News

The search by the booming North American population of Amish for affordable, fertile farmland has produced settlements in 28 states and Ontario — and has even led parties to scout recently for suitable properties in Alaska and Mexico. A new study estimates the number of Amish has increased nearly 10 percent...

I come from an old older Mennonite home, known as the plain people. Ever since I was a little kid I had questions about God. I often wondered what he was like. Why was I alive? What is the purpose I’m alive? And many more questions went through my mind. I was taught that most of the people that didn’t belong to the plain people would burn in hell. I didn’t believe that because I saw people in the outside world that lived a better Christian life. But Mennonites were supposed to know all about God so if I questioned...

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In the calm of a sunny summer day in Richland in Oswego County, the banging of hammers, gnawing of hand saws and humming of a generator filled the air.

Levi Detweiler, a 17-year-old Amish youth, allegedly led sheriff's deputies on a mile-long, presumably low-speed chase, after running a stop sign in his horse and buggy and refusing to pull over...

A new change in Indiana state law regarding alcohol sales has some retailers and members of the Amish community concerned. As of July 1, anyone purchasing alcohol is...

The couple was driving their horse and buggy on Riga Road in the town of Leon around 11:30 Sunday morning when a car with four men pulled out in front of them...

I grew up in the Amish and I was getting ready to be a church member and when I found out all their church rules and I felt like there is more to being a Christian than following the Amish church rules. So, finally I came to the point where I had to make a change in my life.

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An Amish man from Curryville could face up to 32 years in prison for sexual-based crimes he allegedly perpetrated with at least five underage girls.

I left the Amish in 2008, at age 17. I left with my friend. We stayed in a barn for the first night and the next morning my cousin Sam from Canada came and picked us up; he helped us get clothes and get us on the bus to go to Iowa.

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I still remember those sleepless nights wondering where Daddy was. We finally got the news they had found him. He was in detox then. Then he was in rehab from March until September.

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When I was 18 years old I left the Amish to have more fun and live my life however I wanted to. I always thought English have more fun and when I hung out with my English friends I always felt happier. In the Amish, I was at the age to get baptized and I didn't want to be baptized Amish so I left.

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I grew Amish. As I was joining the Amish church, I heard more and more of their church rules. Right away, I knew there was more to life than living by their rules and I didn't want to be a part of a man made rule like that.

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Amish in the news 2010

Dear Joe, I was shocked to find this website as I had no clue anything like this existed. I grew up Amish and found it extremely frustrating and left home when I was 18 and moved to Montana. I worked for an outfitter for 7 years and now I am in the University of Montana becoming a high-school teacher in English and History.

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I left the Amish, my hometown in KY, and my family in 2006. I had a really rough start. I couldn't find a job and I wasn't happy, than one day one of my friends gave me Joe and Esther Keim's phone number it took me about two weeks to gather enough courage to call them but I finally did.

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left the Amish in 1968 and as you said, I did not want any part of any religion, not even a wedding or a funeral. I was very vulnerable; I got into drugs, parting, and that kind of life style. When I look back, I realize it was because I did not know how to live outside of the boundaries of the Amish community and "protection" I did not know how to manage money, how to have normal relationships with people, especially of the opposite sex.

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We were originally from Ohio and western PA, but left the Amish in 1990 and went thru the same things that you guys did. When I was growing up, I never agreed with the Amish rules and for the most part didn't obey them either. When I was 29, my wife and I left the Amish for a short period of time and had a lot of problems dealing with life in general.

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I was born and raised Amish. It seemed like my desires and dreams were different than most Amish girls my age. Matter of fact, I kept having thoughts of leaving the Amish and living in the English culture. At age 16, I was very shy and found it difficult to speak up and share my feelings. And it seemed that my family and friends took advantage of my shyness by constantly giving me advice on how to live my life.

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I grew up in Wayne County between Kidron and Apple Creek on a farm we farmed with horses and milked cows. Now I have to tell you, I did not like farming. I would try to get out of doing work all the time, and that caused a lot of problems between me and my Dad; we never did get along.

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Dear Son, We received your letter to invite us to your wedding. Don't expect any of us there. Just wish you would be getting married Amish so we could all be there. You wrote that there will be music before the wedding starts, we wouldn't want to be involved in that anyways, as we...

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Dear Son, We got your letter yesterday. Mom said when Laura read your letter she just cried, it was hard for us too. Laura was also hoping you will still come back home before long and be Amish again, but the way we understand the letter, you must feel that we didn't...

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Dear Parents and Family, Now!! Us ex-Amish! Do you think God's gonna look at us different then the English people, even if we believe we have the same things. You said that you have hopes for them, but not us. Does God look at people any different???

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Dear Perry, I just can't see how you can enjoy it out in that wicked world. "thou we shall lead a still and quiet life." I have to think about that verse in (German). "wer die welt Lieb der Lieb nicht Gott"? (English) "Whoever loves the world, cannot love God"? ...

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I am an ex-Amish minister and if this would help you in some way in helping people understand from an ex-Amish mans view point, where he came from and how he used to look at things, then how the Lord changed his heart, and how it got turned around and how he looks at salvation today. So they can get an inside view of a person that has been changed by God, and God only, there is nobody else involved that made this change but God.

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I left the Amish on Saturday March 24, 2007 in Sullivan, OH. I had a friend of mine to pick me up. So I moved to Crestline, Oh, Lived there for a year, then I noticed that I need to do something different in my life because I was more and more getting into that sinful world stuff, and it scared me so much.

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Being an Amish bull-rider might appear a bit against the grain, but Yoder said it’s a natural fit for him. Yoder grew up around farm animals on his parents’ farm at Jamesport. When his parents weren’t looking, “my cousins and I would dare each other to try to ride calves and young steers.”

While I was Amish, many of my Amish friends, including me, were hiding some of the things we did that were not Amish-like listening to the radio, calling someone on the phone, and other things. I always wondered why God made some people to be allowed to have cars and we were in this little Amish community-having to work hard with our hands alone.

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