I read a blog where someone had gone on a trip and went through an area where there is an Amish community. My husband was raised Amish. He was one of nine siblings. He is a twin and likes to joke that he has 3 twin brothers. How is that possible? He had an older set of twin brothers. He and his twin are the younger set. There are 53 sets of twins in 3 generations of the Miller family (at least his Millers). Four of his siblings have passed away. Only one older brother and my husband chose to leave the Amish and live "English" as they call us.
Leaving the Amish and "going English" is a very BIG step. Merv and his older brother had not joined the Amish church so it was not as difficult as it can be. A tremendous amount of pressure is put on the children to stay in the faith they were brought up in. The parents feel like they have failed if the children leave the Amish church. He grew up in Amish area in Northern Indiana.
My husband was drafted during the Viet Nam war. The Amish are pacifist and do not believe in war. My husband did his service at a hospital in Indianapolis. I grew up in Indiananpolis and my senior year of high school worked in the office of this hospital. We met at lunch time in the cafeteria. We began to date and fell in love and started talking marriage. My husband said to me "I am from the Amish and most of my family are still Amish". I said "what's that"? He tried to explain, but I did not get it. He would go home occassionally for visits and as he began to stay down in Indy more and more, his family knew something was going on. When asked on one visit if he was seeing someone he said yes and it was serious. His parents wrote several letters to him prior to our marriage about what it might mean to marry English. They do not believe in divorce at all for any reason and they were afraid if we married we would not make it.
I grew up in a prostant church and went from the time I was a baby all through my growing up. Church, faith and my God and Saviour have always been important to me. Any time I dated someone I would invite them to church with me. We would go on Sunday morning or if we worked that day, Sunday evenings. Merv later told me he had not had any idea of what God or the church was about till he came to my church. In the Amish church, they meet every other week in each others homes. The preacher or preachers (sometimes up to 3) preach; but they preach in German, not the Pennsylvaina Dutch that the Amish speak in everyday. So he did not always understand what was being said and as with most Amish children they are just thinking of playing with their friends after service.
We made plans to marry and only 2 of Merv's unmarried sisters made the trip down. The Amish do not drive cars only horse and buggies. They do hire drivers for some trips. After we were married, we moved to Northern Indiana because Merv had a job waiting for him after his service was done. Once we were married his family was very welcoming. They have always been supportive of us. We have been married for 45 years this June:)
The Amish are very family oriented. Family is very important also visitation and caring for those in their community who are in need. They do not believe in insurance, but each church communnity will step in and pay the hospital bills of those in their church. If there is a huge hospital expense, they will have some kind of fund raiser and these are supported by the larger Amish community and a lot of the English too. The fund raisers are usually some sort of a meal and it is good food!
The Amish like the rest of us are not perfect, but they do strive to be a "plain" people and not "worldly". One of the discussions I have heard is people talk about the "shunning" that is done. This is not as practiced as it used to be. It would be done to those who had joined the Amish church and then left for assorted reasons. The act of shunning could be very hurtful, making the shunned person sit at a separate table when eating in the family home. I have never seen this pracitced in my husband's family. They are loving and welcoming. They do forget sometimes that I do not speak "Dutch" and will get to talking and not include me, but that is very rare. Most of the time when we are with them they make the effort to speak English. Most Amish children do not speak English until they go to school.
Originially it was encouraged that the Amish farm or carpenter or craftsmanship. Almost all of the women do not work outside of the home. Because of the economy that is not always possible anymore. A lot of the men work at RV factories in this area. The family usually has a very large garden, growing and canning a lot of their own food. The women sew all their families clothes as well and they do not have dryers so the clothes go on the line year round. The whole family works very hard. Children are expected do help with all the chores.
One change over the years has been the addition of phone buildings. These are not public phones with coin operation. Several families will get together and purchase a phone line with multiple numbers. The phones cannot be in the house, so they are at the edge of someones property. These have become necessary because of several tragic accidents where emergency personal could not be called in time to help someone. Another change all of the homes being built now have indoor plumbing. When my husband and I first married, several still had outhouses and pumped water for dishes. They do not have electricity in their homes.
It is an interesting lifestyle that I have been priviledged to learn about. At times I have craved the simplicity and quietness; BUT, I could not give up my TV, computer, and not being able to walk in and flip a switch to turn on a light.
