Mmmm! The fresh Pennsylvania air! The buggies everywhere! The rolling green! The adorable sprawling farm houses and huge, wonderful barns! I would love to spend more time in Amish country…. After sleeping at Smoketown Inn, we packed the rental car and headed out to do some exploring. First we visited "The Amish Experience," where we sat in an experience theater and watched a video on "Rumspringa" the time in a 16 year old's life where he will decide wether or not to join the church, or leave and join the worldly life style. I thought it was interesting that Amish teens can enjoy some of the "sinful" things of this world such as phones, computers, cars, or participate in sports, but when they reach a certain age they're required to choose one or the other. Forever. No turning back. What a big decision, especially living in today's world! I also found it interesting that, as we went throughout the "Amish Experience" tour, there was not really anything mentioned as to how they believe one gets to heaven. If they believe in salvation, they certainly had a marvelous opportunity to present Christ in the movie, but instead it was focused on tradition. We wear what we wear and choose not to partake in normal things because of tradition and pleasing the church. Hm, seems like they focus on works to get them to Heaven and not the Savior. ??? If anyone knows more about what they specifically believe… there is a comment box below! I would love to hear from you! :D After the movie, we followed the rest of the group to an example of what an Amish farm house and school would look like. The Amish remove the bathrooms from their homes when they move in, because they use an outhouse. They also have what is called a "phone shanty," which looks like an outhouse with a little window in it. They are allowed to have a telephone on their property for emergencies and information calls. But, they are only allowed to use it so many hours each week, so they set aside a time one day each week to go out to the shanty, check messages, and return calls briefly. No pleasure chatting. They keep the phone out of the house in a shanty because they don't want any "worldly temptations" in their home. Mommy and I thought this might be a good thing to institute at our house! Only having to return calls once a week, and no constantly ringing device to distract! Amish houses are very plain. They are not allowed to have anything that is "frivolous or unnecessary," so that means no pictures or paintings on the walls, decorative furniture, ornaments… nothing that isn't needed. Therefore, to make up for not being able to own anything that isn't absolutely necessary, they make their everyday things as pretty and decorative as they can. The pillows all have quilted designs on them, the calendars have pictures and delicate fonts, the lamp in decorated nicely…. this house even had a frilly little wall-hanging that had a useful purpose- storing scissors and sewing materials. Imagine not having anything in your house that wasn't absolutely needed…. it would look pretty bare! After a morning of touring, we were hungry and decided to go to the Amish Experience restaurant so that we could get the Amish eating experience. :) And it wasn't quite Amish, but it was fun anyways! What happens is, you sign up at the front desk to eat, and when a table is open in the dining room, a number of different people are called. Then, it's just like Thanksgiving. All the strangers sit down together at a one long table and pass around plates of corn, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, chicken pot pie, beans, and fresh baked rolls. It was awkward at first…. {especially when a big fat guy sat down at the head of the table and just started chomping away} but after a few polite rounds of dishes around the table, you get used to it and it's easier to ask the stranger next to you to "please pass the potatoes". In fact, the stranger Mommy sat next to was a super sweet gal traveling with her husband… and we found out that she was a Christian! Don't know what her name is or where she is today, but I still think about her every once in a while. She was very pleasant, and wanted to take a picture with us after our meal. After the dinner was over, the waitress wheeled out a cart with desserts…. and I got my first introduction to Shoe Fly Pie {which I have been wanting to try for a long time! Funny I had to go all the way to Pennsylvania to get a piece…} Soon it came time to leave the simple life and head for Indiana, Pennsylvania. The dorms at Indiana University is where we were going to rest our heads tonight! Time for the International Student Convention!
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Madison RudkinI am a music-loving, pig-kissing dreamer who has been raised in this valley. In my early years I loved rock collecting, writing poems, showing pigs, and pretending to be Julie Andrews. Over the years my interests have turned to journaling, photography, marketing, patriotism, choir, health, and fiddling. Subscribe!Archives
June 2016
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