saturday review of books

i first met the amish when i was a senior in high school. i thought they were quaint and fun to observe and try to snap the occasional picture. i didn't give much thought to the "why" behind how they live, and i certainly looked at them more as a cult rather than followers of the One True God. this book amish grace stems from the school shooting at nickel mines, pa (about 20 miles from where we now live). but it covers much more than just the school shooting. it quickly covers the amish background from their time of martyrdom around the time of the protestant reformation to the way they currently adapt technology to fit within their principles (rent freezer space from non-amish neighbors, phone shanties in their barns, computers for their business that have no games, internet access or extras that run on batteries). their example of forgiveness is unsurpassed and humbling to those of us who have had reason to forgive someone for a wrong committed. it includes other stories of amish forgiveness including one we personally witnessed of a member in our church involved in a car accident with a buggy (the joel kime story-you can google it if you don't want to read the whole book).

this was a great read, affecting the way i think of the amish, think of forgiveness and look at the world through the filter of the Bible. for you homeschoolers, you would be interested to know that the amish really do use the pathway readers many of us used in homeschooling. the 8th grade book speaks specifically of the amish martyrs and why they need to be in the habit of forgiving. we still have our whole set, as it's one the kids asked to keep when we were weeding through our homeschool material for our massive yard sale last year.

for more saturday review of books, join semicolon here.