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We were originally from Ohio and western PA, but left the Amish in 1990 and went thru the same things that you guys did. When I was growing up, I never agreed with the Amish rules and for the most part didn't obey them either. When I was 29, my wife and I left the Amish for a short period of time and had a lot of problems dealing with life in general.

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I was born and raised Amish. It seemed like my desires and dreams were different than most Amish girls my age. Matter of fact, I kept having thoughts of leaving the Amish and living in the English culture. At age 16, I was very shy and found it difficult to speak up and share my feelings. And it seemed that my family and friends took advantage of my shyness by constantly giving me advice on how to live my life.

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I grew up in Wayne County between Kidron and Apple Creek on a farm we farmed with horses and milked cows. Now I have to tell you, I did not like farming. I would try to get out of doing work all the time, and that caused a lot of problems between me and my Dad; we never did get along.

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Dear Son, We received your letter to invite us to your wedding. Don't expect any of us there. Just wish you would be getting married Amish so we could all be there. You wrote that there will be music before the wedding starts, we wouldn't want to be involved in that anyways, as we...

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Dear Son, We got your letter yesterday. Mom said when Laura read your letter she just cried, it was hard for us too. Laura was also hoping you will still come back home before long and be Amish again, but the way we understand the letter, you must feel that we didn't...

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Dear Parents and Family, Now!! Us ex-Amish! Do you think God's gonna look at us different then the English people, even if we believe we have the same things. You said that you have hopes for them, but not us. Does God look at people any different???

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Dear Perry, I just can't see how you can enjoy it out in that wicked world. "thou we shall lead a still and quiet life." I have to think about that verse in (German). "wer die welt Lieb der Lieb nicht Gott"? (English) "Whoever loves the world, cannot love God"? ...

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I am an ex-Amish minister and if this would help you in some way in helping people understand from an ex-Amish mans view point, where he came from and how he used to look at things, then how the Lord changed his heart, and how it got turned around and how he looks at salvation today. So they can get an inside view of a person that has been changed by God, and God only, there is nobody else involved that made this change but God.

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I left the Amish on Saturday March 24, 2007 in Sullivan, OH. I had a friend of mine to pick me up. So I moved to Crestline, Oh, Lived there for a year, then I noticed that I need to do something different in my life because I was more and more getting into that sinful world stuff, and it scared me so much.

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Being an Amish bull-rider might appear a bit against the grain, but Yoder said it’s a natural fit for him. Yoder grew up around farm animals on his parents’ farm at Jamesport. When his parents weren’t looking, “my cousins and I would dare each other to try to ride calves and young steers....."

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While I was Amish, many of my Amish friends, including me, were hiding some of the things we did that were not Amish-like listening to the radio, calling someone on the phone, and other things. I always wondered why God made some people to be allowed to have cars and we were in this little Amish community-having to work hard with our hands alone.

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ABINGDON, Va. – For David King, a change seemed to be in order. This farmer had grown up in an Amish community at Lancaster County, Penn., then settled along the North Fork of the Holston River with his wife, Barbara, in 1995 and helped start an Amish community in rural Abingdon. King followed the traditional rules of the Amish, like shunning modern machinery....

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I am at the age of 20!! I was born and raised Amish and lived that way until I was one month away from age 17. When I was in the 6th or 7th grade my cousin Andy B. Shetler left the Amish. When I heard that he left, I knew right away that I was also going to leave when I get old enough.

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I can't really put it into words what it was like when I got saved. Brother Eli told me a lot of things about how Jesus died for our sins and that we must be born again in order to get to Heaven. I started reading my Bible and I started realizing what a sinner I was and where I would end up without Christ and salvation.

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Dear Son, So at this point, you are on the outside of our family and you don't belong in the family anymore. So whether it's a wedding or a funeral, you don't belong in the family. You know you can't come home again. Unless, like I wrote earlier, if you want to...

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I left the Amish when I was seventeen years old because I did not believe in all their rules, but still I did not realize the importance of salvation for some time, so I was very confused with my new life for quite a while but the more I studied the Bible, the more I realized that a person must be saved to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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I left the Amish in May of 2003 and moved in with one of my older brothers. I was 16 years old at the time and was out to explore and enjoy the world. I left with 16 dollars in my pocket, a few things such as hunting, fishing, and camping gear.

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I left the Amish "and my family" on a beautiful Sunday afternoon 10 months ago not knowing what would become of my life, not realizing what a big step I was taking.

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I left the Amish on August 18, 2007 in California, MO. We went to Wal-Mart to get some clothes, but I only had five dollars in my pockets so my brother bought my clothes.

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As an Amish teenager, I always knew there was something that I didn't understand about God, but I didn't know what it was. At age 18, I got baptized; I didn't know why, other than, just because everybody else did it.

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I'm Abraham. I grew up Amish and the Amish are very strict. It's like they think it's all the good works that lets them enter the gates of Heaven instead of trusting and believing what Jesus Christ did on the Cross. Their rules got me to realize that I have a lot of sin in my life and I got very frustrated, angry and depressed, because I thought I had to work myself into a good enough position in order to be forgiven, and I couldn't do it.

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Lucinda Streiker-Schmidt grew up on an Amish farm in Indiana and has nothing but fond, loving memories of her childhood. Yet, throughout her early life, Lucinda never stopped questioning the differences between her life and the "outside society." When she got a little older, Lucinda experienced the horrors of abuse, incest, neglect and emotional torment after being forced to marry into another Amish family.

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Amish in the News 2009

In the first nine months of this year, Ken Hershberger volunteered 422 hours to drive more than 1,200 veterans a total of 15,733 miles to their doctor appointments.

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Then, in 1993 I was at my lowest point in life. I didn't want to live anymore and suffered with deep depression; it was awful. Then one day my wife handed me the Bible and told me to read it so I started reading Romans. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter. God was truly working on me and for the first time I started to feel His love. I knew God was talking to me.

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As most of you know I am former Amish. I was 21 yrs. old when I converted. I felt like I got off the leash. I got into partying and drinking and had no idea where I was heading. I sure had my share of problems. At one point I was like I might as well enjoy life while I can. I couldn't figure out why things were going wrong for me.

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When Albert & I got married, the first week was so good; this was 13 years ago. Then I began to notice the anger and resentment that Albert had toward the Amish preachers and at times he would direct it toward me. So many years I lived in fear and depression; many a sleepless night, praying to God that He would help me, and to touch Albert's heart, as his heart had grown very hard.

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I joined the Amish church at the age of 18 and lived the lifestyle until I was 49 years old. For many years I wondered what was wrong with me that I dreaded going to church. The preachers always said one only gets out of church what one puts in.

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I too was raised in an Amish home and married an Amish girl, (Dorothy Stutzman). We had 3 children when we left the Amish and have had 3 more since then. I met the Lord beside my bed, through an old book when I was 16 years old. I had bought this box of old books at an auction and in it were a lot of books on the Christian life, including a couple of Bibles.

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Those peace-loving bearded folks from Witness? I called Torah, and after just a few minutes, I knew this post had to be written. For those of you who feel trapped because of a job or self-imposed obligations as an entrepreneur, this will put things in perspective. How do you escape your environment if you’re unable to control it? If almost no one on the outside realizes what’s happening?

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