Among the Schwartzentruber Amish
David’s 1st Photo-Blog from Missouri
Enjoying a horse-drawn buggy ride with Elmer Hershberger
Although I’ve written hundreds of reports and blogs from overseas over the past 21 years, this will be the first ministry blog I’ve ever written while on assignment in the United States. You may or may not know that, although Heaven’s Family is regularly involved with projects in many of the world’s developing nations, over the past two years, we’ve also been reaching out to North America’s 370,000 Amish people.
It all started when Becky and I moved to the heart of Pennsylvania’s third-largest Amish community where my family has owned some property and an old barn since 1890. The Lord connected us to a nearby Amish minister, Jonas Kurtz, and his wife, Ida, who had just been born again. Together, we began reaching out to other Amish people in their community by means of a Bible study. Within a few months, two dozen Amish adults had been born again. All were soon excommunicated for “adopting a new faith.”
That spiritual awakening led to the publication of a 6-page evangelistic letter that was mailed to 60,000 Amish households in June of 2022, which has been followed by four 16-page magazines that we named “The Awakening!” This year, we intend to publish an issue every quarter.
We’ve received thousands of replies to our magazine, both encouraging and discouraging. Good things are happening all over North America among the Amish. You can read the most recent issue of “The Awakening!” by clicking on the image below:
One of the early responses we’ve received was from a small group of Schwartzentruber Amish in Osceola, Missouri. (The Schwartzentrubers are the most conservative and technology-shunning groups.) We learned that they had been chafing under a heavy-handed bishop who wanted the men to lie when filling out applications for hunting licenses—on which they would agree to wear safety orange clothing when rifle hunting, when in fact they knew they would not wear such bright, “worldly” colors that were forbidden by the Ordnung (the community rules).
The last straw was when several of the men started reading a PA Dutch translation of the New Testament, and the bishop forbade that, and made them surrender them to him. Only the German Bible was acceptable.
An odd rule among the Schwartzentrubers providentially provided a temporary window of escape: If two bishops anywhere among the Schwartzentrubers dis-fellowship and split, all the Schwartzentrubers can join either split without fear of being shunned for life by the other split. Also, anyone can get out altogether without fear of shunning or excommunication. Five families grabbed that option! And that is when “The Awakening!” began arriving in their mailboxes. One of them phoned Jonas Kurtz, who has visited them three other times before this past weekend with me.
Jonas and I had a blessed time with them. They love to learn and sing hymns that are brand new to them like “Blessed Assurance” and “Oh How I Love Jesus.” They must have sung 20 different songs during our Sunday gathering. They are so spiritually hungry and listened so intently to anything Jonas or I shared. And although they still look Amish, the two young men with whom we stayed have electricity, air conditioning, lights, a tractor, and a recliner (all formerly forbidden).
Although they aren’t being shunned by their still-Amish family members, they are suffering opposition and paying a price to follow Jesus. It is clear their faith is sincere, and their prayers for their unregenerate family members are heartfelt. A joy to be in their presence this weekend!
I’ve added some photos with captions below from this weekend. And I’ll have one more photo-blog to send you soon from another visit Jonas and I enjoyed with Amish readers of “The Awakening!” It is an amazing story you won’t want to miss. — David
Founder, Heaven’s Family
This was our hotel for two nights…the home of brothers Jacob and Elmer Hershberger. They jointly own 140 acres which they are starting to farm.
The main room inside Jacob and Elmer’s home. Elmer is fixing us breakfast while Jonas reads on the comfy recliner in the background.
This was breakfast one morning…a traditional Amish meal called “coffee soup.” It consists of sweet coffee mixed in a bowl with saltine crackers, and topped off with some ketchup-cover sausage. Quite good actually!
This is Elmer and Jacob’s upgraded shower. Previously they used a 5-gallon bucket of water, as per the Ordnung. The water for this shower is propane-heated on demand. Although this shower might seem exposed on their back deck, there are no neighbors, and showers are taken at night!
After the Sunday morning house church meeting and lunch, they requested that Jonas teach them more about Disciple-Making Movements. Jonas obliged, and as always, did a great job.
