Our Amish Values Winner (Plus Section Z on “Zeal”)

We’ve got a winner today of the book Our Amish Values: Who We Are and What We Believe by Lester Beachy.

Before we jump to that, I wanted to share one section from the book.

If you didn’t catch the original post, it’s a concise book, with great photos of Amish life, in which Beachy describes Amish values from A to Z.

I’ve also included info on how to get the book if you didn’t win.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway by leaving a comment on the original post where I shared 5 Amish values (on the topics Tradition, Jewelry, Evolution, Footwashing, and Keeping) from the book.

Z is for Zeal

Here is an excerpt from the book – the last letter, which Beachy uses to describe zeal in Amish Christian life:

Zeal

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Inside An Amish Schoolhouse (21 Photos)

Webster defines zeal as enthusiasm, fervor, earnestness, or a display of great interest. I doubt that any group of people can maintain their way of life without being excited about what they have. We need a solid conviction that our way of life is biblical and has value.

We need to maintain an earnest seeking for a personal relationship with God. Our culture and traditions are empty without a vital relationship with God. We need parents and ministers who earnestly contend for the faith. God desires and has provided everything we need to have that vital connection with Him.

We need to have an earnest zeal in teaching our children to seek God early in life and to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Family is so important in our culture. We enjoy sitting down to a well-prepared meal and sharing our everyday experiences. We believe communicating, singing, and working together as a family are essential for God’s blessing on our homes and churches.

It is important that we have a zeal for our church. God wants us to gather together as a body of believers to worship Him. We need to sing together, pray together, and study His Word together. Our ministers need to be enthusiastic and inspired as they lead the church.

If we wish to maintain a zeal for God throughout our life, we need to spend time in His Word every day. His Word is living water for our soul. The deeper we dig, the more our thirst will be satisfied.

Our Amish Values Winner

I used random.org to draw a winner from your comment entries. Congrats to comment #18, Debra Jorgensen. Debra, if you email me a mailing address (ewesner[at]gmail[dot]com), I’ll get your book sent out to you.

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My Amish Settlement List (72 Communities) UPDATED

How to get Our Amish Values

If you’d like to pick up this neat little book, you can get it directly from the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Holmes County, which is where I got mine.

You can also order from them directly by emailing director[at]amheritagecenter[dot]com. Or, the mailing address is:

5798 County Road 77
Millersburg, OH 44654

Finally, you can call in if you’d like to pay by credit card: 330-893-3192. The cost is $12.99 +$3.00 shipping. There are also online sources.

The book is published by Carlisle Printing, a local Holmes County establishment which I had a chance to visit last year. They do a lot of nice Amish and Plain publications.