Mosie Shetler

By Brenda Nixon

May 26, 2011

He walked out the door of his farm house and for two miles debated his decision to leave. Eighteen-year-old Mosie, born into an Amish family in upstate New York, one of 12 children, turned from his family and culture because he “knew there had to be more.” With only his clothes and $50, he walked along the country road until another former Amish picked him up in a car and brought him to Ohio where, last summer, our lives intersected.

Our initial meeting was the summer day he and other “X-Men” were invited to our home; they were working for a donation toward a March 2010 mission trip. My daughters attended church with them, told us about their background, and sacrifice to start over. We wanted to help so my husband and I asked the strong, eager lads who spoke with Dutch accent to trim our trees. Quiet, reserved, hardworking Mosie blended in so that I hardly noticed him.

We learned that Mosie’s parents shunned him for leaving the Amish and because they believed he was going to hell for leaving the Amish, they told him he wasn’t welcome – even if there were a funeral or wedding. Nineteen and alone, Mosie was naïve to our “English” culture of electronics, social security, taxes, rent, cars, insurance and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

By November, God moved us with a passion to take Mosie under our wing; an adoption of the heart. We couldn’t grasp all God intended but said yes to His urge.

“Mosie, I hear that your parents don’t welcome you because you left. Would you like us to be your English parents?” I asked one morning. We felt we could come alongside Mosie with prayer, encouragement, invitations for dinner and the occasional greeting card.
With a nod and boyish grin he quietly answered, “I’d like that.”

Joe Keim, founder of Mission to Amish People, supported, encouraged and answered our questions. He told us about an adoption certificate he offers to show our mutual commitment. Mosie wanted November 24 - his birthday - as the day we signed our adoption certificates.

Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas with Mosie and our relatives were joy-filled. We grew closer to him, learning about his childhood, Amish rules and structure, church services in High German, his parents and siblings, not remembering being hugged, his decision to leave, first-year out, and becoming a Christian. He began to open up as we saturated him with our love, laughter, attention, and hugs.

By December, the Heavenly Father nurtured a parental love in our hearts for Mosie as if he was our natural born child. I counted the days ‘til he'd come see us; couldn't wait to hug him, talk to him, hear his voice, about his day . . . and his Dutch accent. Our two adult daughters dropped in more often to see their brother and my mom and mother-in-law both called to check on their new grandson. On Christmas Eve our hearts were broken when we learned he was laid off work. Immediately we began praying for God to open a new door of employment.

Two days after Christmas Mosie’s car slid on ice; it was totaled and he suffered a concussion. My husband and I brought him home from the ER. We wanted him to recuperate in our home rather than the cold trailer where he lived, with three other former-Amish boys, and slept on a pull-out sofa. As he recovered, he looked for another job and car. Within a week, God provided Mosie with a used car and a new job – his “dream job” on a horse boarding farm. We soon reasoned that since he was enrolled for January GED classes near our home and his job was close by, it was logical that he live with us.

The first of January, Mosie moved his meager belonging to our home. We’re seeing his boyish grins and boundless energy. But I'm not used to cowboy boots, country music, and a growing son's appetite!

With the help of God and his many servants, including Joe Keim, we’re assisting Mosie with urgently-needed dental care, an education to further his confidence and success in life, and to mature in his new-found salvation. He’s awed by the fact that salvation is by God’s grace and not man’s works.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will nudge other Christian parents to open their hearts and home to former Amish. They are incredibly courageous to leave their familiar family and heritage and start a new life in a culture they were taught to shun. They need love, kindness and guidance.

Sunday, January 10, 2010, Mosie stood on the church platform in his plain, blue Amish clothes. He read his written testimony, “I started reading the Bible and discovered things I never knew when I was Amish. I learned that just living by strict rules is not the way to heaven,” and then received Christian baptism. Afterward he put on his English clothes and celebrated the God of second chances and new beginnings.

—By Brenda

This testimony has been published with permission from the owner.

Note to the reader:

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