The church parking lot in Holmes County was already filling when Lizzie and I pulled in. Women in plain dresses, women in jeans, and women in dress slacks moved steadily toward the doors carrying coffee cups, purses, notebooks, and homemade snacks. Some greeted each other like old friends. Others looked nervous, like they were still trying to decide whether they belonged there at all. Inside,…

Jim Halverson recently attended an auction in Gladwin County, Michigan. As you can see from the photos, it was a well-attended event, likely in the hundreds of people. It happened this past Friday, May 29. Auctions are a fixture of Amish community life. They may be estate sales, farm sales, benefit events, or simply a regular community consignment auction. Whatever the occasion, they tend to…

The van heater hummed while the sky was still black outside, and I was deep asleep when— Rap tap tap, rap tap tap, rap tap tap. “Hey, Haley, are you awake?” David B’s baritone voice jolted me upright. I blinked at the clock. 6:00 a.m. Seriously? I thought. Don’t these Amish let their drivers sleep? Apparently not. I slipped out of bed quietly so I…

An Amish-owned grocery store in Newaygo County, Michigan burned to the ground overnight — destroyed in a fire that broke out around midnight Thursday. This is From WOOD TV8: GARFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — An Amish-owned grocery store west of Newaygo burned to the ground overnight. The fire broke out around midnight Thursday at Brookside Discount Grocery on 72nd Street near Croswell Avenue in Garfield…