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DD's avatar

"We'll preach in the English for yer sake".....perfect.....wonderfully evocative as always. Thanks!

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Marco & Sabrina's avatar

Amen!

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Casey B. Head's avatar

When you post about upstate real estate and opportunities there are two kinds of responses. Your urban upwardly mobile DINKs who fly into a rage at the thought of being out of walking distance to overpriced coffee. And the people who quietly nod, weary of the rat race and click "like." This post calls out to the latter.

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deb kondo's avatar

These people offer hope yet for this country of addicts: phones,porn, pot , .......The Mennonite's of Brushton are earnest, plain and faithful to God, tradition and feel good work. God Bless them all.

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Coop's avatar

They are, to put it simply, awesome ppl. I'm surrounded by them and go to some of their functions. It's nice to be around folks who aren't trying to impress one way or the other.

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Pierre Minar's Poetry's avatar

What a great read, a glance into another world. I passed a Mennonite farm stand a few years ago (in my Honda Odyssey also) with my 1 year old and i was the same age as a grandmother

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Roy Kinneyland's avatar

An Amish sect bought 1100 acres in Wyoming County, just down the road from my brother in laws cabin, in ‘20. They logged it in the heart of the pandemic and its ridiculous lumber prices, made their money back in multiples. Now building homes, establishing farms and businesses. A lot of locals weren’t happy about it at 1st, likely due to the constant logging trucks going thru the area. My take is they could have far worse neighbors,some conglomerate that bought the land, stripped it and bailed. I can’t disrespect their way of life

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Hadden Turner's avatar

Storytelling at its finest. I can vividly picture those hands of the "man who works and prays" - I have met folk like him and oh boy, do they leave an indelible impression.

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Frederick Hastings's avatar

How can anyone not be fascinated by the Amish. Zulus and others exist in their isolated worlds, yet the Amish, surrounded and enmeshed within the modern world, not only maintain their separation but often thrive in ways not realized by their non-Amish neighbors. The startling contrast, at the least, reminds us that there is much to be learned from the contributions of both.

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Marco & Sabrina's avatar

Feels like you were ´embedded’ and I mean that as a huge compliment

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Stahring's avatar

Are you at all familiar with the Lectio Moderna & the brethren of the common life? Thomas von Kempis was part of it. It was a plain, low country catholic community that emphasized a very plain piety in the Catholic Church. The reformation cut its development early but I often have wondered if we would have had a sort of Amish looking Catholicism from the Netherlands had it been allowed to flourish. Now I dream of starting a lay order to revive the simple piety of the Church out in the northern wastes…

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Jacob's avatar

A lovely little tale today! The Mennonites and the Amish are an interesting lot, and do really confound me in a lot of ways. After all, from my perspective (and most Christians), they preach a "poor man's Bible," and I don't mean monetarily, and yet...

Well anyhow, they definitely remind us of the emaciating effects of the Machine upon any culture, it doesn't matter if the Gospel is preached if no one is living it!

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Umbra Sumus's avatar

Wow.. it's even written in the Old German Blackletter typeface. A lot of Germans can't read this old Gothic text anymore - it was switched to a newer lettering in 1941. The old people can still read it.

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

I have two fantasies. Become a full blown carnie and run the trail till I die with my boots on in the arms of a possum belly queen, or fully join the Amish or Mennonites.

I will probably settle for the middle ground and establish a commune in New Zealand.

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Timothy Sussmann's avatar

I was with you in fear and craving, the countless times I found myself having to “settle into” the place I was in rang to my bones. I could feel myself being converted, to bring the scripture into my being, to shake the dust off from all those years of toiling with things I didn’t know I didn’t want. Thank you!

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Pam Atkinson's avatar

Wonderful!

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