It is no secret that when someone within the Amish community has a need that the rest of the community rallies around them and helps them dig out of their financial hole. The needs the Amish deal with are valid needs; someone is ill, has an accident, or a building has been ruined. Those close to the family will take it upon themselves to get something going to help raise funds to either pay down the debt, or to simply help the family make house payments and keep their cupboards full. A local store, Walnut Creek Cheese, has a brochure online that I will link here, describing their various fundraising suggestions. The pizza one is probably their most popular but...

If you've not read the first two parts of this series, I invite you to click on these two links and read them before continuing on here.  Common Misconceptions About the Amish Common Misconceptions About the Amish - Part Two  Let’s dive right into our next common misconceptions about the Amish.   In this article I will refer to the offender as “he” just to make it easier, but the same would be true for a female member. The other thing to remember is that various sects of Amish will have different degrees of tolerance for offenses, so I’m going to write in general terms but for some sects it might look just a little different, but as a whole...

    As I was writing last week's post I realized I had enough common misconceptions about the Amish to talk about to make it into a small series of posts rather than bombard my readers with information overload. In case you missed the first post of the series you can go here to read the first post. Common Misconceptions About The Amish.   Vaccinations This hot button issue relating to children is an ongoing conversation in many circles. Some feel it is the right thing to do, others do not. It's the same with the Amish. It is an individual's choice to inoculate their child(ren) or not. Some Amish families place pressure on each other to not inoculate while others...

  Here is a list of common misconceptions about the Amish I thought my readers might enjoy reading. It is good for an outsider to understand the various sects of Amish because each sect does things a little bit different from the others. One can rarely make a blanket statement lumping all the Amish together. For example, “The Amish don’t allow their picture to be taken.” This is not true of all Amish sects so you can’t make a blanket statement about it. It would be more correct to say, “The Swartzentruber Amish and a few other sects of Amish frown upon having their pictures taken.” That would be a truer statement. Common Misconceptions Rumshpringa Probably the biggest misconception of...

  So much of the Amish lifestyle is about routine, structure and diligently following the rules of the church. In today’s world with everyone hustling off to appointments, games, after school activities a family can often feel like they have no structure and are losing each other. When I look back at my Amish heritage I have to say the structure and routine are what I really value so much. It has been a great foundation for my life and since Cameron and I have become a family it has helped us to build from that as well. The family unit is important to the Amish. The family will sit down together at mealtime and bow to pray a blessing...

  I thought it might be interesting to write about the different types of businesses the Amish work for and own. Farming is still thriving in Amish Country, however, there are way too many people for everyone to own their own farm. In today’s world the Amish have become quite innovative in how they make a living. I’m going to make a list of some of the jobs and businesses Amish work for or own but I know my list will not be exhaustive. Farmers have one of the most labor intensive jobs around. The work has gotten easier for the New and Old Order Amish in the past 20-30 years as they have adapted to more of the modern...