Marlene C. Miller - Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order

Author Marlene C. Miller answers some frequently asked questions about Amish life, faith, and culture.

1. What kinds of prayers do the Amish say before meals?

Silent prayers. We teach the children when theyre little what to pray for when we bow our heads.

2. Why dont the Amish evangelize?

We evangelize by example. We dont have a problem when other faiths do it. More people have come to us in Holmes, Wayne, and Tuscarawas Counties than we could have ever thought to evangelize elsewhere.

3. What do you think of Amish-themed fiction?

I dont think highly of it. It was told to me by a highly esteemed author that their publishers want more love scenes to make the books thicker. To me, theyre dull and boring. I refuse to read them.

4. What do you think of Amish-themed television shows?

Theyre untrue and a disgrace. I watched about ten minutes of two different shows, and my jaw dropped in disbelief and I felt nauseated. I had to wonder what our God above thought of this trash!

5. How do you make sense of outsiders intense interest in Amish life?

I can understand it, as I was always interested in their way, too. I had schoolmates who were Amish. They lived a peaceful and contented lifeat least the majority of them did. The outsiders can have that same peace and joy without becoming Amishjust give the heart and soul over to Jesus.

6. Do the Amish pay taxes?

I can assure you that they do, and we do, too: real estate, income, and Social Security, if they work for English businesses. Of course, we get taxed at the pumps for gas, kerosene, and diesel for our engines. We even help pay for paved roads because the commissioners say that our buggy wheels make so many grooves in the roads.

7. Why do Amish children drop out in eighth grade?

They dont drop out; the parents make this decision. Who says higher education makes a person smarter and wiser? Does that really equip them for farming? We believe in hands-on education. Have people noticed that in this world, there are more trade schools than ever before? Holmes County, which contains the biggest Amish settlement in the United States, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country!

8. Do the Amish vote?

About half the Amish vote when an election is about local issues. But when its for president, Id guess only about one-quarter or so vote. Thats more than it was fifty years ago.

M ARLENE C. MILLER has been a member of the Old Order Amish church for forty-seven years. She grew up in a non-Amish home and during high school was a cheerleader and the head majorette. She and her husband, who was raised Amish, had three children before they were baptized. Marlene and Johnny have been married for fifty-one years and live on their farm in eastern Ohio. She is an AIM (American Image Marketing) International elite director and a living well coach. She and her husband have nine living children, forty-one living grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

Note: The following is a typical day in the life of the author after she had become Amish and while she and her husband were raising their young family.

4:30 a.m. Johnny wakes before the birds, but I still doze until 5:00. The children are awakened to help milk sixteen cows before he goes to his second job in a town nearby. After milking two or three cows, I hurry to the house to pack his bucket and prepare his breakfast.

7:00 a.m. All the chores in the barn are done and its time for a breakfast of store-bought cereal, fresh strawberries, cake, or cookies. When the dishes are done and the floor swept, we head for the strawberry patch. We planted two thousand strawberry plants last year.

8:00 a.m. The children and I are picking like crazy! Theyll pick until noon, but Ill have to leave at 10:00 or 10:30. I think theyre eating more than what goes into the boxes. The sun is shining very brightly, so that means our oldest son has to stop picking and start raking hay. Hopefully we can put up hay when Dad comes home.

10:30 a.m. Time for me to go to the house and start lunch. Usually I make mashed potatoes, meat and gravy, vegetables, and applesauce, but today will be simple. The girls are bringing boxes and boxes of berries to stand on the cool floor by our water trough in the back basement. It keeps them colder there. I quickly do four quarts of berries for lunch.

12:00 noon Its late for lunch, as we almost always eat at 11:30. We only had fresh lettuce-and-lunchmeat sandwiches with potato chips, strawberries, cake, and fresh whipped cream.

1:00 p.m. Some of the children head for the patch again while the girls and I start cleaning and canning the berries. I add some strawberry gelatin to the sugared berries to make them redder, because if I dont, theyll turn pink. We will can fifty quarts, keep eight quarts for fresh, and then we will sell the rest of them by U.S. Highway 62, which is three miles from here. Daughter Susan usually gets that job.

4:00 p.m. Johnny is home. He and the boys start making hay. Supper will be after chores tonight. We have a basement kitchen, so we stay cooler in the summer. It consists of a long table, chairs, stoves, sink, and cupboards.

6:00 p.m. Because of haymaking, were late for milking. The cows are giving more, too. The haymow and the barn smell so good with the first cutting of hay.

7:00 p.m. Were having our late supper. It consists of cold strawberry milk soup, trail-style bologna, Swiss cheese, and fresh onions and radishes.

10:00 p.m. After working hard all day, the children play badminton. Now its finally time for baths. Always before we go to bed, we kneel down as a family to pray. Johnny reads a prayer out of our prayer book. Its been a very fruitful dayin more ways than one!

I D LIKE TO THANK Elsie Kline for typing my first draft. Because I wrote everything longhand, Im sure she had a very difficult time.

I want to express another hearty thank-you to Cathy McCrea of Meridian, Idaho. She worked faithfully for a year, writing, rewriting, and editing. She pulled many more memories from my brain so, as she would say, she could expand on the stories. She was a joy to work with, and an absolute Godsend. I also want to thank her husband, Russ, for the patience he displayed and the meals he prepared while she typed.

I want to thank the hundreds of people who encouraged me to write my English-to-Amish story. A thank-you also to Wanda E. Brunstetter, Charlotte Thompson, and to my nine living children and forty-one grandchildren.

I had no idea it would take four years from start to finish, but the Lords timing, not mine, is forever perfect. I give all the praise and glory to God. Amen.

Marlene C. Miller

S TANDING IN THE bathroom and getting dressed for my wedding on an April morning, I felt an anxious dread deep in my stomach. When someone knocked at the door, I went through the kitchen to the living room, thinking it was Johnny coming to pick us up and take us to the church for our wedding. Instead it was Clara, my friend who was to be the maid of honor.