Amish Beliefs

This was filmed in Pinecraft Park by Ernie Bontrager, who made many Amish-themed films before his recent passing. This group of older folks sing a hymn which Ed describes as a funeral song. The hymn has a joyful feel and theme: “God Be With You Til We Meet Again.” Ed filmed this sitting amongst the […]

Continue Reading Older Amish Folks Singing: “God Be With You Til We Meet Again” (Video)

The large organized searches for Linda Stoltzfoos have been stopped at this time according to the Facebook page dedicated to Linda’s search (“postponed until farther [sic] notice from authorities to resume directed searches in specific areas”). The latest significant news came from last Thursday’s press conference, in which new photos of Smoker’s car were released, […]

Continue Reading Linda Stoltzfoos’ Family Asks For Prayers & Letters

Here’s a simple article from the Alberta Press giving us a look at the Amish approach to “retirement” and aging. This comes from the Prince Edward Island settlement at Dundas. It largely consists of an interview with James Kuepfer, 35, and his father Peter (as an aside, note Kuepfer is not a common name among […]

Continue Reading An Amish View On Aging & Elder Care

While we’ve lately featured numerous videos of Amish singing, we haven’t had too many examples of church singing here. If you haven’t heard Amish church singing before, today’s clip of Amish singing Lebt Friedsam, by Ed Yoder, will give you a sense of what it is like. A song leader opens with the first notes […]

Continue Reading Amish Church Singing: Lebt Friedsam (Audio)

Marlene Miller joined the Amish at age 23, married and had ten children. She wrote about her life experience in Grace Called Me Home, later republished as Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order. I just learned yesterday that Marlene passed away Saturday from cancer, at the age of […]

Continue Reading Marlene Miller 1944 – 2020

Following our NYC Amish singing post, I came across a few more nice videos of Amish singing. This one features three Amish teens from somewhere in Minnesota. The song is “The Whippoorwill Song” (aka “I Give You Freedom”), written by Alfred B. Smith in 1975 (lyrics below). You can hear quite a contrast when it’s […]

Continue Reading Three Amish Teens Sing “The Whippoorwill Song” (I Give You Freedom)

We’ve lately seen photos of Amish on the beach on Staten Island, so how about Amish singing an uplifting Christian song in the NYC subway?  Beautifully sung. There is some discussion in the Youtube comments over whether these are Amish, or a Mennonite or other Anabaptist church. Would you recognize this group as Amish? […]

Continue Reading Amish Sing “I Am Free” Underground In NYC (Video)

Gloria Yoder answers questions from time to time in her Amish Cook column. In her latest, she gets an interesting question from a reader: another friend and reader, Betsy, from Lebanon, Ohio…wondered if there are different levels of Amish and how we believe about our relationship with Jesus, which is so very sweet and important. […]

Continue Reading Are There “Different Levels” Of Amish?

Following a reader question on the topic, several months ago I shared an example of an obituary of an Amish person. Many Amish do have their obituaries posted in general news sources, even appearing online. I came across another example today, of an Amish woman named Elizabeth Petersheim. Elizabeth passed away on Saturday. Her obituary […]

Continue Reading Another Amish Obituary (& Funeral Song)

The latest edition of Raber’s Almanac contains additional spiritual material that I don’t recall seeing as much of in previous editions – including some Christian poems and stories. One of them caught my eye. It is a story of an encounter between two Bishops, one liberal and one more traditional. I thought this was a […]

Continue Reading Two Bishops