Download or read book Why I Left the Amish written by Saloma Miller Furlong and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are two ways to leave the Amish—one is through life and the other through death. When Saloma Miller Furlong’s father dies during her first semester at Smith College, she returns to the Amish community she had left twenty four years earlier to attend his funeral. Her journey home prompts a flood of memories. Now a mother with grown children of her own, Furlong recalls her painful childhood in a family defined by her father’s mental illness, her brother’s brutality, her mother’s frustration, and the austere traditions of the Amish—traditions Furlong struggled to accept for years before making the difficult decision to leave the community. In this personal and moving memoir, Furlong traces the genesis of her desire for freedom and education and chronicles her conflicted quest for independence. Eloquently told, Why I Left the Amish is a revealing portrait of life within—and without—this frequently misunderstood community.

Download or read book The Amish Girl written by Stephan Schwartz and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-10 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Amish girl disappears and no one knows what happened, or where she is. Out of desperation the authorities turn to Michael Gillespie and his viewers. The story they tell of the girl is a tale of sexual assault and murder and, worse yet, they believe the killer is planning to strike again. But in the middle of that in a national emergency Gillespie and his team are brought into a secret government project to predict the firing date and the location for recovery of a North Korean missile. The Amish Girl takes the reader into a world where nonlocal consciousness is not only recognized but used.

Download or read book Strangers at Home written by Kimberly D. Schmidt and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2002-01-15 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""A major contribution to our understanding of Anabaptist history and the ongoing construction of Anabaptist identity."" -- Mennonite Quarterly Review.

Download or read book The Lives of Amish Women written by Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aimed at anyone who is interested in the Amish experience, The Lives of Amish Women will help readers understand better the costs and benefits of being an Amish woman in a modern world and will challenge the stereotypes, myths, and imaginative fictions about Amish women that have shaped how they are viewed by mainstream society.

Download or read book The Amish Seamstress written by Mindy Starns Clark and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling authors Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould provide an unexpected surprise in The Amish Seamstress, Book 4 in the Women of Lancaster County series, which tells the stories of young Amish women as they explore their roots, connect with family, and discover true love. Izzy Mueller is an exceptional listener and gifted caregiver. She’s also a talented seamstress. As the young woman sits with her elderly patients, she quietly sews as they share their stories. She’s content with her life until circumstances reconnect her with someone she once loved. Zed Bayer, a Mennonite, is not what her family is hoping for in a spouse, and his creative interest in filmmaking is definitely at odds with her Amish upbringing. As Izzy is swept up again in Zed and renews her friendship with his sister, Ella, she begins to ask questions about her own life—her creative longings and historical interests, her relationships and desire for romance, and most importantly, her faith. What is the path God has for her? Can she learn from the past of both her family’s and Zed’s—or must she forge a completely different future of her own?

Download or read book Blush written by Shirley Hershey Showalter and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I promise: you will be transported,” says Bill Moyers of this memoir. Part Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, part Growing Up Amish, and part Little House on the Prairie, this book evokes a lost time, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, when a sheltered little girl named after Shirley Temple entered a family and church caught up in the midst of the cultural changes of the 1950”s and ‘60’s. With gentle humor and clear-eyed affection the author, who grew up to become a college president, tells the story of her first encounters with the “glittering world” and her desire for “fancy” forbidden things she could see but not touch. The reader enters a plain Mennonite Church building, walks through the meadow, makes sweet and sour feasts in the kitchen and watches the little girl grow up. Along the way, five other children enter the family, one baby sister dies, the family moves to the “home place.” The major decisions, whether to join the church, and whether to leave home and become the first person in her family to attend college, will have the reader rooting for the girl to break a new path. In the tradition of Jill Ker Conway’s The Road to Coorain, this book details the formation of a future leader who does not yet know she’s being prepared to stand up to power and to find her own voice. The book contains many illustrations and resources, including recipes, a map, and an epilogue about why the author is still Mennonite. Topics covered include the death of a child, Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, the role of bishops in the Mennonite church, the paradoxes of plain life (including fancy cars and the practice of growing tobacco). The drama of passing on the family farm and Mennonite romance and courtship, as the author prepares to leave home for college, create the final challenges of the book.

Download or read book A Plain Death written by Amanda Flower and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2012 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chloe Humphrey, 24, is a fish out of water as the computer whiz living in Ohio's Amish Country. She's stretched even further when a local accident turns to murder, and she's in a position to solve the case.

Download or read book Crossing Over written by Ruth Irene Garrett and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A work Booklist called ଯving and life–affirming, Crossing Over is the true story of one woman's extraordinary flight from the protected world of the Amish people to the chaos of contemporary life. Ruth Irene Garrett was the fifth of seven children raised in Kalona, Iowa, as a member of a strict Old Order Amish community. She was brought up in a world filled with rigid rules and intense secrecy, in an environment where the dress, buggies, codes of conduct, and way of life differed even from other Amish societies only 100 miles away. This Old Order community actively avoided all interaction with ೨e Englishߜ'96 everyone who lived on the outside. As a result, Ruth knew only one way of life, and one way of doing things. This compelling narrative takes us inside a hidden community, offering a striking look as one woman comes to terms with her discontent and ultimately leaves her family, faith and the sheltered world of her childhood. Unsatisfied, she bravely crosses over to contemporary life to fully explore the foreign and frightening reality in hope of better understanding her emotional and spiritual desires. What emerges is a powerful tale of one woman's search for meaning and the extraordinary lessons she learns along the way.

Download or read book Behind Blue Curtains written by Lizzy Hershberger and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Lizzy Hershberger turns fourteen, her schooling ends at eighth grade, and she has no choice but to leave home to work as an unpaid maid for another family. To avoid being rejected by her ultra-conservative Swartzentruber Amish family and community, Lizzy is forced to abandon her dreams because they are "too worldly." After being raped by a man who becomes a deacon in her community, Lizzy makes her first attempt at "jumping the fence" to pursue a non-Amish lifestyle. But without any modern life experience or education, Lizzy considers whether the risks of this unpredictable and dangerous world are worth losing the ties to her Amish friends and family forever. Almost thirty years later, after she has created a new life for herself, her small community is rocked by disturbing sexual assault allegations. Lizzy must decide whether to keep silent for her newly-created family's sake or come forward against the church to advocate for the Amish children she left behind. In 2019, Lizzy Hershberger successfully brought her abuser to justice in an extraordinarily rare case addressing sexual abuse in the Amish church. She faced death threats and intense pressure to stop telling her story. Lizzy refused to back down, and she forged ahead to spark a national movement bringing awareness to the prevalence of sexual assault in isolated communities protected by religious liberties. This gripping true crime memoir reveals the truth behind one of America's most revered and secretive religious sects-hidden behind the blue curtains of the Amish lifestyle.

Download or read book When the Heart Cries written by Cindy Woodsmall and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2008-05-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Hannah dares to love across the boundaries of tradition, will she lose everything? Despite being raised in a traditional Old Order Amish family, seventeen-year-old Hannah Lapp desires to break with custom, forgo baptism into the faith, and marry outside the cloistered community. She’s been in love with Mennonite Paul Waddell for three years, and before returning to college for his senior year, Paul asks Hannah to be his wife. Hannah accepts, aware that her marriage will change her relationship with her family forever. On the evening of their engagement, tragedy strikes and in one unwelcome encounter, all that Hannah has known and believed is destroyed. As she finds herself entangled in questions that the Old Ways of her people cannot answer, Hannah faces the possibility of losing her place in her family, in her community– and in the heart of the man she loves. When the Heart Cries is book one in the Sisters of the Quilt series.

Download or read book Among the Wicked written by Linda Castillo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called upon by the sheriff's department in rural, upstate New York to assist on a developing situation that involves a reclusive Amish settlement and the death of a young girl. Unable to penetrate the wall of silence between the Amish and "English" communities, Kate infiltrates the community and goes deep under cover. In the coming days, she unearths a world built on secrets, a series of shocking crimes, and her, alone - trapped in a fight for her life. Print run 75,000.

Download or read book The Last Days of an Amish Girl written by Sarah Amberson and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-13 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anna is a widowed Amish woman and her daughter Megan is dying from leukemia. She strikes up a sentimental friendship with Finn, a rich Englischer. Since the girl has only six weeks or less to live, the trio fly to New York City where the daughter skates the ice rink, takes in the ballet and sight-sees most of the Englisch world to make the most of her last days with her mother...A sentimental journey into the final days of an Amish girl...

Download or read book Forgiven written by Terri Roberts and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mother of Amish Schoolhouse Shooter Gives Message of Hope and Healing Who would have believed all the beauty God would create over the nine years since that awful day. On October 2, 2006, a gunman entered an Amish one-room schoolhouse, shooting ten girls, killing five, then finally taking his own life. This is his mother's story. Not only did she lose her precious son through suicide, but she also lost her understanding of him as an honorable man. Her community and the world experienced trauma that no family or community should ever have to face. But this is, surprisingly, a story of hope and joy--of God revealing his grace in unexpected places. Today Terri lives in harmony with the Amish and has built lasting relationships that go beyond what anyone could have thought possible. From the grace that the Amish showed Terri's family from day one, to the visits and ongoing care Terri has given to the victims and their families, no one could have foreseen the love and community that have been forged from the fires of tragedy. Let Terri's story inspire and encourage you as you discover the wonder of forgiveness and the power of God to bring beauty from ashes.

Download or read book The Last Days of an Amish Girl written by Sarah Amberson and published by Trellis Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anna is a widowed Amish woman and her daughter Megan is dying from leukemia. She strikes up a sentimental friendship with Finn, a rich Englischer. Since the girl has only six weeks or less to live, the trio fly to New York City where the daughter skates the ice rink, takes in the ballet and sight-sees most of the Englisch world to make the most of her last days with her mother...A sentimental journey into the final days of an Amish girl...

Download or read book Amish Confidential written by Levi Stoltzfus and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "'Lebanon' Levi Stoltzfus, star of the #1 top-rated Discovery Channel reality show Amish Mafia, delivers a ... tell-all about Amish life today. From the forbidden joyrides to the senseless shunnings to the colorful family feuds, he shares his frank insider's view of this fascinating and secretive society, ... [weaving] his never-before-told personal story through some high-profile Amish episodes that rocked the news in recent years, including the Nickel Mines shooting massacre, the Amish sisters' farm-stand kidnapping, and the Amish-Pagan drug gang"--

Download or read book Behind Closed Doors written by Dena Schrock and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing up within the strictest order of the Amish community, Dena Hershberger struggled with all the rules and secrets. At six years old, she told her mother she was too tired to live anymore. Questions swirled in her young mind about why others had things that she did not and if life truly had a purpose. But her questions didn't always have answers and her spirit remained unsettled. In her first book, Dena describes in detail her journey through childhood and what it was like living in an Amish home. She tells about the customs and traditions as well as the rules and restrictions she lived under as she grew into a young woman and managed the heartaches and triumphs of life. From a young age, Dena recognized that God plays a part in our lives. Little did she know how big a part he would play in hers. Life changed forever the day Dena and her husband decided to follow their hearts, leave behind the only lifestyle they knew, and be shunned by family and friends. DENA SCHROCK was born into the Swartzentruber Amish community. When she was 23, Dena and her husband Joe left the Amish culture to raise their own family. Joe and Dena have been married for 18 years and have four children. Dena's passion is to share her journey with the world and inspire others who have chosen to leave everything behind to follow God's calling.

Download or read book The Lives of Amish Women written by Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting a challenge to popular stereotypes, this book is an intimate exploration of the religiously defined roles of Amish women and how these roles have changed over time. Continuity and change, tradition and dynamism shape the lives of Amish women and make their experiences both distinctive and diverse. On the one hand, a principled commitment to living Old Order lives, purposely out of step with the cultural mainstream, has provided Amish women with a good deal of constancy. Even in relatively more progressive Amish communities, women still engage in activities common to their counterparts in earlier times: gardening, homemaking, and childrearing. On the other hand, these persistent themes of domestic labor and the responsibilities of motherhood have been affected by profound social, economic, and technological changes up through the twenty-first century, shaping Amish women's lives in different ways and resulting in increasingly varied experiences. In The Lives of Amish Women, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner draws on her thirty-five years of fieldwork in Amish communities and her correspondence with Amish women to consider how the religiously defined roles of Amish women have changed as Amish churches have evolved. Looking in particular at women's lives and activities at different ages and in different communities, Johnson-Weiner explores the relationship between changing patterns of social and economic interaction with mainstream society and women's family, community, and church roles. What does it mean, Johnson-Weiner asks, for an Amish woman to be humble when she is the owner of a business that serves people internationally? Is a childless Amish woman or a single Amish woman still a "Keeper at Home" in the same way as a woman raising a family? What does Gelassenheit—giving oneself up to God's will—mean in a subsistence-level agrarian Amish community, and is it at all comparable to what it means in a wealthy settlement where some members may be millionaires? Illuminating the key role Amish women play in maintaining the spiritual and economic health of their church communities, this wide-ranging book touches on a number of topics, including early Anabaptist women and Amish pioneers to North America; stages of life; marriage and family; events that bring women together; women as breadwinners; women who do not meet the Amish norm (single women, childless women, widows); and even what books Amish women are reading. Aimed at anyone who is interested in the Amish experience, The Lives of Amish Women will help readers understand better the costs and benefits of being an Amish woman in a modern world and will challenge the stereotypes, myths, and imaginative fictions about Amish women that have shaped how they are viewed by mainstream society.