Here are some excerpts from a review in Publisher’s Weekly on one of my forthcoming books, The Wings of Morning, which is set in an Amish community during World War One. Wings is published by Harvest House in Eugene, Oregon and is set to be released in February, 2012. I hope you enjoy the critique.

Pura (Zo) has penned a meaty story dealing with complex issues as the impact of WWI and the Spanish influenza epidemic affect a Lapp Amish community in Lancaster, Pa., during 1917–1919. At a time when the Amish are still considering their position on innovations like the automobile, photography, and electricity in homes, Amish convert Jude Whetstone has been allowed to learn to fly. While his childhood friend Lyyndaya Kurtz dreams of marrying the aviator, his forced induction into the United States Army Air Service and deployment to Europe triggers a shunning that threatens the young couple’s future. Pura, who has been a pastor and author in Canada for more than 25 years, masterfully balances depictions of simple Amish living with the harm that can be caused when religious ideology overrides compassion and understanding. Pura’s nearness to historical and Amish accuracies makes for a plausible and intriguing tale. Pura’s previous works have been shortlisted for several literary awards; this entry into historical fiction is noteworthy as well. (Feb.)
Reviewed on: 12/02/2011

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Hello, Amish Readers! Getting excited for Christmas?

Are you ready for the next Mary Ellis book? Well here it is!  It would make a wonderful gift...for you, or a dear friend of yours. Titled An Amish Family Reunion, it tells of a relationship that begins at the reunion, where Phoebe meets Eli Riehl, a young man who charms her—and everyone else—with his exceptional storytelling ability on a rumschpringe trip to Niagara Falls.  Release date: February 2012.

Enjoy!

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Another title for this posting could be “What I learned during my summer vacation.” Remember when we returned to school in September and had to explain what we learned during our vacation? While researching the Amish of Maine, preparing to write Living in Harmony, I found out generalties about members of Old Order Amish are difficult, if not impossible, to make. Although their “classification” is the same as those I’ve research here in Ohio, their habits, customs and the rules governing their lives couldn’t be more different. Last week I touched on the “no celebration of Thanksgiving in Maine.” Today, I’ll break another “maxim” regarding the Amish. We’ve all learned they don’t build churches or meeting houses like Menonnites or other Christian sects, right? They choose to meet and worship in each other’s homes, taking turns. However, the industrious Maine Amish have built a meeting house in their community and use it weekly for services and Sunday school classes. See what I mean about blanket generalities? Blessings on your Advent season.

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amish grace

I picked up a film this past Christmas for my wife.

I bought it to go along with a book by Kraybill et al on the same theme: the Amish school shooting of 2006 in Nickel Mines, PA.

The title of both is the same – Amish Grace.

Not having heard anything about the film, since it isn’t a Hollywood release, I was taken by surprise.

The acting was so real that, at times, I felt I wasn’t watching a movie anymore, but looking in on actual events through an open window.

The script was top notch. The cinematography was excellent. Direction was crisp and the pace of the film perfect.

The movie does not dwell so much on the actual shooting of the ten schoolgirls, five of whom died, but on the emotional aftermath of the terrible act.

It shows you that, yes, the Amish community chose to forgive the killer (who shot himself) and to love and embrace his wife and children. But it also shows you it wasn’t always easy. The Amish are not stoic chock-a-block religious monoliths – they are human beings who weep and agonize as we do. It’s just that they go to a deeper place with God than most when they suffer. And, above all, they constantly challenge themselves to live like Jesus.

The movie was so well done that I felt the emotional impact for days afterward. I still feel it as I write this.

It would be a strong enough story even if it were fiction.

The fact that the shooting actually did occur and the Amish, including the parents of the slain girls, actually did respond with forgiveness instead of vengeance, with the love of God instead of hate – especially when they had every reason to indulge in wild grief and fury and hardness of heart – makes this one of the most important films I have ever watched. Were I still pastoring at the present time, I would build a whole worship service around the viewing of the movie.

It is an astonishing story.

I offer it to you as an important gift. If you have ever suffered acutely, in particular over things that made no sense in their cruelty and which, despite hours of prayer, could not be undone – if you have ever been badly hurt and had, or still have, trouble forgiving, yes, even forgiving God – if you wonder what it means to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable and to do so in the spirit of Jesus – please find this movie and put aside a time of quiet to watch it.

And let me know what the movie has meant to you by simply writing a comment below this blog.

in Christ

Murray

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As a writer of Amish novels, and therefore a researcher of their culture and heritage, I’m often asked how the Amish celebrate a specific holiday. The answer to that question, as with most regarding these fascinating people, lies within the particular sect they belong to, such as Old Order, New Order, Beachy Amish, Swartzentruber, Mennonite, etc. And within the general divisions lie additional disparity due to decisions made by particular bishops. I will only speak on two sects I have interviewed most, namely the Old Order of Ohio and more recently, the Old Order of central Maine. Here in Ohio’s Amish Country, they will do fairly much what we Englischers will do: congregrate at the home of a family member, eat turkey with all the trimming, enjoy the antics of children and grandchildren, and savor apple and pumpkin pies with a good cup of coffee! Ahh, I’m getting hungry already. However, this past summer I traveled to research the Amish of Maine in preparation for my summer release, Living in Harmony. Although they are also technically Old Order, I was told they don’t celebrate any holiday. When I asked: not even Thanksgiving? I was told: Christians don’t need a excuse to overeat like glutons, since glutony is a sin. I shrank back a step since I’m guilty of overeating on most, if not all, Thanksgivings. So I will try to remember my new friends in Maine and push myself away from the table a bit sooner this Thursday. Blessings on you all!

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Limitations on Amish life are dictated by the Ordnung, which is what the Amish call the unwritten set of rules and regulations that dictates their day-to-day life. The Ordnung deals with a wide variety of topics, such as clothing, transportation, technology, education, and much more.

Passed along through an oral tradition, the Ordnung by necessity changes and evolves with every new issue that arises and every new technology that presents itself for consideration. When deciding whether something should be allowed, church leaders focus on key questions like these:

Will this force us to be more connected to the outside world?

Will this create division in our families?

Will this take us too far from home?

For example, members of some Old Order communities do not have bicycles. After all, if one has a bicycle, he or she may take too much time away from home and family or venture into the outside world too fully. Thus, with an eye toward the “what-ifs” of the situation, a decision is made for the district and becomes a part of the Ordnung.

Thanks to Mindy Starns Clark and A Pocket Guide to Amish Life for this insight into Amish living.

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As a writer of Amish books, I’m often asked where I go to create my fictional tales. My answer? Just about anywhere. I’ve been known to take either my yellow legal tablet with a couple pens or my laptop to the local park, to the nearest coffee shop, to the local Subway restaurant (I’m hooked on Meatball Marinaras!), down to Amish country to write in parking lots of auctions or flea markets, or to my favorite B&B. But my favorite place is home-sweet-home. I often sit by my barn completely removed from human contact and write while bees, hummingbirds and pesky mosquitos buzz my head. In summer, when the bugs grow annoying, I write on my deck in this screenhouse my husband puts up for me every year. It’s perfect. I’m outside but semi-protected. Where is my least favorite place to write? That would be my office! Because then it only feels like work, and I like to trick myself into thinking that writing stories about these lovely people is always easy!

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Hello, Amish Readers! I hope you’re having a great week!

How many of you are Mary Ellis fans? If you haven’t discovered this author yet, then I highly recommended you pick up her first Amish novel, A Widow’s Hope. It is a sweet story of new beginnings set in the heart of Ohio Amish country. I think once you read a Mary Ellis novel, you’ll be hooked!

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Virginia City used to be the capital of Montana in the territory’s gold rush days. About midway through 1875 Helena became the capital in its place. From a roaring boomtown Virginia City became a ghost town a few decades later once the gold had played out.

Put yourself in the Montana Territory of 1875. The Civil War’s been over for only ten years.The James-Younger Gang is on the rampage. So is John Wesley Hardin. General George Armstrong Custer is still alive – The Battle of the Little Bighorn won’t take place until June 25th at about three o’clock in the afternoon. Wyatt Earp is still alive too and so are all his brothers. Dodge City is bursting at the seams. The President of the United States is not a Bush or a Barack – it’s a Grant, the Union war hero. The Old West is at its peak.

Suppose you’ve taken in a boy and a girl who are the survivors of a massacre. Suppose the outlaws who perpetrated the massacre are looking for the boy and girl because they’re sure the kids saw their faces and can identify them to the law. Suppose you feel responsible for keeping the boy and girl alive but no one else feels they can help you do that, even the marshal, and you’re advised to get the pair out of Montana and all the way back east to Pennsylvania. Suppose you’re a young single woman who’s trying to pull this off and the only one who will help you is a young single rancher who likes you well enough to risk his neck. Suppose the four of you decide to make a run for it with the gang hard on your heels?

What happens next???

A lot.

To find out exactly what plan to pick up a copy of the book I call Virginia City (for short) that will be available from your favorite bookstore or online dealer very soon. Published by Barbour its full title is A Bride’s Flight From Virginia City, Montana. I think you’ll like it and have a great time saving the kids and getting away from the bad guys.

But what, you may ask, does this have to do with the Amish (since this is an Amish blog)?

Well, they are running all the way to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – that’s one clue. And the young single woman has a past buried in Lancaster County she swore she’d never return to – that’s another clue. And the boy and girl know Pennsylvania Dutch as well as English – there’s your third clue.

It’s a wild and exciting ride. I hope you decide to get in on it. And ja, some new Amish friends will be waiting to help you when you get off the train at Bird-in-Hand in Lancaster County.

We pray you get that far.

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Happy Sunday, Amish Readers!

As believers gather today to worship together, I thought I’d share these thoughts on faith from A Pocket Guide to Amish Life by Mindy Starns Clark…

To best understand Amish life, it helps to grasp the basic values that guide almost every facet of their faith. The Amish…

—surrender the self-will to God

—submit to authority, to the faith community, and to its rules

—separate from the world and become a “peculiar people” by turning to family and the faith community, by honoring history and tradition, and by turning the other cheek

—simplify through the practice of humility, modesty, thrift, and peacefulness

Jesus lived surrender, submission, separation, and simplicity throughout his life and thus provided the perfect example of these values in action. Even the night before he was crucified, he knelt in the garden of Gethsemane and prayed, “Remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42 KJV). The Amish frequently cite this passage as the basis for trying to be as obedient in every area of their life as Jesus was in that moment. Their many unique lifestyle regulations are based on this overriding goal of Christlikeness.

We should strive for Christlikeness in all that we do, even if in practice that may look different for us than it does for the Amish.

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