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As most of you know I am former Amish. I was 21 yrs. old when I converted. I felt like I got off the leash. I got into partying and drinking and had no idea where I was heading. I sure had my share of problems. At one point I was like I might as well enjoy life while I can. I couldn't figure out why things were going wrong for me.

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When Albert & I got married, the first week was so good; this was 13 years ago. Then I began to notice the anger and resentment that Albert had toward the Amish preachers and at times he would direct it toward me. So many years I lived in fear and depression; many a sleepless night, praying to God that He would help me, and to touch Albert's heart, as his heart had grown very hard.

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I joined the Amish church at the age of 18 and lived the lifestyle until I was 49 years old. For many years I wondered what was wrong with me that I dreaded going to church. The preachers always said one only gets out of church what one puts in.

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I too was raised in an Amish home and married an Amish girl, (Dorothy Stutzman). We had 3 children when we left the Amish and have had 3 more since then. I met the Lord beside my bed, through an old book when I was 16 years old. I had bought this box of old books at an auction and in it were a lot of books on the Christian life, including a couple of Bibles.

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Those peace-loving bearded folks from Witness? I called Torah, and after just a few minutes, I knew this post had to be written. For those of you who feel trapped because of a job or self-imposed obligations as an entrepreneur, this will put things in perspective. How do you escape your environment if you’re unable to control it? If almost no one on the outside realizes what’s happening?

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Dear Father and Mother, You are our dear parents and we don't expect you to listen to us, but we also have a concern for you. Oh, so sad that you left us. How can you go on and forsake...

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It's the perfect May day in Elizabethtown, and the Schrock family is out enjoying the breeze. Today, the family's five strong, but seven years ago, Saloma and Isaac were a young dating couple in Senora, Tennessee as part of an Amish community.

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The definition of Rumspringa is running around. This term refers to young Amish people, anywhere from the age of 16 until they get married. It is the time of dating and getting together with other Amish young people that have not married and it is a chance to get to know one another. This is also the time for the boys to take the girls on dates. In my experience (24 years living as an Amish person) it was not okay for the girls to ask boys on a date, the boys always asked the girls.

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Anna Dee Olson, who lived the Amish lifestyle until age 24, describes her journey from growing up Amish to be shunned by her family for sinning and acting against the Amish faith.

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I saw many of the people I grew up with, went to school with, and worshipped with do a lot of wild things on Rumspringa – the time when Amish teens get to live outside traditional Amish society without strict rules. I wasn’t nearly as adventurous as many of my friends, but ironically now live a life as a musician that perhaps many English (non-Amish) would consider wild even by their standards. Though, from what I have seen on television, still relatively tame compared to most musicians.

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Part of his childhood was spent without electricity or running water, and his family traveled to town each week by horse and buggy. In fact, the first time Leroy Troyer rode in a car he got sick; he wasn't used to the speed. He grew up Amish in Wilmot, Ohio. There was no television, or time for sports.

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Jacob Stoltzfus is in his final year of formal education, and it shows. His bright eyes and smile exude the confidence of a pupil who has mastered all that his school has to offer him, a young man who is about to put his childhood behind him and start the rest of his life.

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Amish in the news 2008

My name is Jonas Yoder but I like to be called JD. I left the Amish on January 22, 2007. The reason I left the Amish church is because I did not like all the rules that the church put on me.Amish life was also very boring and lonely at times ----- I had nothing to live for.

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Elizabeth Byler remembers a time when she would do anything to lead the life the average American is accustomed to. She felt like a slave to the black, blue or purple dress that made her so hot in the summer, and longed to cut her hair into a cute bob that was then the trend.

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One of five children, I was born in 1979 to an Amish Family. My parents decided to leave the Old Order Community in Central Pennsylvania to make a new life. Upon leaving they took their children with them. When my parents left they were "shunned." Shunning practices vary within each Amish Community. Generally, Old Order Communities tend to shun severely (you don't exist to them), while more modern communities tend to do so with less harshness.

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I left the Amish on Sept. 11, 2005 because I never liked the man-made rules. Sometimes (I told myself) I was born with English blood. I knew of Jesus when I was Amish but I never really learned about him until four months after I left the Amish.

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Dear Lester, It's unthinkable and terrible, how can you go to sleep at night. Only because Satan has you in his grip!

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Amish in the News 2007

ONE week ago the tiny Amish community of Nickel Mines lived in peaceful isolation from the evils of the modern world. That innocent idyll was cruelly shattered by crazed gunman Charles Carl Roberts.

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Founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Author of Twist of Faith was educated until the 8th grade in a small Amish school in PA. Her close-knit family celebrated a sincere Christian faith and also valued a marketable work ethic with a good eye for business opportunity....

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When Albert Miller finished college and applied to medical schools across the country, he got his very first rejection letter from the school he wanted to attend. Instead of accepting his fate, Miller called the University of Cincinnati with one simple request. I simply said, "I simply said, I know my application isn't the best you've had, but I have an unusual background. I asked for an interview, and if they felt after that, that I didn't belong there, I could accept that." Miller, now a doctor in Wooster, recalled. Miller was granted an interview and received another letter a short time later.

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A few weeks before we left the Amish I had a few scares that I can't get to heaven! But just thought I have to be more strict in the Amish law. But then 4 weeks after we left I realized I can't get to heaven by good works and thought that saved me.

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I was raised Amish, under a strict law and thought as long as I follow the rules as good as I can I could hope to be in Heaven sometime. But their were a lot of things that didn't make sense and always brought me to the Bible. I kept searching and trusting in the words "seek and you will find" till one Wednesday evening, January 2005 I put all my junk mail aside and read the Bible which was unusual cause our practice was to only read the Bible on Sunday.

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Amish in the News 2006 to 1997

I was born to a very Old Order Amish family in Ohio with no indoor plumbing, electric or modern conveniences. Our Ordnung was very strict; we were not even allowed to see a doctor or dentist except in cases of extreme emergency. I was born at home by a local lay-midwife, the first born to my parents John and Mary Hostettler.

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Dear Lovina, ...oh, we'd so much love to have your children. It hurts so deep in our hearts to hear what you are doing! Just think what you are doing, just THINK, to put that electricity in your...

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When she wrote the letter that she hoped would protect her sister, Mary Byler was lying on a twin bed, surrounded by rainbow-colored walls and a sky-blue ceiling decorated with bright white clouds. A stereo sat on the floor beside her. There were no signs of the Amish upbringing she had left behind—no plain wood furniture or chamber pot. Nothing except a stuffed doll that had belonged to her 6-year-old sister. The little girl had put the doll's bonnet on backward.

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I have been taught that we need standards, fences or guard rails to keep our sheep in. Why do we all have different kinds of fences or guard rails? We all want to have the strongest fences, and still the sheep may keep getting out. Didn't God give us a good enough standard? Didn't God give us the laws which govern how to build the strongest fences? How about going back to God's laws and leaving our own laws out, and see if that won't build a stronger fence?

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I can honestly and from the depth of my heart say that I have no more pride with English clothes than Amish clothes. I have no more pride or lust to drive a car than to drive a horse and buggy. But a lot rather I have less problem with pride. In Philippians chapter four, Paul explains how his goodness of the law was all a loss and considered as dung when he received Jesus for his Savior. We can not have Jesus for our Savior and still cling to our righteousness and bondage. Since I have surrendered to God only I have been miraculously delivered from my depression.

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