Bernd G. Längin combines sketches of Amish origins with his experiences from months of living with an Amish family in Indiana. Langin is able to explain many aspects of Amish life because of his grasp of their Swiss-German language and their European customs. Includes a 32-page color photo section.

Publisher description

In a book that highlights the existence and diversity of Amish communities in New York State, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner draws on twenty-five years of observation, participation, interviews, and archival research to emphasize the contribution of the Amish to the state's rich cultural heritage. While the Amish settlements in Pennsylvania and Ohio are internationally known, the Amish population in New York, the result of internal migration from those more established settlements, is more fragmentary and less visible to all but their nearest non-Amish neighbors. All of the Amish currently living in New York are post-World War II migrants from points to the south and west. Many came seeking cheap land, others as a result of schism in their home communities. The Old Order Amish of New York are relative newcomers who, while representing an old or plain way of life, are bringing change to the state. So that readers can better understand where the Amish come from and their relationship to other Christian groups, New York Amish traces the origins of the Amish in the religious confrontation and political upheaval of the Protestant Reformation and describes contemporary Amish lifestyles and religious practices. Johnson-Weiner welcomes readers into the lives of Amish families in different regions of New York State, including the oldest New York Amish community, the settlement in the Conewango Valley, and the diverse settlements of the Mohawk Valley and the St. Lawrence River Valley. The congregations in these regions range from the most conservative to the most progressive. Johnson-Weiner reveals how the Amish in particular regions of New York realize their core values in different ways; these variations shape not only their adjustment to new environments but also the ways in which townships and counties accommodate-and often benefit from-the presence of these thriving faith communities.

"I had an obsession with the Amish. Plan and simple. Objectively it made no sense. I, who worked hard at being special, fell in love with a people who valued being ordinary." So begins Sue Bender's story, the captivating and inspiring true story of a harried urban Californian moved by the beauty of a display of quilts to seek out and live with the Amish. Discovering lives shaped by unfamiliar yet comforting ideas about time, work, and community, Bender is gently coaxed to consider, "Is there another way to lead a good life?" Her journey begins in a New York men's clothing store. There she is spellbound by the vibrant colors and stunning geometric simplicity of the Amish quilts "spoke directly to me," writes Bender. Somehow, "they went straight to my heart." Heeding a persistent inner voice, Bender searches for Amish families willing to allow her to visit and share in there daily lives. Plain and Simple vividly recounts sojourns with two Amish families, visits during which Bender enters a world without television, telephone, electric light, or refrigerators; a world where clutter and hurry are replaced with inner quiet and calm ritual; a world where a sunny kitchen "glows" and "no distinction was made between the sacred and the everyday." In nine interrelated chapters--as simple and elegant as a classic nine-patch Amish quilt--Bender shares the quiet power she found reflected in lives of joyful simplicity, humanity, and clarity. The fast-paced, opinionated, often frazzled Bender returns home and reworks her "crazy-quilt" life, integrating the soul-soothing qualities she has observed in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns formed by the distinctive "patches" of her own life. Charmingly illustrated and refreshingly spare, Plain and Simple speaks to the seeker in each of us.

Josephine will discover more than she bargained for as her world collides with the Plain people of Lancaster County. Josephine Dronberger was a scared teenager when she left her baby in the care of an Old Order Amish couple. But seventeen years have passed and Josie longs to reconnect with her daughter. Lindaùas the couple named the childùis promised to Stephen Ebersol, the bishopÆs grandson. They plan to marry in the fall. When her birth mother comes to Paradise, Linda is drawn to a world sheÆs never known. Will the direction sheÆs been heading since birth be suddenly derailed, and who will stand by her convictionsùmother or daughter?

Byler, an Old Order Amish from Middlefield, Ohio, offers an autobiographical medicine diary and recipe book, that's been over 50 years in the making. Here are recipes for general tonics, poultices, plasters, and remedies for specific ills, instructions for making soap, furniture polish, glue, and varnish remover, plus recipes for everything from cherry pie to Rivvel Soup. Illustrations.

Raised in a broken family and emotionally overlooked, Sherry Gore grew up without a solid foundation, a prisoner of her own poor choices, and at times without hope. A series of terrible mistakes left her feeling wrecked and alone and a sudden tragedy threw Sherry into an emotional tailspin too powerful to escape. Sherry hangs by a thread, unable to see how she can go on living, until it happens: on a morning of no particular significance, she walks into a church and BAM the truth of Jesus’ forgiving love shatters her world and cleaves her life in two: She goes to bed stunned; she wakes up a Christian. Unwilling to return to the darkness of her former life, Sherry attacks her faith head on. Soon the life Sherry Gore remakes for herself and her children as she seeks to follow the teachings of the Bible features head coverings, simple dress, and a focus on Jesus Christ. Only then does she realize, in a fit of excitement, that there are others like her. They are called Amish and Mennonite, and she realizes she has found her people. The plain choice that Sherry makes is not easy – and life still brings unexpected pain and heartache - but it changes everything for her, as she becomes one of the few people on earth to have successfully joined the Amish from the outside. She has found her place. And her story proves that one can return from the darkest depths to the purest light with the power of God.

A charming picture book set in an Amish community, by the beloved storyteller Patricia Polacco. Naomi lives with her farming family in an Amish village in Pennsylvania. As part of her household chores, Naomi looks after the chickens with her little sister, Ruth. One day Naomi and Ruth find an abandoned egg near the road. Naomi decides this special egg must be hatched. And when it is, it's plain to see that this is no ordinary chick! The girls keep the chick, named Fancy, a secret . . . until the day of their family's community working bee. On this day, Naomi is to receive a white organdy cap, an Amish tradition, as a reward for her hard work and responsibility. But on this day, too, Fancy the chick decides to introduce himself to the community! The results are a sheer delight, pure and simple. Accompanied by Patricia Polacco's beautiful artwork, this story of discovery and growing up will stay in the hearts of all who turn its pages.

Novelist Cindy Woodsmall and Miriam Flaud, an Old Order Amish woman, offer a view into their friendship and the traditions and ways of the Amish as they celebrate womanhood, God, and the special place of family in their lives.