This story will make you do a double-take. At least, it did me. Last month, Amish in a community in Eaton County, Michigan invited a teenage social media preacher to deliver a sermon to their community. He ended up preaching to a group of over 100 people, from the Amish and other backgrounds. When I saw this story, I had the obvious questions. Who are…
A formerly Amish Iowa man is facing charges for the second time — including two felony counts — over an unlicensed rural health facility, which once drew many Amish customers. Authorities are now alleging that patients were injured and died, and that Eddie R. Gingerich collected hundreds of thousands of dollars running the operation. From KTVO: Eddie Gingerich, 36, was arrested on April 22 by…
Over 300 Amish and Plain community writers got together in Berlin, Ohio on March 13 and 14 for the Plain Community Writers Workshop — an event that has grown from a small home gathering five years ago into one of the more noteworthy literary happenings involving the Amish. The two-day event was held at Dayspring United Mennonite Church in Holmes County. Publishers, sponsors, and book…
Here’s an Amish home in a location you might not expect: Hamptonville, North Carolina (Yadkin County). North Carolina has just two Amish settlements in the entire state. One of them, commonly known as the Union Grove community (about 45 minutes west of Winston-Salem) has been around since 1985. I want to emphasize that this is a horse-and-buggy Amish community. But there’s one detail about this…
An Amish family in Juniata County, Pennsylvania was involved in an incident Wednesday while dismantling a trailer home. A roof collapsed, pinning a man underneath. This accident was first reported two days ago, with relatively few details. Now a fresh report informs us that the man pinned under the structure has died. From WGAL: WALKER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Juniata County Coroner said the man…
After last week’s story of an Amish neighbor unexpectedly returning a favor, Haley Straw returns with a story in a similar vein. Only this time the favor is of the “pay-it-forward” variety – and on a much larger scale. Snuggled warm in bed, hoping to catch up on sleep, my phone rang interrupting a sweet dream. Blurry eyed, I fumbled for my phone thinking, “It…
It has been three months since the devastating February 3rd crash in Jay County, Indiana that killed four members of the local Amish community. The crash drew national attention to the question of “chameleon carriers” in the shipping industry. Since the tragedy, there have been several significant developments — including that the semi driver has been formally charged, and the van driver who survived has…
A recent piece by Marjorie Struckle in Lancaster Farming does a good job profiling something that, across the nearly 700 Amish settlements in North America, I suspect is not too uncommon — a rural community where the Amish and their non-Amish neighbors have built something genuinely mutual. The setting is Otsego County in central New York. That county is home to a full three Amish…
A three-year-old Amish boy was seriously injured yesterday afternoon after being run over by a horse-drawn planter on a farm in Centre County, Pennsylvania, as reported by WTAJ. Pennsylvania State Police say the accident happened Monday on Brush Valley Road in Rebersburg. The Daily Voice notes that emergency crews treated the child at the scene before he was airlifted to Geisinger Hospital in Danville, where…
Sam Shetler, the Amish man who led the Mercy and Truth Retreat in Cooper County, Missouri, was indicted by a grand jury Friday — and the indictment includes an upgrade that puts life in prison on the table. This is the latest development in a case we’ve been following since Shetler’s arrest in late March. If you’re new to the story, Shetler was arrested March…