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PO Box 128
575 St. Rt. 250 N
Savannah, Ohio 44874
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
Permit No. 188
Ashland, OH
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My name is Marvin Schlabach, but I like to
be called MJ. I come from an Old Order
Amish community in Smicksburg, PA. I
have three brothers and two sisters. My dad
left the Amish in 2001 when I was eight
years old, and he was gone for two months
and went back. I can easily remember what a
shock it was for everybody. I think that is
when I first started to think about leaving the
Amish. The longer I thought about it, the
worse it got.
When I was 16, I wanted to leave really bad,
but I didn’t leave until I was 17. When I was
17, I joined the young folks. That is when I
started to get in trouble. I had a CD player
and a phone, and I also got into drinking.
This kept on for 6 months, then one Sunday
evening my parents found all my stuff—my
MP3 player, CD player, speakers, TV, and
DVD player—everything except my phone.
At that time, I threatened to leave the Amish
or commit suicide, so my parents took me to
a mental hospital, which was okay with me
because I could watch TV and everything
else. I was in there for a couple of weeks
then went back home, but the last thing I
wanted to do was to go back home. I was
still depressed, and that is when I first start-
ed to take drugs.
I was only home for two weeks before I got
tired of everything and left again in April
2011. I lived with a guy that used drugs and
had a criminal background. I stayed there
for two months until my boss found out what
kind of guy I was staying with (I worked for
a lawn care company), so I moved in with
my boss’ son and lived there until I went
back to the Amish in September 2011, after
being gone for four months.
After I went back, I started to get in trouble
again from alcohol and drugs. I almost killed
myself one Sunday by taking too many
drugs, and I haven’t touched any since—and
I don’t want to, either. That is when I started
to realize that there is more to life than just
having fun. I started to get depressed again.
Then one day I was on the Internet with my
phone, and I came across this website called
Mission to Amish People. I started to read
some of the testimonies on their web site.
That is when I first realized, I didn’t have to
be Amish to get into heaven. From that mo-
ment on, my life started to change.
At first, I kind of doubted it, but the more I
thought about it, the more I realized it is
true. I said a little bit to my dad about read-
ing somewhere that this Amish thing isn’t
right, and he didn’t like that very much.
After being back home for five months, I
started to get tired of everything again. I
kept getting into arguments with my dad.
One night I got into trouble again, and I de-
cided that I had enough. I told my dad what I
actually thought about all this Amish stuff,
and he got mad. (My dad was a minister.) I
told him I was tired of everything and told
him that I was going to leave. He still didn’t
believe me until I got my stuff, then my fam-
ily tried their best to keep me there. That’s
when my dad finally apologized to me for
getting mad at me, and I told him I was sor-
ry, but I couldn’t go on like this. It was very
hard to leave again. My dad, mom, and sister
were all crying, so it was heartbreaking, but
I knew it couldn’t go on like this. It was
either listen to the Amish church rules or
leave. So that night, February 9, 2012, I left.
I went to an ex-Amish guy and stayed and
worked for him for a week, then he said I
had to get out. Then I went to an English
guy that I knew pretty well, but I didn’t want
to stay there because he was a criminal and
used drugs. So I started to get desperate to
find a new place to stay. Then I happened to
think about the website I had found a while
back called Mission to Amish People. So I
gave them a call, and it was just a recording,
and I didn’t leave my number thinking they
would have the callback number. I did that 3
times. The fourth time, I did leave my num-
ber. So Joe from MAP called me back and
arranged for somebody to come and pick me
up.
The next day, Wednesday, Uriah Shetler
from Mansfield, Ohio, came and picked me
up in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The next day, I
started to work for Keim Construction,
building pole barns.
—Continued on bottom of page 3—
What It Was Like Leaving My Amish Culture
—by Marvin Schlabach