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575
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Savannah, Ohio 44874
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Samuel Girod was Amish for 30
years. He was in a business partnership
with his dad and owned two proper-
ties. He had everything an Amish man
could ever want; however, deep down he
felt a void—a void that would finally drive
him to leave his family, community and all
that he owned.
Just before midnight on September 22,
2012,
Samuel walked away with two duf-
fel bags and moved from Indiana to
Ohio.
On September 24, just two days after
Samuel left the Amish, he was shown from
God’s Word how he could be saved from
all his sins and receive everlasting life. It
was on that very same day that he
reached out to Jesus Christ—the Lord
Jesus reached out to Samuel and washed
his sins away and welcomed him into His
family. What a joyful day that was. We
will never forget!
In the weeks following, Samuel and I have
had some of the best Bible studies any-
body could ever have. What's even more
exciting, God seems to be leading Samuel
in a ministry partnership with MAP. His
burden is to provide housing and help
those who are leaving the culture and
need help. This is a huge need in our ar-
ea. Please pray for Samuel as all of us
seek further direction from God.
—
Joe Keim
The following letter was written by
Samuel, several weeks after he left.
Dear Dad & Mom: Greetings of Love in
Christ and our Lord above. I’m not going
ask how you all are doing because I can
only imagine that you all are crying for
me and hurting. I know because I am too.
But I had to do this, because I always
wondered if there is a way to get to Heav-
en other than being Amish. Well there is,
and that is keeping the Word of God;
nothing else will get you to Heaven, for
we are all sinners and need to be born
again.
I’m staying with some very Christian peo-
ple. I have been blessed with all the
friends and people I’ve met. They have all
supported me in every way possible.
I’ve got 30 years of Amish man-made
rules put into me and it works on me eve-
ry day. But what is most important of all,
is the word of God. And I know I was
taught right about the Word of God; there
is no doubt in my mind at all. I praise our
Lord that my Dad taught me all of that,
and I have a lot more to learn because we
are not perfect. God does not care about
materialistic things at all. All God cares
about is our love, and the rules of the
Word of God. Dad and Mom, I love you
with all my heart, and the whole family,
but most important of all is our Lord.
I never thought I’d leave, and most of you
didn’t think so either. It was in the last 6
months that I really thought about it. It
crossed my mind a lot of times before but
I always pushed it aside. But I know God
was speaking to me; there is no doubt in
my mind.
The Amish teaching was handed down
generation after generation in the Amish
culture and most of it was all about out-
ward appearances. We have had walls
built up around our hearts all of our life,
and that is blocking everything out from
the outside. Now that I’m out of the box it
is so clear to me. The more I write, I fear,
it’ll make you think the worst of me. But I
know in my heart that you know how
Amish For 30 Years
—
by Samuel Girod
—
Continued on Page 3—
