6 AUTOGRAPHED COPIES TO GO TO GOOD HOMES.

“I have never read such a really beautiful story as this one.” – MLK

“The story had some wow moments. I literally couldn’t out this book down.” – Laura Price Hilton

“This is a very compelling story. I have read many Amish Christmas stories & this one is far different from all of the others.” – Rhonda Gayle-Nash Hall

Micah Bachman knows what the Ordnung says about war. It’s wrong, period. Even his desire to become a medic and save the lives of wounded soldiers carries no weight with the church leadership. Upon his return from Afghanistan, the bann is put into effect. Micah and Naomi may live together, but they may not talk, nor may they eat together, nor may they enjoy any of the comforts of one another.

Naomi knows she can’t go on like this. How can she be in the same house as the man she loves and not tell him so? Added to her misery is the injury to her brother, Luke, who is now in a catatonic state after an accident that took the lives of their parents. When yet another tragedy strikes, God chooses to use the incident to bring about healing – but can the Amish people accept God’s answer or will the Amish community break apart? All will be known on Christmas Eve . . .

Click the link below to enter:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/71035-an-amish-family-christmas

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GOD BLESS!

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It was RT REVIEWS themselves who called for a sequel to The Wings of Morning. Here it is and it’s nice to see the folks at RT Reviews are as enthusiastic about Whispers as they were about Wings. The book is now available everywhere and there will be a big giveaway on my FB author’s page, Murray Pura Writing, from Wednesday to Thursday, April 3rd – 5th. It would be great to see you there. Blessings!

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http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/giveaway?code=949491

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Last week when I was doing the book signing and fundraiser at Wal-Mart for the Children’s Miracle Network a couple told me they had seen the Montana Amish and they were, in fact, in western Montana, not far from where we live in Alberta.

“What part?” I asked. “Libby?”

“Eureka,” they replied.

“Eureka!” I was startled. “Eureka’s empty of human life!”

Eureka is the border crossing between Montana and BC (British Columbia). Once you’re through the crossing there is nothing but rough land and brush and scrub pine and grass. It’s high altitude country and hardly anyone lives in the region. You have to drive 30-45 minutes before you hit beautiful Whitefish, a resort town and ski hill. After that you hit Kalispell, which is bigger than Whitefish, and then you follow the highway alongside magnificent Flathead Lake, which looks like an inland sea, all the way to Missoula – and Yellowstone.

So it made sense once I thought about it. The land around Eureka would be inexpensive compared to the going rate around Whitefish or Kalispell – or Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The growing season would be short but perhaps they would not be growing grain – they might be raising beef cattle or nurturing dairy herds. But my friends had seen them. They were there.

Now if the Amish are in a mind to sell vegetables or fruit at a farmer’s market the closest ones are going to be in Whitefish or Kalispell. The same is true if they want to pick up supplies or groceries. There is nothing at the nearby Canadian side of the border, no large towns at all. Not to mention there is the hassle of passports to cross back and forth between the US and Canada. Which means pretty soon the good people of Whitefish and Kalispell, Montana are going to have to get used to seeing buggies.

Or maybe not. That is a long buggy ride between Eureka and Whitefish-Kalispell. The highway is narrow and perhaps not too safe for horse-drawn conveyances. Would the Amish hire a driver and go in as passengers in a van or car and sell produce or pick up supplies that way? In which case the only way you are going to notice the plain people are among you is when Amos and Eli and Sarah are standing at your elbow examining watermelons and murmuring in low German.

I have not met my new neighbors but I am about to. I am soon off on an Indiana Jones type of exploration of Eureka to try and meet my friends in the Lord. I will not be a nuisance but I do want to say VELKOMMEN. Where exactly are their farms? What precisely are their shopping habits? I will let you know.

And if they do see Indiana Jones coming it should not alarm them. Vas? You don’t remember me from Der Witness???

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The Amish are not dying off as some thought they would in the 20th century. In fact, they are growing. But land in traditional Amish regions like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, to take just three examples, is simply too expensive to permit the Amish to keep buying up acreages for their offspring. So there are only a few options: stay with Mom and Dad’s farm, if that’s possible for all the grown children with families; move to other regions of the US and Canada in a hunt for less expensive land; move away from farming as a source of income altogether.

Most of us are aware that Amish have opened businesses selling homemade Amish furniture. You can go online and find the information. Other Amish sell the beautiful handmade quilts. Again, you can go online and find them. But not all the Amish can make a living on selling traditional Amish arts and crafts. That is why so many are working for non-Amish employers and companies.

What will this do to shape the Amish over the next 10-20 years? Since the early 1700s they have always lived off the land and have built their lifestyle around farming and agriculture. They have worked side-by-side growing crops and raising cattle and hogs and caring for dairy herds. They haven’t punched clocks.They have been their own masters, moving in rhythm with the seasons. What happens to The Amish Way if half of them do not farm like the other half do? Or do not spend their days in the Amish communities but miles away doing all kinds of other work in order to earn a paycheck? Will The Amish Way eventually fall apart?

Where I live the Hutterites live in colonies on the land, are prosperous (though they live simply enough) and, so far as I know, don’t have to seek employment outside their communities or farms to survive. The Holdeman Mennonites, on the other hand, who have distinctive dress like the Hutterites and Amish, don’t live off the land primarily, but have their own businesses among the “English” and often seek employment in non-Mennonite stores and firms. The Holdeman have their own churches and schools and lifestyle and none of it seems to have been threatened or compromised by working apart from other Holdeman Mennonites. Indeed, they have their own private residences like the rest of us do and live miles apart from one another, often in urban or town settings. Yet their distinctive approach to the Christian faith thrives.

It is because I have seen the Holdeman Mennonites making their way successfully “in the world” that I believe the Amish will do just fine. Of course there will be a period of adjustment, something they are already going through with 100,000 of them employed away from the farm. But I think they will find that, as connected as they have been to agriculture, what really makes them who they are as a people of faith is how closely bonded they are to The Ordnung and how closely bonded they are to God. While they may have found that farming as a lifestyle assists that bonding I think they will also find that it is not the real glue that holds them together. The Holdeman are bound by their common faith, prayers, and worship of Jesus Christ, regardless of where they live or what work they do or who they work for. I believe the Amish will also find that what truly matters is their common faith, prayers, and worship of Jesus Christ, regardless of where they live or what work they do or who they work for.

The Amish may choose to live in colonies or in close proximity to one another, no matter where they work during the day, and not dwell far apart. The goal for many may continue to be to earn enough money to purchase an acreage. But I don’t think it will be long before they come to fully appreciate that they are Amish even if they work in factories or don’t own a barn or teams of horses and oxen. That they are Amish because of what they believe and hold in common no matter if one is a grain farmer and another builds motor homes and another nails down roofs in the suburbs of a nearby city. That they are Amish because they feel called by God to worship in a certain way, live simply and plainly and abstain from violence. That more so than being tied to the land for their identity, it is being tied to God that makes them who they are.

That will be a good thing for them to realize afresh. And I believe they will thrive, because of this realization, throughout the 21st century.

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Possibly the writer who flung out this remark didn’t know the Amish had used Alexander Graham Bell’s invention for a decade before dissing it because it was being used as a means of talking about others behind their backs. He likely also didn’t know that many Amish communities keep a phone booth on site in case of emergencies. (The school teacher who alerted the police to the Nickel Mines shootings used such a phone.)

I doubt he was aware that the Amish use modern medical facilities, surgeries, and medicines to care for their sick when necessary. Nor did he stop to consider that, in their time, horses and buggies and well-made wheels were the modern technology of the day. Nor had he investigated and discovered that the Amish will fly on planes, take trains, and sit as passengers in cars and trucks. They aren’t permitted to own or pilot planes. Or own and drive cars. But they make use of them.

This involvement with modern technologies of the past and present hardly makes them technophobes.

But unquestionably the Amish have a healthy fear of modern technology. They are afraid it may destroy their families and churches and communities. Not because all technology is bad – as I’ve mentioned, they use modern pharmaceuticals and treatments. Simply because all technology is a two-edged sword.

One man uses the internet to look up Bible verses or even research Amish beliefs. Another uses it for the purpose of sexual trafficking. Nuclear energy can light up cities or blow up cities. Smart phones can help people communicate or help isolate them from others nearby they are too preoccupied to speak with face-to-face. If there are cyber blessings there is also cyber bullying. Cars take people to family and friends and on Christian missions. They also pollute the air of our large cities and make it almost impossible for certain people to go outdoors and get a breath of air.

So perhaps the correct terms to use to describe our Amish friends when it comes to modern technology are aware or cautious. As in techno aware or techno cautious. Or techno restrained. They are not knee-jerk afraid of technology nor are they against all technology. However they are very much aware of the harm technology can do and so are cautious of implementing all technologies that show up each year into their communities and homes without discussion and debate. Most of the rest of us just grab all the modern technologies that show up without a second’s thought.

It is the Amish who are techno wise. They reject much but they accept some.

It is a practice many of us could benefit from. Not every device that shows up on the shelves at Wal-Mart is a blessing or enhancement to the Christian lifestyle.

Or any human’s lifestyle.

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Many people think so. They travel to Amish regions in the US and Canada, cameras ready, to take pictures of people who don’t want to be photographed just because those people look quaint or old-fashioned.

Quite apart from not wanting to be photographed, I doubt the Amish want to be thought of as quaint, especially when it comes to their Christian faith and Christian lifestyle. I know I wouldn’t be. Quaint makes you sound cute, sweet and out-of-date, and I wouldn’t want my Christian faith to be described using any of those terms. I’m pretty sure the Amish wouldn’t like those words applied to their faith either.

The Amish take their faith seriously – it is the reason they live and dress as they do. It is the reason they still use horses and buggies, the reason they meet in homes and not church buildings, the reason the women have their hair up under prayer kapps. They are what people call quaint because it is their way of following Christ. But to them their faith is alive and vibrant and has a lot to say to the modern people and modern times that swirl around them. Theirs is not a dead faith or an antiquated faith or a fossilized faith, as far as they are concerned. It is brimming with Jesus in 2012 – not just 1912 or 1812.

This is one of the challenges for both the writers and readers of Amish fiction – to make the Amish real in their minds and hearts and imaginations, not quaint, not dated, not precious throwbacks to another era that have nothing much to say about real life and a real God to this one. Yes, the Amish live in many ways as if it is still the late 1800s. But why they do it and what they believe has a lot to say to anyone seeking Christ or following him in the 2100s. So the writer and reader need to work together to make sure that the charm of an 1800s way of life the world left behind in a hurry in the 1920s and 30s is not the only takeaway from Amish fiction.

The commitment to one another and to community is important. Seeking God’s will and not the world’s is also crucial. The value of humility, quietness, peace, and self-sacrifice are right up there. So are avoidance of war, rejecting conflict with your neighbors, forgiveness, and deep and abiding relationships. There is much more, as careful writers, readers, and researchers know.

The challenge is to say with Amish fiction that there is a beauty to the Amish ways but not just because they drive buggies and plow with oxen and make butter with butter churns. The beauty is they do all that and remain absolutely relevant to the people of the 21st century. Especially those who are seekers after God, followers of Christ, and men and women lost in the maelstrom of modern life who wish there was another way, even a better way, for them to raise their families and live out the threescore and ten years God has allotted them.

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Reading A Brides Flight! Love IT! I want to write that beautifully….it’s smooth going down, but leaves you FULL….not embarrassed you spent a bit of your life reading it. Most fiction makes me sorry I read it. . . I’ll be spreading the word about this one for sure!
I love when she hollers about the creation of light at the beginning….

email from a reader from New Mexico

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A friend contacted me on Facebook this morning to tell me the ecopy she had pre-ordered showed up on Kindle early this morning and she had already started reading it. A ranching couple I had given a printed copy to for Christmas contacted me to say they had dug right into it and had had a great read over the holidays. So that’s a nice beginning for which I’m grateful.

The bare bones plot (if you didn’t pick up on it from earlier posts): A young woman attempts to keep two children safe from a murderer by fleeing east to her old home in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, a region she vowed never to return to. Now she must not only do everything in her power to ward off the killer who stalks them, but deal with the people, personalities, and issues that made her leave the Amish faith to begin with. One man tries to help her, but he is a man haunted by his own past – the slaughters of the Civil War made him vow never to fight or use a gun again. The killer, known as The Angel of Death, has no such qualms.

A surprise romance between the woman and man binds them closer to each other and to the two children. It even brings them closer to the Amish of Bird in Hand and closer to God. But from the killer’s point of view, the four of them don’t have a prayer . . .

I hope you pick up a copy and enjoy the ride!

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