Charlotte Wagner, a missionary
to the Amish in Michigan, has
been out to see Elizabeth and her
family twice. During her last
visit, Elizabeth’s mother became
suspicious enough that she asked
Charlotte to leave and never
come back.
Also, we received a letter from
Elizabeth, saying that she wants
everybody to know that she has
chosen to stay Amish and will
not be back. In one sense it felt
like a downer, but in another, it
brought closure.
Mission to Amish People
P.O. Box 128, 575 St Rt 250 N
•
Savannah, Ohio 44874
•
(419) 962-1515
•
WWW.MapMinistry.org
•
JKeim@MapMinistry.org
July 2011
Dear Friend:
I just finished sorting through 80 pieces of mail
that came in the mailbox today. Compared to a
normal mail day, that is about 65 more then usu-
al.
Why so much mail, Joe?
Well, it seems that whenever we mail out the
7,500 Amish Voices, we will for the first week
or two after that,
receive requests,
asking us to re-
move them from
the active mailing
list. As you can
imagine, it can, at
times, become
discouraging. Par-
ticularly when you
have every reason
to believe that
most of the unsub-
scribing individu-
als do not understand the Biblical plan of salva-
tion and will some day stand in front of the Liv-
ing God and give account.
Out of 80 pieces of mail, only one was positive.
Only one! But then I think to myself:
the only way to find that one interested per-
son is to go through 79 others.
at least that amounts to 10 percent positive.
Many other chosen men of God, including the
Lord, ran into the similar dilemmas. For in-
stance, consider John chapter 6:
From that time many of His [Jesus’] disciples
went back, and walked no more with Him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also
go away?
At this point in Jesus’ ministry, it looked pretty
bleak. In fact, it appears as if He was down to
twelve people. However, the good news is:
Jesus did not quit
Eleven of those men would later go on and
turn the world upside down
A big part of being in ministry is knowing ahead
of time that the majority of those we reach out to
are not interested in our message. In most Amish
households, all written material outside of their
own people is looked at with great skepticism
and immediately labeled as misleading. One
Amish man wrote:
I am a member here and we get baptized
with the 18 articles, and by the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. It seems that one of
the commands that Jesus left us is foot
washing and it gets ignored a lot,. If only
one of his commands we do not follow, we
are worth nothing to him!
Elizabeth Update
In our last newsletter we men-
tioned that MAP is in need of a 2
-piece coil machine. Well, we are
happy to announce that part of
the money needed is on it’s way.
Thanks to the following people
who jumped right in and helped:
Almighty God—Heaven
Aetna Calvary Church—MI
Wayne and Chris—OH
Mel and Martha—OH
Doug—OH
Coil Machine Update
Thank you
Michelle—
PA
for
buying
MAP a brand
new paper folder. We can hardly
contain the joy it brought into
our office lives. The machine
folds up to 280 pieces of paper a
minute! Yay!
A New Paper Folder
Renewal in S Carolina
—Joe Keim
Our family tradition
has been to go on a
vacation, at least one
week out of the year.
This year was the first
time that Jonathan
and Rachel decided to
do their own thing,
which meant that Esther and I were on our own. This of
course was a bitter sweet feeling for mom and dad.
We spent the week in Rock Hill SC, soaking in the sun
and attending daily classes on life and ministry renewal.
By the end of the week, we were once again reminded
that God is more interested in having a relationship with
us then He is about how much work gets down in a day.
Former Amish Reunion
In July, approx. 100 people showed up
for the 15th annual former Amish reunion
in Mt Gilead OH. As always, we met new
people and ate lots of great food. Unlike
many former Amish reunions in other
parts of the US, we do not allow alcohol.
Many who attend are Christians who love
to share how they found God.