, religion isn't as prevailent as it once was, and the number of actual churchgoers is even less than the number of religious people. In addition, as technology has increased, these rural communities aren't so cut off, but the churches relied on the community to maintain them. As such they all gradually became neglected and forgotten.

 This one is in some really pretty scenery though.
On the exterior of the chapel is this sign.

It took a lot of work, fiddling on the computer with Tree Surgeon, but we managed to make out what this sign says. It reads "The site which this chapel stands was presented to the Welsh Congregationalists by the Righ Honourable George Charles, Earl of Powis, AD 1923."

The Welsh Congregationalists have their roots in 1639, in their disatisfaction of Queen Elisabeths behaviour during the Protestant reformation of the 16th Century. No, not the present Queen Elisabeth. She's not THAT old. Unless, of course, we go with the shape shifting reptile theory, in which case, maybe she is.
The congregationalists sought to bring about a purer form of Christianity, and wanted to congregate in independant churches that could appoint their own ministers and be self governing. They believed that this form of worship fulfilled the descriptions of the early church and thus gave them more direct contact with God. For those who might be unsure, God is the antagonist from the popular series of books collectively refered to as the bible. The series covers the misadventures of humankind over the course of several centuries as God frequently seeks to cause them harm if they don't worship him correctly.

Meanwhile, the Right Honourable George Charles Herbert lived from 1862 to 1952, and was the fourth Earl of Powis. His family seat was Powis Castle in Welshpool, and when he died, it was given to the National Trust.

So lets slip inside this congregationalist chapel.

I haven't burst into flames on entry, so the House of God truly is abandoned. 
 As you can see, nature is taking it back.

 It's small but eerie. I find that churches have a fantastic atmosphere to them though. I didn't really want to leave this place.

 But seriously, how was this abandoned? Look at this beauty.

 This thing should be fixed up and put back to use. It's gorgeous!
It's a shame to see this entire church decay like this, to be honest. I wonder if any photos exist of it in its glory days. Maybe even wedding photos or something? Those would be great to see.

 My grasp of the Welsh language isn't too great, and this font doesn't help. It took a little while to work out because the word on the end makes no sense.
With the Welsh word for "God" leading the sentence and "Cariad" meaning "Love," I assumed this said "God Loves You" but on the end there, the word "Yw" is a Welsh word for "Yes."
My best guess is that this could be an affirmation that gives weight to the sentence rather than a word meant to be literally translated, so what this is saying is "God Loves !!!" with a positive affirmation to add some punch to the statement.

God has a very peculiar way of showing his love though. I mean those church pews are the fastest way to turn your buttcheeks numb, and people are expected to sit in those AND feel loved for it?
It's a good thing this statement has an affirmation on the end, because some of the congregation may need a little reassurance. 

 Littering the chapel are these old hymn books.

 There's also a can of spaghetti.

 And at some point a bird must have died in here. But the real surprise came at the very top of the church where someone had left a bible, and someone else had decided to plonk a sheep skull, presumably for the purpose of creeping someone out.

How eerie is that?
But also take into consideration how big a sheeps head is, and you'll realise this isn't your standard dainty bible found in a hotel room. No, this book is huge. 

This bible was entirely in Welsh, and I was hoping that whoever had placed the skull here had done so in a funny, darkly-corresponding part of the bible, like the part that says "Take a goat to bed with you, and you will be happy."
But no, this part of the bible is the part where the poor Jeremiah has to warn the people of Israel that God hates them and unless they stop being twats to each other, they'll be wiped out by an army from the north. The best line of these pages reads "They will be called worthless dross because I, the Lord, have rejected them."
Ouch.

But the church wall said "God loves" so it's okay.
Talk about mixed messages.

But for me the part of the whole religion thing that tickles me is that while the bible does actually say "Take a goat to bed with you, and you will be happy" we get people like Westboro Baptist Church, and other extremists, hating on the gays in the name of God, for destroying the world with their preference in partner. Goats are fine but keep your mits off anyone of your own species with the same reproductive organs.
 I'm aware that these don't represent all Christians though, don't get me wrong. In all honesty, I know quite a lot of very friendly Christians, and lets be honest, the likes of Westboro Baptist Church are about as representive of Christianity as Buzzfeed is representative of feminism. But the gripe with the gays makes no sense at all because the line of the bible that homophobes refer to actually just says "Do not lie with a man as you would with a woman."
I mean that's open to interpretation. God is basically saying "If a man asks you if he looks fat, it's okay to tell him yes."

But also on the subject of biblical homophobia, we should probably look at historic context. The characters in the bible are almost always dying. It's filled with stories about apocalyptic floods and tribes wandering around in the desert for years. It's a battle for racial survival. It makes sense that at some point the tribe chief says "Fucks sake Cyril, get out of Rodney. We need to make babies, dammit."
And now, thousands of years later, the threat of extinction is in the form of politicians, and nuclear weapons. It doesn't really matter who we take to bed at this point, does it? In fact, I'd like to host a communual orgy in my garden. You're all invited. But I digress.

I'd argue that Jesus was bisexual but I think I'm ruffling enough feathers with this blog post as it is. It's bad enough I have the Yacusio after me from last blog post, but somehow in the space of one blog I've somehow managed to insult Christianity and Buzzfeed.
How many enemies will I make by the end of Operation Cobra? Will I even survive? We have the Welsh Mafia hot on our heels. I'm dead serious!

Meanwhile, the chapel had a back room, and I have to warn you, things get morbid. If morbid subjects get you down, click away. Read about Brogyntyn Hall in Oswestry instead. A band recently wrote a song about that blog post. That's right, the local bards are telling of me. Isn't that awesome? You can hear the song here.

And if you don't mind a few pictures of dead sheep, keep reading.

 There's a fireplace in the back room, which would imply that someone wanted this area heated and habitable once.

 These sheep, however, are literally lying where they fell, and their skeletons are pretty intact.

 Well, this one has no head. It's probably the one plonked on the bible.
It sure is strange to see entire sheep skeletons though. Notice, also, the collapsed stairs at the side. It appears that there was once a means of accessing an upper floor.

Luckily someone has placed a ladder where the stairs used to be. Lets check it out!

This little area is tiny, and has decayed a lot. But there are signs that it was once quite nice.

A door leads to a smaller room, which is a lot more collapsed, and overgrown. As you can see, the door frame is collapsing.

There's a birds nest up here.

Using my foot to wipe some of the dust on the floor, I found that the flooring up here was quite artistic with this floral design. It must have looked quite nice once.

There's also a red lamp shade up here.

But otherwise, that's really all that there is to see. I don't know what this little collection of rooms at the back of the church could be used for.

Anyway, because every tale needs a deadly antagonist and I refuse to take life seriously, I'll just add in here that at this point, the Welsh Mafia totally swung by to try to murder us all. We tried to escape, but our team mascot, Jedward, made us stop to explore this abandoned house-

And then one of our colleagues was shot. I'm so serious! This happens all the time in urban exploring adventures on Youtube!
Luckily, they survived the gunshot and the scar looks just like Jesus so call it devine intervention.

Also when I told our driver to drive, we were almost struck by lightning. I'm not sure if Gods pissed that I'm using others to do my bidding or if he just wants credit for the idea.

But that's it for this blog post. I just want to point out, out of fear of being burned for witchcraft, that I am not actually against religion, but nor am I religious. I guess you could say I'm agnostic but an apathetic one, because personally I don't care whether there's intelligent design to the universe. I just don't, sorry. What matters is that I am here, and that I'm doing what makes me happy. The existence or non-existence of a deity doesn't factor into my happiness.
And am I happy? Hell Yeah!
I can honestly say that my life is pretty much going exactly how I want it to go.

 Anyway, that's it for todays blog. If you like it, share it on social media. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and like my Facebook. If you ever want to help fund my adventures, hit the donate button at the top. No pressure though, but donations do go only to the blog.
However, far more important to me is that you are all nice to each other, not out of fear of going to Hell, but because it's fun to do so, and the world needs it. Add some positivity to someones life.

Thanks for reading. Stay awesome!