Hope is a word we use casually. We hope for nice weather. We hope for that check to arrive in time. We hope to meet a deadline. We hope someone else will keep a promise made to us. We hope there will be no traffic jam on the way to an important appointment. We hope […]
“The gateway to Ohio’s Amish Country.” That’s a common moniker for Sugarcreek, Ohio, that appeals to the tourists or the simply curious. Located where two highways meet on the western edge of Tuscawaras County, the Amish population in and around Sugarcreek flows into adjoining Holmes County, one of the largest concentrations of Amish families in […]
Meek and Mild – Much Less Morose ~ Review by Susan Scott Ferrell After reading Olivia Newport’s Wonderful Lonesome (first in her Amish Turns of Time series), I was left wanting more…and also found it to be rather depressing. I had hoped to read more about the characters in Book Two, but that wasn’t to […]
The savvy readers who follow this blog know that not all Amish groups are the same and that they are not to be mistaken for the Mennonites. There are about forty different Amish affiliations, from the largest and most familiar in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to groups that have only a few churches. But how did […]
For many Christian groups, especially those that came out of the revivalist or evangelical traditions, conversion points to a moment in time when an individual experiences a change of heart and chooses to follow Jesus. Someone giving a testimony might call this a “salvation experience.” The Amish have always believed that Christians experience salvation in […]
If I say, “Amish school,” what do you think of? I’m going to guess that two things pop into your mind. First, that Amish students leave school after eighth grade, and second, that they study in a private one-room schoolhouse with an Amish teacher. These things haven’t always been true. In fact, before the 1950s, […]
One of the reasons the Amish left Europe was because of the military environment of the sixteenth and seventeenth environments. Their reformist beliefs put them at odds with established churches, and their nonresistant, peace-seeking beliefs put them at odds with the government. For many, emigrating to Pennsylvania seemed like a fresh start that gave them […]
My son, who has always been a geography buff, has gotten me hooked on a History Channel show called “How the States Got Their Shapes.” (We’re watching on Netflix if you want to check it out.) One of the humorous features is when the host asks people who live in a state what they know […]
“I don’t know how to make ends meet here anymore. … I won’t be able to subsist here much longer.” That’s what one immigrant said about leaving Europe. Taxes, inflation, exorbitant rents, and the threat of war made leaving look better than staying. This was especially true in central Germany and Switzerland, where the Amish […]
One of the most common generalizations about the Amish is that they’re all farmers. While it is true that these days the Amish also run other income-generating businesses, they remain tied to the land. It wasn’t always that way. In the beginning, the Amish were educated people who lived in towns. Four hundred years ago […]