PO Box 128
575 St. Rt. 250 N
Savannah, Ohio 44874
I am, at tmes, asked about Amish braucha
(powwowing) and supersttous beliefs. As
in most all religious cultures, there are
some who are caught up in that lifestyle,
while others completely reject it. In gen-
eral, though, Amish have a tendency to be
very supersttous in every day life, such as
the following testmony points out. — Joe
——————————————————
As a young *Amish+ child I was taken to the
neighbor minister
to
be
"brauched" (powwowed) on. This was
done for such things as sore throat, ear-
ache, canker sores etc. As a child growing
up, I had an extreme fascinaton and atrac-
ton to these types of things.
By the age of 7, I had "bought" (removed)
the many warts from my hands with a piece
of string. At about 10 years of age, I
watched the neighboring bishop "witch" for
water. He began with a forked branch and
located some water veins etc.; he then
switched to 2 L-shaped 1/8" bronze welding
rods. He held 1 in each hand; they would
cross when he came to an underground
water vein. When he was satsfed that he
had found the best vein, he proceeded to
do the most "amazing" thing my young
eyes had ever seen! He stopped and
switched to 1 rod; he held this L-shaped rod
pointng out in front of him and proceeded
to have the rod "tell" him how deep the
vein was. He started the rod to swing and
then the rod seemed to have a mind of its
own as it became a blur and "whir" of mo-
ton. That rod few so fast it snapped of at
the L (67 feet it said)!
This was great! And I determined to try it
myself. I got a forked peach branch, rods,
and proceeded to try the procedure myself.
It worked, although I could not get the rods
to fy up and down as fast as the bishop...
amazing! As I grew up, Esp, Ekankar, body
foatng, etc. were all topics that drew me
like a magnet, although these never
worked for me no mater how hard I tried.
At 22 years of age, I watched the movie
"The Exorcist" and observed the amazing
"Ouija" board. A few months later, out of
the blue (or was it?), I was ofered the op-
portunity to try a Ouija board. I deter-
mined to empty my mind and get this thing
to work, but it didn’t. Now fast forward to
age 41. By this tme, I had been an Amish
church member for 17 years, and for 14
years I had struggled with SEVERE compul-
sive resttutons and confessions to the
degree I was afraid to do or say anything. It
was as if I were a prisoner, locked up in my
own body.
At age 41, I was converted to Christ, and
for approximately 2 weeks, everything was
great, but then my old enemy the devil
decided to exercise the "rights" I had given
him in my growing up years. If I would
have gone to a psychologist, I probably
would have been diagnosed as being schiz-
ophrenic. My mind was constantly full of
many, many voices. All my waking hours,
day and night, were spent "fussing" with
these "voices". I was bound with fear be-
yond comprehension. Words cannot begin
to describe the "hell" I was in, but I was
fnally on the winning side and
“greater is
He who is in me than he who is in the
world"
. Hallelujah!
I did get help with some things, but I strug-
gled with this compulsion for another year,
and then one morning, in absolute despera-
ton, as I cried out to my God and Savior;
he brought the memory of using the
"Ouija" board to my mind. My wife and I
went outside the house and renounced my
use of the "Ouija" board and my arms tn-
gled like they were charged with electricity;
and afer we got fnished praying, it was as
if someone had "turned" the faucet of on
my compulsion, and now, I am totally free
to day! Praise God!
This is now 3 years later and I had some
other areas that I was being "extremely"
oppressed in and God revealed to me that I
needed to get rid of the prophets of Baal in
my life that I had opened the door to when
I had involved myself in the "brauching",
the water witching, the "buying" of warts,
the Ekankar, etc. And now the prophets of
Baal" are gone and I am ready for the
"sound of rain".
I know there are stll some things that I will
need to be freed from, but this morning as I
was standing up from my tme of prayer, a
scene of Jesus in the distance fashed be-
fore my eyes, My Savior is faithful. I have a
few scripture references I would like to give
for anyone interested in researching
them: Hosea 4:12-13, Ezek. 21:21-23.
"Born to serve" - May God bless each one
you. — Desiring to stay Anonymous
Amish: Superstitious and Braucha
Non-Proft
Organizaton
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