Ora Jay Eash
April 7, 2015
I had a very fun and adventurous childhood! Growing up in my Old Order Amish community, I got to experience things that many do not get to experience, and I got to try things without always being told to be careful. I also appreciated the work ethic and family life that I was blessed with; I knew that my parents cared about me and what I did, and this meant a lot to me!
As a married young man, I began working for an English couple and helped them remodel their house. One day, the family left me by myself to work on their house with the television on. As I was working, I heard an evangelist begin to speak and ask people to pray with him to accept God. At the time, I didn't know what that meant, but I was very drawn to it.
As time passed, I moved to Montana. I started to read the Bible in English, and my eyes began to open. The hunger grew inside me as I wanted to know more about the truth of relying on faith alone in Jesus Christ and believing that what He did on the cross was enough that I might have eternal life. I soon realized that if I was not able to forsake all that I had for Jesus’ sake, then I was not worthy of Him. My wife and I continued to look up Scriptures, and the truth continued to become more and more alive to us; this realization was the start of my journey toward forgiveness and salvation in Christ.
I also went to prayer meetings, listened to sermons on tape, and had a lot of friends stop by to talk about God. Eventually, however, I was caught and was told that what I was doing was not in accordance with the ways of the Amish and that if I didn’t stop, I would lead to destruction of the church. My wife, Irene, and I had a large family of our own and wanted what was right for them, and we were challenged to follow God’s leading in our relationship with Him! We soon realized that we had a choice: either follow man’s rules or God’s rules. As soon as we said, “Yes” to God’s leading rather than feeling bound to the pleas of the people from the Amish church, we saw more freedom than ever before. Also, the more we surrendered to God, the more we saw His will (instead of our own will) taking place in our lives.
We had non-Amish friends who lived nearby as neighbors; they really loved us. We went to prayer meetings with them and also could go to them with all our questions. They would always do their best to lead us to the truth and listen and feel with us. In addition, the Lord led people to stop by our house just to talk about the truth of God. Eventually, as hard as it was to leave our siblings and family behind, we realized that Jesus wanted to be first, and we left the Amish.
The hardest part about leaving was to experience the ban and to be rejected by our families right in front of our children. It was very hard not to get bitter and to still find love in our hearts for our family members. At first, they were very opposed to our decision to leave and they showed their disappointment in us; but now, after twenty years, we are able to visit without so much suspicion and blame from them.
Another hard part about leaving and adapting to the new culture outside of the Amish was our attempt to try to feel as if we were really a part of the people, neighborhood, town, school, and world outside of the Amish culture. We always struggled with the “us and them” mentality as ex-Amish. Things are much better now, though, and we have adapted to our new life. Even today, God is becoming more real to us all the time. My future is with Him from this day forward, and it is my desire to let people know the way to Him.
This testimony has been published with permission from the owner.
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Plain Faith
Note: You might be interested in reading Plain Faith, a true story of tragedy, loss, and leaving the Amish, which was written by Ora Jay Eash. To learn more about the book and to find out where you can order it from our website, please click on Plain Faith or the image to the right.
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