Meet the McCallums, one of Australia's few Amish families
October 10, 2018
Ten years ago, Gregory McCallum sat reading on a Queensland beach with his wife, Bethany. A breeze stirred the she-oaks above, their five children played on the white sand, but Gregory suddenly started crying.
To the outside world, the then 31-year-old looked like a success. From the McCallum home in Gympie, a two-hour drive north of Brisbane, he ran a thriving small business making movable homes for backyard hens, flat-packing them for delivery all over Australia. The couple made good money, employed five people. They ate out, bought the latest appliances.
But the stress: freight issues, demanding customers, copycat competitors, employee problems … And the mobile phone never stopped. What they really lacked was time: time to talk as husband and wife; time with the children; time to sip tea on the verandah.
"I want off the system," Gregory announced, turning to Bethany. "Let's sell the business, let's sell the house and go to Tasmania and buy a little farm. We'll turn the electricity off, sell the car. Let's not do this anymore." And that's precisely what the McCallums did. They turned Amish.
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