Naomi Julien

March 9, 2015

My name is Naomi Julien, and I grew up in an Old Order Amish community. The Amish culture does a great job of teaching the importance of being responsible, being respectful, and appreciating even the small things in life, and for that, I am very glad to have had the opportunity to grow up in the culture. In addition, I had a really good relationship with my parents right up until I decided to leave the Amish, and I enjoyed all of the time we had together.

I ultimately decided to leave the Amish because I wanted my life to be of higher quality, and I wanted to be able to serve God as opposed to constantly being forced to obey man-made rules. Plus, my older sister had already left the Amish, and I knew she would be there to help me start out by guiding me and showing me which steps to take to start out my new, non-Amish life.

It was eleven o’clock in the evening when I built up the courage and made the move to leave my family and friends behind and pursue a life outside of the Amish. My sister came to pick me up and helped me greatly in making the transition.

At first, I really missed my family, and I still do to this day; it is one of the greatest difficulties I have had to face because of my decision to leave the Amish. In addition, I found it very hard to adapt to the English culture because I was so young and there was so much change to deal with all at once.

For the longest time I also struggled and was afraid that God was mad at me for leaving the Amish, so in retaliation, I didn't want to pray to Him. I used to think, “How can I pray to the same God that doesn't want me in heaven?” since that’s what we were taught in the Amish. We were taught that when we leave the Amish, God takes away our privilege of being able to go to Heaven; it was a fear tactic used to discourage us from leaving. As time passed and my life in the English culture continued, though, many Christian friends talked to me. Their impact on me finally opened my eyes to the fact that I was lost and needed to trust in Jesus Christ as my Savior. Eventually, I trusted in Jesus alone and was saved at the age of twenty years old.

Since that day, many things have happened in my life. I met a man, and we decided to get married. We currently have six children and are living very peacefully and happily together. I am very excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and my family in the years to come. He has been very faithful in taking care of me and guiding me throughout all of the stages of my life, and I have full confidence that He will continue to do so in the future!

This testimony has been published with permission from the owner.

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