My Mennonite Neighbors

I can't speak to a whole lot of interaction with Amish, just a few. One recent one involved a buggy maker, to whom I went to have a cart wheel straightened (iron spoke). Perhaps I was 'English Ignorant', but I figured, hey, Amish have carts, they'd know how to do this. Right?

Wrong.

The fellow I went to was indeed a buggy maker, but he assembled from 'boughten' kit parts, and had no idea how to make his own pieces. No cooper he, he cast a wary eye at my iron-spoked wheel, 'I've never seen one like that before.' Uh? I should have left at that point.

Going into his shop, there sat a number of 'English' contrivances, including a gas generator (allowed because, although it uses fuel they cannot produce on their own, it doesn't require a battery like a car... whatever) and an oxy-acetylene rig (neither of which can be produced by them). He used the O-A rig to heat the spokes of the rim, and then proceeded to beat the ever-living crap out of them in an attempt to straighten it. Here, I figured, he was going to build a wood fire, put the rim in the fire, and then pull it out and tug it back into shape! Heck, I should have done it myself. And, as a matter of fact, I DID- I had to help hold the rim while he yanked and beat on it. When was the last time you had to HELP someone you hired to do something for you?

In the end, I wound up giving him $10 for his time (less than 20 minutes), and wound up with a slightly-less-mangled rim with badly dented spokes. I took it back to work (I'd gone on my lunch break), and wound up having to weld two of the spokes (cracked under the hammer onslaught) AND the rim itself (cracked on the seam during the same beating). The rim is still not straight, but straighter than it was. If I want it straighter still, _I_ will do it. Somehow, I don't care how, but NOT Amish!

Another anecdote, quickly now: an acquaintance at our old town advertised to have an old house on his property torn down. Some local Amish offered to do it in exchange for the materials from it. There was a catch, though: he not only had to supply food and drink while they were there, but as they had no transport, he had to go GET them, bring them to the work, then bring them, AND the materials, back to their place at the end of the day (which, in their case, was sometimes as early as noon)! Some days he'd go to pick them up, and there was nobody there- they'd contracted a different job, they'd be back tomorrow. Maybe.

They worked sporadically for a couple weeks, and then he'd had enough. Having gone to get them only to find them 'away' on some other job, he got fed up, went home, tore the house down himself, saved all the saveables, and burned the rest. When the Amish finally showed back up, he offered them the ashes. They weren't amused. Heck, they could have used it on the garden...

(Edit: I realize this thread is about Mennos... to keep it on topic, I have to say, I will never get over the amusement of seeing a Menno with a cell phone. I don't know why.)

Mountainlaural - I hope you noticed that I didn't mention the Mennos - I read a lot about their faith and must say that I agree with most of it - their unwillingness to fight to protect our freedom is one thing I don't - I respect them -

I can understand that. I really struggle with non-resistance and have the whole time I have been in the church; 25 years now. I don't agree with it the way most of them would.
And I don't really know what I would do if faced with a situation. So I leave that in that hands of God and figure if he puts me in that situation, then He will give me an answer at that time.

Or there is the possibility that you, yourself, will end up the one surprised, yes?

So do the 7th day Adventist, we go by the Bible "only". Ellen White writings are used, cause she was gifted with insight, she was not infallible but human, and clearly said to search the scriptures to check what she wrote was true.

Mennonites may not believe in other "divine" revelation, something Catholic and Mormons cannot say, but Mennonites/Anabaptist DO hold the book titled; "The Martyrs Mirror" as a value, and many of them read that book, it's a history of how that organization formed, just like how we read Ellen White writings, it's the history of the Church.

Any Church you attend, you should know the history behind it, past failures and contentions, especially in Baptist Churches, this is very lacking. Most Baptist would have no clue on how "missionary/Free Will/General/Southern/Old School" came to be, in fact at one time in our Nations History, ALL Baptist were Primitive Baptist.

Mennonites do take "Non-resistance" to "Pharisee" extremes. If you read the Bible you would know that Jesus was not a non resistor, and he was not a revolutionary, except when it came to his house, then he gets angry at the money changers and topples tables and traditions of men.

Jesus obeyed the civil laws and dealt with his "fathers house" that had been polluted, he did not come to overthrow the Romans and rule over Jerusalem, as his disciples had errored. That is how we should live, not converting people to Christianity(as Catholics had done in past and will do in the future), but rather compelling people to Christianity by our example.

__________________

I see a very dark cloud on America's horizon,
and that cloud is coming from Rome.
- Abraham Lincoln

I guess anything is possible - but I think if I read and study the bible and then try my best to live according to the teaching of Jesus and except Him as my savior there is a lot less chance of me being surprised - when you look at it what else is out there - yes?

The Koran, the Torah, the Tipitaka, etc. for starters.

I had a rather unique experience here living among the Amish and a few Mennonite people. The co-op packing house employed mostly Amish women and one Mennonite lady. The Mennonite lady had a 16 year old daughter who was secretary to the co-op and also for the joint farming I was involved in with this Amish man. I was living in a self contained camping trailer which I parked close to the packing house so that I could run wires from the generator on the refer to my camper to keep the batteries charged. The Mennonite lady whose name was Katie would often stop by and give me some dessert ... usually a whole pie or at least a large piece as I was working many hard long days. Her daughter Rachael was off school for the summer and was learning to keep the books ... and sometimes I would make some useful suggestions concerning the book keeping.

I was getting to know Kattie rather well and one day out of curiosity I ask her to explain the differences between Amish and Mennonite belief. Her reply was shocking. She stated that she and her husband were born Amish and were baptised members in the church. Then one time Mennonite friends invited them to attend one of their services. Katy and her husband were both saved during the service and then left the Amish. I then asked her if she believed some Amish had experienced real faith and she gave me a blank look as she shrugged her shoulders.

I lived among and worked with Old Order Amish in Pa for several years..
What do people expect them to be like?
They aren't a bit different from any other humans.. Just because they sew their own clothes, do not buy cars, and enjoy a tight community style of living based upon their religious beliefs does not automatically mean that non-Amish ought to somehow EXPECT that they will behave differently than any other neighbors.

Your absolutely right Lesley. I might say its like a Baptist saying a Methodist has a entirely different concept of living. But, it may be more like a Baptist and a Muslim difference in belief. We don't accept Muslims cause we think they are potential anarcists, and we don't accept the A&M cause of there lifestyle and unwillingness to fight for the country. Which, as a former service member, and knowing the idiocy of many generals through all of our wars, I can overlook.

The Koran - you got to be kidding - yes?

Not at all. The Koran is every bit as important and true to Muslims as your Bible is to you.

I've read several books about the Muslim faith and how it got started - I've also read portions of the Koran - there is no comparison between the two - its like day and night - but as I said earlier - to each his own - besides we don't want heaven to be too crowded - we have enough of that down here -

I am absolutely certain that many Muslims feel the way you do about the Koran, about the Christian Bible. And Catholics feel their way is the only true way, Baptists, Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, LDS, etc. You're not alone in feeling the way you do; in my experience most people of a specific religion or denomination feel that their way is the only true way.

As an SDA, thank you for mentioning this.

There are a lot of people who twist and contort EGW's writings to say things she never said to suit their purposes (referring mainly to people IN the church). People will also sometimes take letters that she wrote to specific people and try to make those apply to everyone, which is not always appropriate.

Then again, some people also twist the Scriptures themselves to fit the beliefs they chose to embrace.

The last time I started reading through the Bible from cover to cover, I did so with no particular agenda other than that I wanted to read it with a totally open mind to understand what God wants me to know. I don't claim to understand everything but spending some time there has been a good thing. And next time I read through, I'll bet there will be even more things that will become clearer and more real to me. It's kind of a personal thing.

Regardless of what denominational title someone embraces, I hope they'll take the time to get to know God... which I think is what EGW had in mind the whole time...

Just my take.