“Being up in the mountains, seeing God’s creation and the awesomeness of it, really makes God real. The quietness, the peacefulness. Sometimes it’s stormin’ and blowin’, and it reminds us of the power God has,” Yoder explains. “In my everyday life, I feel a connection to God. I feel like I have God on my side. I’m living for God. But when I’m up here,…
“This kind of stuff happens all the time with them.” That’s area resident Cyndi Tipton, on an incident involving local Amish youth. The young men’s behavior led to charges including underage drinking and disturbing the peace. The four young Amish men, ages ranging from 19 to 20, also were charged with providing false information to an officer. The area in question is Gladwin County, Michigan….
Millie Otto is an Amish woman living in the Arthur, Illinois settlement. I’ve mentioned her here before, including in the “3 Amish Columnists You Might Enjoy” post. From time to time I read her column, which is carried in several news outlets, including the Champaign, IL News-Gazette. She is one of several Amish columnists printed in non-Amish newspapers (others include Lovina Eicher and Gloria Yoder)….
As we wrap up the 2010s, a look back at some favorite posts of the past 12 months. My thanks to all of you who took the time to read, share and comment on posts this year. Wishing you all good things in 2020 ~ Erik Church 6 Examples of Amish Ordnung Rules Colorado Amish To Build Meeting Hall Attending Amish Church All About Amish…
We caught a glimpse of North Carolina’s Swartzentruber Amish settlement when someone interviewed a man from this community as he waited at an Alabama Amtrak station. I also previewed the community auction which was to take place in late November. Amish began moving to the area near Ellenboro, NC (Rutherford County) in 2015. Today this Swartzentruber community sits at about 16 families (apparently two families…
Lenawee County, Michigan authorities hope to find a compromise with Amish over sewage and water violations in an ongoing conflict in this southern Michigan community. That’s according to a new article in the Daily Telegram. The report contains more details about how waste is handled by the Amish: The health department said it started receiving complaints in 2015 about how the Amish were disposing of…
Amish from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana visited the President and Vice President in the Oval Office Friday, as reported in the Washington Times. This was apparently the first time Amish people have visited the White House in this capacity (with one possible exception, see below). The Amish as a whole are not overtly political, so this type of event gets attention. While relatively few Amish visit…
Like most Americans, the Amish celebrate Christmas (in fact, some celebrate more than one Christmas). Several seasons ago, Rebecca Miller shared five ways Amish spend the Christmas season with us. Rebecca, member of an Ohio Amish church, closed her list with this: “The main focus of the season is still first of all remembering Christ – the true meaning of Christmas, family, gift-giving, and helping…
In August we learned that a Michigan county had deemed Amish homes “unfit for human habitation.” The reason? Outhouses and lack of running water, which created what were described as unsafe living conditions. Photo by Mary Speer/WTOL Eviction loomed, and jail and fines were possible. There was even a threat of the homes being bulldozed. Now the Lenawee County Health Department has been sued by a…
One of the more memorable experiences of my Holmes County visit was an early-morning stop at Indian Trail Harness Shop. Rich Stevick and I were out for a day of visiting. This was our first stop of the day, and a random one (sometimes those are the best). We noticed the place traveling up from Walnut Creek to an Amish acquaintance of Rich’s in Wayne…