During our mind renewal, we came to see sin as a condition rather than an action. This was a key thought to me. As Catholics, we were taught that our infant baptism ‘erased’ the original sin from Adam’s fall. It may have been a traditional assumption or an outright doctrine taught. But we believed it, that is, until we read the scriptures for ourselves, especially the book of John and the Epistles.
We finally had the proper self-esteem: helpless, hapless sinners that were as lousy as we felt. But we were not hopeless and the gospel message took deep root in our hearts. We surrendered all, our assumptions, our motives, and for me specifically, excuses.
My new ‘no excuses’ clause was a personal turning point. My problems could no longer be blamed on my church, my parent’s mistakes, my husband’s weaknesses, or society’s flaws. The Lord put my fatal sin condition into remission at this point with His precious blood transfusion. When I was born again sometime in August of ’89, God’s kingdom and righteousness became what I lived for, moved, and had my being (Acts 17:28).
Outwardly, David let his beard grow and I simplified my dress to a sack type dress and a headscarf. We continued to attend mass but our discomfort grew.
We had been sent a tract on plain clothing by the Amish Brotherhood Publications called “What Shall I Wear?”. The author did a fine job of explaining why we chose to let God set our standards for appearance. So I wrote him and asked for more copies to give our family members. What he sent with the tracts was a pivotal point in our journey. He wrote a letter of encouragement and invitation with it. Our previous experience with the Amish had been formal and stoic. This Lester Beachy invited us to stop in and see him the next time we were in Holmes County. And we did just that. The man’s letter as well as his walk of life where obvious fruits of a born-again believer. He wanted us to come back and meet a friend of his that joined the Amish from a Catholic background.
On our second visit to Holmes we met Steve, who had been Amish for ten years and was now the married father of five. Steve invited us to visit their church service the next week. After that service my husband felt sure that we belonged with this group of people.
After traveling 2 hours with four small children for a couple months to attend church, we asked Steve about housing options. We were ready to take a leap in faith. Steve took his own leap of faith by speaking to a deacon of a neighboring district about renting us his ‘dawdy haus’ recently vacated. Ammon and Ada Raber ended up to be the perfect people to walk with us through the transition. They opened their home and hearts to us. Their first concern was our discipleship, not all the “how to’s” we would have to learn.
This is the brief description of our journey. I glossed over some of the detail because the full story is a book in progress. My next post will describe some of the things we learned those first five years.