My People, the Amish: The True Story of an Amish Father and Son

by Keim, Joe

  When our children were ten years old, we read through a series of four books written by Stan and Brenda Jones. Each book explained in detail how God designed the human body and how their young bodies would change as they grew older. By the time they reached twelve, both Jonathan and Rachel knew all about the birds and bees. We left no stone unturned.

  We often discussed the future with our children and how they would at some point in their teenage years try to pull away from us, and we made plans on how to handle those difficult times. Those difficult teenage times did come along and some were brutal, but now we can look back and say we were ready and prepared. Most were handled right, and many years of pain were eliminated.

  At our house, we have a prayer couch in the living room, and every morning we sat down with Jonathan and Rachel individually and prayed over them. When we got done praying for them, they returned the favor and prayed over us. We often prayed that God would help them to stay sexually pure during their dating years and bring them a godly spouse. We made purity and godly spouses a huge deal, and so did Jonathan and Rachel.

  When Rachel was sixteen, she said, “I’d like to put together a little ceremony for our close friends to whom I can be accountable and who would pray over me and read scriptures focusing on purity.”

  When the special day arrived, she made breakfast for everyone, and then about eight of us gathered in the living room. We each shared our heart with Rachel, read Scripture, and in the end, we laid hands on her and asked God to give her wisdom and bless and protect her. She slipped a purity ring on her finger and made a vow before God and us that she would stay pure. Finally, we signed a certificate that was framed and hung in her room. Next to the certificate was a picture frame with a silhouette of a man.

  When Rachel met David at Bible college, she told him they couldn’t date until he met five requirements. The first was to meet with Dad; David was okay with that, so the plans for a face-to-face meeting were made.

  The day Esther and I went to meet David, I took a list of questions along. Rachel and our pastor had approved the questions. I was determined that he had to be clean cut, born again, on fire for the Lord, and hopefully raised in a solid Christian home where family was a priority.

  When we arrived at Malone University, Rachel met us in the parking lot.

  “Dad, I trust you, but act normal and please be gentle – it’s not like we are looking to become engaged.”

  “Don’t worry, Betsy (Rachel’s childhood nickname), just pray that I can capture the roaring lion within me and leave him behind.”

  No doubt, I was sweating and my heart was pumping double as David and I headed for the Red Lobster. Plans were that Esther and Rachel would spend some mother-daughter time, while I grilled poor David.

  We sat down and both ordered the Ultimate Feast.

  “Okay, David, now that we are sitting here waiting on the food, I want you to know it’s not easy for this daddy to let just anybody take my Betsy away. Before Rachel was born, her mom and I began to pray that God would bring the right man into her life. Now that it appears we have come to that point in our journey, I would like to ask you a few questions.”

  I proceeded to work through my lengthy list, which can be found in Appendix B.

  In the end, I felt very comfortable with David, and I trusted Rachel. But this was just the first step. David had to meet four more of Rachel’s requirements.

  Over the next two years, David and Rachel read seven books on dating and marriage while she finished four years of college in three. Her desire was to graduate at about the same time as David, who had started a year earlier. Not only did our family feel like we gained a son, we also became very close friends with David’s parents. Truly, the Lord honored our labor and blessed us beyond comprehension.

  When David asked to meet with Esther and me, we had a gut feeling that it was going to be a request to marry Rachel. We had already decided that David was God’s chosen man and he belonged in the picture frame in Rachel’s bedroom. But before we just answered yes, I said, “David, we have been preparing for this time and have a few comments and another list of questions we would like to ask you.”

  This list was even longer than the first, but David understood our concern and the importance of doing what was right. This list can be found in Appendix C.

  Esther and I had made a big deal of dating, purity, and marriage, and because we made a big deal of it, so did our children. David and Rachel married a few months later, and I had the privilege of doing the wedding vows with them. I cried like a baby that day as I walked our Betsy down the aisle and gave her hand away to a man I had only known for two years. They were tears of sadness, joy, and probably about twenty other emotions.

  About a year went by and Rachel became pregnant with Squirt, or so we called her until she got her real name, Lily. Recently, we heard the good news that Rachel is pregnant again, this time it’s a little boy who goes by the name Sprout.

  Jonathan was more independent. Jonathan wasn’t comfortable having a ring or engraving something on the back of his wristwatch. He moved out at nineteen and bought his own house. He’s always done very well with his finances, but at twenty-six he was struggling emotionally. However, that served as an epiphany for him. He was stuck out in South Dakota, starting a new business, but it wasn’t going like he planned.

  When he returned home, he said, “My life is going to change drastically. I’m going to find myself a girlfriend.”

  The first gal didn’t work out, but he wasn’t about to give up. A few weeks went by, and a friend of ours connected him with Havilah. They are in love and now taking some of the same steps David and Rachel did.

  Since Jonathan lives just down the street from us, he comes home every night and eats supper with us. It makes mamma shine and fills Jonathan’s heart with gladness! Now that he’s been dating Havilah, she comes home with him for supper several nights a week. We’ve really grown fond of her.

  One Monday night when we went out for family night, Jonathan said, “Well Dad, you’d be proud of me. I sat down and wrote a letter and asked Havilah’s father if he’d allow me to start a relationship with his daughter.”

  He did it on his own, and I was so proud of him.

  He got a very positive response back. Her father said, “By all means you have my permission. We are excited for your life and Havilah’s life.”

  Today, both of our adult children are involved in their home churches. Jonathan teaches the youth on Wednesday nights and has a heart to mentor people who have grown up in broken homes. David and Rachel lead a Monday night Bible study at their home and work with childcare.

  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3 John 4)

  Chapter 16

  God’s Call

  For fifteen years after leaving the Amish, I stayed away from them. I minded my own business and became involved in ministry at my church. I enjoyed opportunities to preach in nursing homes and took part in soul winning every Thursday night. As time went on, the church asked if I would teach the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade boys during Sunday school. For five years, I poured my life into fifteen young boys whom I became very attached to. Not only did we spend time in the classroom, but we got together during the week and did fun stuff. Several of the boys came from broken homes and needed a father figure in their lives. God used me to fill that gap, and it made me feel as though I was making a difference.

  Eventually, our youth pastor decided I should move to the teenage Sunday school class. Many of the same boys who were in my earlier class moved with me, and God gave me a few more years to teach and equip them for life. Three of those young boys are now in full-time ministry. Aaron pastors a church in Tennessee, Matt pastors a church plant in Vermont, and Mike is a college professor and has served in various Christian colleges in the US. I couldn’t be more proud of th
em, and have always praised God for the small part I had in their lives.

  One year at a missions conference in my home church, John Jackson spoke from Monday through Wednesday. On Tuesday night, I felt as if he was speaking directly to me. I remember getting out of my seat and going forward. I knew God was calling me into the ministry. Kenny, one of the pastors, came up and put his arm around me.

  “Why did you come to the altar?”

  “Tonight, I surrender my whole heart and soul to God,” I said. “I’ll go to Africa or wherever God wants me to go.”

  I wasn’t thinking about going to the Amish, though. There was no ministry like that, and besides, I felt the same way Jonah did about Nineveh – the less I had to do with the Amish, the better.

  A couple of years went by, and I found myself thinking about the Amish on a regular basis. More and more young boys were leaving the culture, and at one time, we had three boys living in our two-bedroom house. They were sleeping on our couch and on the floor. Esther and I realized there was a need.

  Then I learned of an Amish man who had committed suicide in Mount Eaton, Ohio. He left a wife and three children behind. Esther and I decided to go to the viewing. When we got there, we learned that this was the third suicide in that community in a year. Most Amish believe that if someone commits suicide, they can’t go to heaven. In some communities, members who commit suicide are buried outside the cemetery fence without a headstone. Within a few years, no one can tell where the person was buried. This happened with the three who committed suicide in this Mount Eaton community.

  Esther and I walked into that house to find the women all huddled in the kitchen, dressed in black, while the men gathered in the living room. No one talked. It was very dark and gloomy − hopeless. They brought us into a room lit with a kerosene lamp. A man lay on his back on two-by-six boards with white linen pulled up to his neck. Shadows danced on the walls and across the body as the lamplight flickered. For the first time, it really tore me up to think that flame from the lamp was nothing compared to the flames of hell. I asked myself, Who is going to tell these people there is hope? This man committed suicide because if he left the Amish church, he’d be excommunicated and turned over to Satan. If he stayed, he couldn’t cope with it. The only way out was to go upstairs and shoot himself in the head.

  I walked out of that house into the pitch darkness. I’d almost forgotten how black the nights are without electricity. On the way home I said to Esther, “Somebody has to tell these people about the gospel.”

  For the next six months, I suffered through turmoil at work. I woke up in the morning and cried all the way to work. Not because of my job – I loved my work – but because of the hopelessness in the Amish community. I prayed God would send someone to the Amish culture. I didn’t think it was me. It couldn’t be me – I was excommunicated from the Amish church, despised and judged as a rebel, and considered a lost soul headed for hell.

  Time went on and the inner struggles became unbearable. While at work one day, I walked to the restroom, locked myself in a stall, and wept bitterly.

  “God, what are You trying to do with me?” I cried. “I can’t take this anymore. Please! Just take my life.”

  John, a Christian brother, walked in and stepped into the next stall. He started singing a Christian song to comfort me. He was fully aware that I was at war with God.

  Finally, I said, “John, leave. I want you to leave me alone.”

  I walked out, and John said, “Joe, you need to go to your pastor and tell him what you’re going through.”

  I took that advice, and a week later I met with my pastor at Perkins restaurant.

  “Pastor, I have one question. What does it feel like when God calls a person into the ministry? How is one supposed to know it’s God?”

  His answer was exactly what I needed to hear. “Joe, I’ve watched you for fifteen years, and I know the Lord has His hand on you. I’ve been waiting for this moment. In fact, I already have a name for your ministry – Mission to Amish People.”

  For me, this was a huge confirmation, but I didn’t want to go to the Amish. I didn’t want to offend them, and I was worried about what they would do to me.

  I asked, “So what is a missionary to the Amish supposed to do?”

  He smiled. “Don’t worry about those details.”

  He encouraged me to let the church know what God was doing in my life. On February 6, 2000, I stood in front of my home church and preached the morning service from Romans 10:1-4;

  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

  “That they might be saved,” I repeated thoughtfully as I looked out at the congregation of familiar faces. “My heart’s desire for the Amish is that they might be saved.” I talked about their deception regarding their own righteousness.

  Then I turned to Romans 9:3. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Tears stung my eyes. “If possible I would be accursed,” I said. I tapped the page with my index finger. “That’s me. I can’t get away from it. All I can think about day and night is my people.” I swallowed hard trying to clear the emotional lump in my throat.

  I closed with Acts chapter 10 and said, “Peter, who was a Jew, went to the home of Cornelius who was a Gentile, and Gentiles also became believers. As a former Amish man, serving among the English people for fifteen years, we must go to the Amish with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and tell them the truth.”

  I believed with all my heart that part of our ministry was going to be about bringing an awareness about the Amish to Bible-preaching churches.

  When I finished, my pastor stepped up to the podium and said, “Church, I want you to get behind the Keim family, because they are going to go to other churches just like other missionaries and raise support to go full time.”

  My home church got behind us, and to this day they have given tens of thousands of dollars. Most of the people who signed up to give that day still give today – every month.

  I had invited some former Amish to come that day, and about fifty attended from all over, including some from Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio. That’s how MAP Ministry (Mission to Amish People) started.

  Within a few weeks, Esther and I met with Pastor John and his wife, Sherry, and came up with a ministry presentation outline that could be used at churches. It started with sharing our testimony and included our burden, what the Amish believe, and how we were going to reach out. We still follow the same outline or variation of it, and we’ve spoken in more than five hundred churches all over America.

  Churches came on board one after another, and by April 1, 2001, we had enough money pledged and coming in that we felt we could go full time. I left my secular job as a tool and die maker, and I made my office in a little Sunday school room at my home church. Going into ministry meant my salary would be cut in half, but Esther and I knew, without a doubt, we were following God’s call and approached the change in faith and did our part. Esther worked a full-time job so we could have insurance, because my salary wasn’t enough to afford that expense.

  In the early years of the ministry, when I’d go out and speak in churches, I’d leave an evaluation sheet with the pastor. He could then evaluate and let us know whether they would help support us. I’ll never forget one pastor’s evaluation. “Good on his presentation but could brush up on his English.”

  Comments like this put me into a tailspin. I only had an eighth-grade education. Most pastors have at least a four-year degree.
For many years, if someone asked where I got my education, I’d beat around the bush because I didn’t want people to know I was uneducated.

  However, the feelings of having a lesser education have changed in the last few years. God reminded me that He chose uneducated fishermen to be His disciples, and truthfully, if I had a choice of being well educated or being filled and overflowing with the Spirit of God, I’d choose the Spirit and power of God any time. Many people sit in our church pews, thinking they must first get Bible training before they can be used by God. That is a false belief!

  God often uses us the most in our weaknesses. Many times, I nearly fainted when asked to pray in front of the congregation. Never in a million years did I think God would use me to speak in so many churches. God just wants willing hearts who fully surrender themselves to Him. He’ll take it from there. Esther and I are living proof!

  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)

  The ministry has grown every year since 2000, when we first presented our burden and vision to our home church. In our first full-time year, we furnished a Sunday school room with a desk, computer, and phone. We eventually expanded to a second Sunday school room and hired a secretary. Volunteers joined us. We moved into a third room and even that became tight. We went out back and built a 2,000-square-foot building. In 2013 we added on 1,500 square feet. Today, we have about twelve computers and twelve desks, six staff members, and fifty volunteers who work for this ministry. Many churches in this area give thousands of hours. It’s just amazing. And people love it. Many are retired, and some work three eight-hour days every week. They love coming to MAP and serving the Lord. I can’t tell you what a blessing they are in the Lord’s work.