Exciting Events Happened

Looking back this part of my life I want to remember as closely as possible to the events that transpired. After moving to Sheboygan I went to many Mother/Daughter Banquets, did many special events for local churches and talked about "The Amish". I would tell how my parents left the Amish and other interesting episodes. I tried to write down my thoughts so that when I would start forgetting some day, it would be written down. So this is another form of getting it in a written form.

Mom became a good friend to Mrs. Clark. They spent a lot of time together. I don't remember talking to mom about this next part. My parents disappeared one day for several hours. Now parents don't need to report to their children where they go. I did many hours of babysitting or taking care of my siblings. Thats just the way things were done in our household. The oldest in the home would be responsible of thier younger siblings. So I noticed when my parents returned they were pretty excited about something. I remember asking my dad where they had gone. So he told me they went and got water baptized. Now I never asked about any details but I remember telling my dad that if they ever went back to a service at this ladies church that I wanted to go too. The name of the church Mrs. Clark attended was called the New Castle Revival Center. The congregation had around 70-80 people, it was a mixed congregation in the downtown part of New Castle PA. Not in to nice of an area either. This was in the early 1960's when people would through eggs at these types of churches. They were called names too like "holy rollers". Mom talked about how she felt when she realized that this was the type of church she was attending. But my parents decided to have God real in their lives and the Holy Spirit helping them walk through life, it would be worth anything that came their way.

Mrs. Clark brought another book to my mom called The Holy Ghost and the Mennonites. Something like that. The first time mom tried to read this book she felt the spirit of God in a powerful way and it frightened her and she quit reading it. After awhile Mrs Clark ask mom how she liked the book and mom explained that she didn't read it. After Mrs. Clark explained that the spirit of God is not to scare anyone, but to let the spirit move. Well, she did and she started to speak out in tongues like you never heard anyone do!!! Every day mom would pray and she would speak out - well this was certainly something new in our home. I sorta liked it! One of my older sisters came home for the weekend, it scared her! But she wasn't listening to the stories and wasn't experiences God like mom and dad were. I was certainly a believer even at that point. Soon after all of this happened mom and dad started going to the New Castle Revival Center. The Amish started visiting our house. Now I was either 13 going on 14 years of age at this time. After a while I also visited this church. The services were so different from what I was used too. I can't remember how I felt at that first service. Loud music. Music. Amish churches do not have any musical instruments. Everyone is white too. Men sit separately from the women and children. Amish have a pecking order. The older goes first and the rest follow. The men go first and the rest follow. The men eat first and the rest follow with the women and small children the last.

I should finish talking about the Amish visiting our home. It felt to me like every day for 6 weeks Amish people would be visiting our home when I got home from school. After the Amish couldn't convince my parents they were going to hell leaving the church, the Mennonites started visiting our home. The told my parents that if they were going to leave the church at least they could be Mennonite. Dad felt like God wanted him to attend the New Castle Revival Center. I thank God that is exactly what he/we did. So much could have happened, maybe it did but everyone is still going to church. God used my dad in many ways speaking to people about God. My Amish sister would sometimes mention this Amish person driving a car wearing Amish clothes. :-) The Amish said that my parents just wanted to change clothes, because they said that my parents didn't change clothes for many, many years. They never totally fit into the culture of today because they wanted to show the Amish the clothes were not the reason for them leaving the Amish.

My next blog I'll talk about Amish church.