Reaching Into Amish Communities:

-We put Bibles into Amish communities where reading the Bible is not allowed with contact info for them to reach out and get help.

 

-we train others to reach the Amish in culturally appropriate and effective ways.

 

-We connect with local social work and domestic violence organizations to connect people with the help they need to flee their abusive environments

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Insight into the Amish communities:

There is a common misconception that most of the Amish are Christian, since they have the scriptures, and the confession they have adopted is similar in many ways to an evangelical statement of faith. While some Amish do profess to be followers of Jesus, the large majority will place tradition above scriptures, and are not born again followers of Jesus. The communities that we are working in only allow the scriptures to be read in German. However, they have stopped teaching German in their schools. The preachers who are required to read the scriptures in the services, learn how to sound out the words, and are able to recite without actually understanding the content of what they are reading. The results are almost a complete ignorance of the scriptures, and a conviction that godliness and salvation are attained by following all the traditions that have been passed down for centuries.

 

Questioning those traditions is not permitted. So much of the Amish traditions and way of life, are held on to because of fear. They believe that their forefathers were much closer to God that they are, and God instructed them on this way of life that they think honors God. This thinking in then passed down through the generations. In all my time being Amish, and since, I have not met a single Amish person who knows almost anything about the origins of the traditions. All they can tell you is that “the forefathers did it this way, and they must have had a good reason for it, so we need to continue them”. Even in things that are directly opposed in the scriptures such as bed sharing courtship practices. The traditions have become the religion, and the forefathers receive more worship that God.

 

There are some variances from community to community about what is allowed as far as scripture reading in English (which is never allowed in church), and if German is being taught in school in order to read the Bible, but our focus is on the communities will not allow the study of scriptures for fear it will cause the Amish to abandon their traditions.

 

Across Amish communities, it is clear that abuse is common, and Amish tradition is more important than the teachings of Christ. Abuse (physical, sexual, mental) is frequently swept under the rug and never dealt with.

 

So much of the Amish traditions and way of life are held on to because of fear. They believe that their forefathers were much closer to God that they are, and God instructed them on this way of life that they think honors God. This thinking in then passed down through the generations. In all my time being Amish, and since, I have not met a single Amish person who knows almost anything about the origins of the traditions. All they can tell you is that “the forefathers did it this way, and they must have had a good reason for it, so we need to continue them”. Even in things that are directly opposed in the scriptures such as bed sharing courtship practices. The traditions have become the religion, and the forefathers receive more worship that God.

 

The good news is that when the Amish who put so much effort into the way they live in hopes of earning a way to salvation, discover the Good News that Jesus has already provided salvation for them, then turn their efforts to following Jesus all out. They become evangelists and missionaries to the communities they came from, and to people all over the world. They are already used to hardships and being countercultural, as well as accustomed to living intercultural and have unique gifts to offer, especially to German speaking Europe.

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