Former Amish Testimonies

I was born and raised in an Old Order Amish community in Ohio. I loved growing up Amish and valued and learned much from the closeness of community, the importance of a good work ethic, and the value of family. My Dad passed away when I was sixteen. I never really had a very close relationship with him because I always thought that he was too strict. My Mom was a huge part of my life, but I never had a close relationship with her, either. Unfortunately, I could never really express my inner feelings to my parents.

0 comments

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.

0 comments

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.

0 comments

My name is Benjamin Beachy, and I was born and raised in an Old Order Amish community. Growing up, I loved to train horses and play volleyball, and I appreciated that I was taught the value of working hard. I knew about Christ at a very young age. I remember thinking that if He died on the cross for us, why did we have to do all this other stuff? Why did we have to follow all these lists of rules? If we still had to work our way into heaven, did He not die in vain? I had a Christian non-Amish family that pretty much adopted me since I was about twelve years old, and they would talk about Jesus. They will never know how much they impacted me.

0 comments

I was born into the Schwartzentruber Amish sect, which is the strictest Amish group. I enjoyed many benefits from growing up in the Amish culture. I liked the strong sense of community that the Amish have, and it was a great experience growing up on a farm and helping to take care of the garden and the animals. I loved having chores and helping out around the farm. As with most families, my relationship with my family had its ups and downs, although for the most part we had a good, strong relationship with one another. There were, though, definitely certain subjects about which we disagreed and argued.

0 comments

My name is John Schwartz, and I grew up in the Old Order Amish culture. There were definitely some things about the Amish culture that I loved and am glad that I got to experience. I loved the closeness shared between my family and my friends, and I enjoyed being the oldest child of a large family of ten. I also appreciated all of the hours spent outside working on the family farm. Many good memories were made during that early portion of my life.

0 comments

My name is Andy Miller, and I am now seventy-two years old. God has been good to me! I left the Amish, and sixteen years passed before someone told me the truth about salvation, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior! I had become an Alcoholic by that time and relied heavily on alcohol consumption, but Jesus changed me overnight! After realizing the truth about salvation, I could not believe that anyone could be saved by living on a hope that they would make it (even though this is what I was taught all of my life). After I accepted the truth that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, I went back to my Bishop, Edward Nisley, a number of times trying to tell him about the truth of only grace being enough to obtain salvation. It seemed, however, to always go in one ear and out the other!

1 comments

As a small child, I always prayed before I went to bed and asked God to take my brothers and sister and I to Heaven to be with my Mom and Dad, who were both killed in a car accident on October 17, 1946. I had simple the faith of a child and believed with all my heart that they went to Heaven. I also believed without a doubt that God would answer my prayers and take all of my eight brothers and sisters to Heaven someday to be with Mom and Dad too.

4 comments

In January 2012, our lives changed in a way that we never anticipated. My husband John and I went to a John Regier seminar for marriage relationships. That day, we heard a lot of inspiring information. As I lay in bed that night, I asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins and to live in my heart. I remember thinking to myself just before I completely fell asleep, “How am I going to tell John?”

12 comments

I was born a typical Amish boy. Growing up, my brothers and I did what normal Amish boys do. Since my dad did construction, and we only had a small farm, we got bored a lot. I have several brothers; one just older than me and one just younger than me. I’m sure we caused mom quite a few gray hairs, trying to keep up with us mischievous little guys. We had goats for milk, so often times we rode goats, led them around, hitched them to sleds in the winter time, chased cats, climbed trees, rode wagons.

6 comments

I was born in 1982 into the Swiss Amish culture. My parents and grandparents were born and raised in the Swiss culture also. My grandfather moved out of Adams County, Indiana where there is a large Swiss settlement. I was an Amish single man, 30-years-old, who had everything any Amish man wanted of what their culture allowed. But often I was unhappy and depressed. I tried not to show it, because I knew it would worry my parents.

7 comments

I grew up in an Old Order Amish setting where I still live, and I thought I had a fairly normal life. I am the oldest of eleven children, and I probably got more privileges because of that. Our family got along reasonably well, except for the fact that Dad struggled with controlling his temper. This resulted in much tension in the home. In spite of this, I took pride in the fact that I was able to handle it well. I was seldom irked or upset by anything, but I was never happy either even though it might have appeared like it to people around me because I did a lot of whistling.

4 comments

I was born and raised Amish. I was raised on a dairy farm in Mesopotamia, OH. I am in the middle of six boys, three older and three younger. My sister is the oldest and I was very sheltered. I don’t remember seeing a television until I was about sixteen or seventeen. When I was seventeen, I was allowed to date. That meant that I was allowed to go out all weekend and did not have to report to my parents. It was scary having been so sheltered my whole childhood and then suddenly be able to have the freedom to go out all weekend and not have to come home until early Monday morning.

3 comments

I was born in Holmes County Ohio. I don’t remember much about my time spent there. Soon after I turned three years old my mother died and that’s when everything changed. My Father decided to move to Seymour, Missouri. We had left the Amish but not left the lifestyle completely. I suppose my Father never really knew how to assimilate into society, so that was his way of leaving, but not completely. I grew up in a very violent household, my Father was a very strict man, and very headstrong.

9 comments

I grew up in an Amish home and I don’t remember my parents ever telling me that they loved me. Never got a hug or any praises that I recall. I guess there may have been times though, that they expressed appreciation for something my brothers, sisters or I had done. But for the most part it seemed we were always being pushed and yelled at.

6 comments

My name is Marvin Schlabach, but I like to be called MJ. I come from an Old Order Amish community in Smicksburg, Pennsylvania. I have three brothers and two sisters. My dad left the Amish in 2001 when I was eight years old, and he was gone for two months and went back. I can easily remember what a shock it was for everybody. I think that is when I first started to think about leaving the Amish. The longer I thought about it, the worse it got.

14 comments

I would like to share with you all how God changed my life in so many ways. I left the Amish community at the age of 17 in July 2011. I was living an ungodly life, very rebellious and hiding all my sins in my heart, pretending I was a good person as long as I did some good things, which that was kind of the way it was where I grew up. But God knew everything that was in my heart. I sometimes felt guilty but pushed it away, knowing if Jesus came now, I had no doubt, I was going to hell.

14 comments

When I met the Lord as a young Amish girl and was finally able to come out of the Amish some years later, it was a hard and difficult thing to walk through the mine field of explosive emotions and feelings I had during that time. Sometimes the pain and anger would explode inside of me so quickly, it was like stepping on a mine.

3 comments

Lydia Miller is a new volunteer with Mission to Amish People who received Christ after reading one of the Bible Club lessons that MAP sends out. She started receiving the Bible Club lessons when her sister-in-law, Esther, sent her name in. While reading the second lesson, she realized that knowing about sin and knowing about Christ dying for her sins was not enough. She must make it personal by receiving Jesus Christ into her life. That was in February 2010. She still continues to receive the Bible Club lessons. “They are encouraging, and they help you to grow.”

4 comments

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.

0 comments

As a young child I was taken to the neighbor minister to be "brauched" (powwowed) on. This was done for such things as sore throat, earache, canker sores etc. As a child growing up I had an extreme fascination and attraction to these types of things...

3 comments

I was born into the Amish and lived most of my life in Michigan. When I was 15 my father passed away on December 22, 1997. Then on May 20, 2005 my brother passed away in a farm accident. I always thought the Amish church worried more about the rules than people. The night of my brother’s funeral proved that to me. The Bishops came and ex-communicated me, that night, because I knew my brother had a stereo and we had gone to visit my ex-Amish sister. The day after that, they announced it in church. I was eventually allowed back in but was constantly at odds with the leadership over various rules...

3 comments

I left an abusive Amish family and lived in Joe and Esther Keim’s apartment for a while before moving in with my now, ex-boyfriend. Based on my abusive childhood, I picked a guy who became verbally and emotionally abusive during my pregnancy. After we moved in together in 2008, he became physically abusive, always blaming me for his abuse. Before I took the Life Skills classes, I thought I needed to have a guy in my life to be happy. All my Amish girlfriends had boyfriends, so I was competing with them...

5 comments

We lived in New York until I was 13 years old when we moved to a Wisconsin settlement with only five families. My Dad bought an 80 acre farm. About a year later, I started work milking 80 cows for our neighbor. I began to listen to Christian radio and heard the gospel. Living an Amish life, I had never heard the true gospel. The only gospel I had heard was you have to do this, that and the other in order for you to go to Heaven. Well, the true gospel was very new to me. I tried to argue and prove the radio ministers wrong by reading the Bible. Can you guess my surprise when I found out what they were saying was true?

32 comments

How easy is it for an English girl to date a former Amish boy? When I was younger I was probably just like any other person that wasn’t around Amish people that much. If I’d see one out or happen to see a buggy I’d think it was really something. I look back and remember how my friends and I would be at flea markets and see the Amish boys.

0 comments

I grew up in the Amish and I was getting ready to be a church member and when I found out all their church rules and I felt like there is more to being a Christian than following the Amish church rules. So, finally I came to the point where I had to make a change in my life.

2 comments

I left the Amish in 2008, at age 17. I left with my friend. We stayed in a barn for the first night and the next morning my cousin Sam from Canada came and picked us up; he helped us get clothes and get us on the bus to go to Iowa.

8 comments

I still remember those sleepless nights wondering where Daddy was. We finally got the news they had found him. He was in detox then. Then he was in rehab from March until September.

1 comments

When I was 18 years old I left the Amish to have more fun and live my life however I wanted to. I always thought English have more fun and when I hung out with my English friends I always felt happier. In the Amish, I was at the age to get baptized and I didn't want to be baptized Amish so I left.

4 comments

I grew Amish. As I was joining the Amish church, I heard more and more of their church rules. Right away, I knew there was more to life than living by their rules and I didn't want to be a part of a man made rule like that.

0 comments