by Amy Clipston
Special thanks to Cathy and Dennis Zimmermann for their hospitality and research assistance in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Cathy & Dennis Zimmermann, Innkeepers
The Creekside Inn
44 Leacock Road — PO Box 435
Paradise, PA 17562
Toll Free: (866) 604 – 2574
Local Phone: (717) 687 – 0333
The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the following resource that was used to research information for this book:
C. Richard Beam, Revised Pennsylvania German Dictionary (Lancaster: Brookshire Publications, Inc., 1991).
About the Author
AMY CLIPSTON is the author of the bestselling Kauffman Amish Bakery novels. She has a degree in communications from Virginia Wesleyan College and currently works for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Amy lives with her husband, two sons, and four spoiled-rotten cats.
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Also by Amy Clipston
A Gift of Grace
A Place of Peace
A Promise of Hope
A Plain and Simple Christmas
Naomi’s Gift
Roadside Assistance (young adult)
Note to the Reader
While this novel is set against the real backdrop of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the characters are fictional. There is no intended resemblance between the characters in this book and any real members of the Amish and Mennonite communities. As with any work of fiction, I’ve taken license in some areas of research as a means of creating the necessary circumstances for my characters. My research was thorough; however, it would be impossible to be completely accurate in details and description, since each and every community differs. Therefore, any inaccuracies in the Amish and Mennonite lifestyles portrayed in this book are completely due to fictional license.
A New Curtain Rises in the Heart of Lancaster County’s Amish Country.
For more than 40 years the Smucker Family has been treating the world to Grandma
Smucker’s favorite Pennsylvania Dutch recipes and fruits, vegetables and meats harvested from local farms. Along with clean, comfortable lodging for all styles and budgets, they have also opened doors to their Anabaptist faith through experiential dining and special Smucker Socials.
In September 2011 the Smuckers raised the curtain on the Bird-in-Hand Stage: a whole new way to experience Bird-in-Hand and learn more about its Amish and Mennonite neighbors. Its first performance — Beverly Lewis’ “The Confession: A Musical” — shares an adaptation of a trilogy of the Lancaster County native’s bestselling Amish novels. Don’t miss this uplifting Amish love story and its soaring melodies and inspiring lyrics September through November 2011 and 2012. Tickets and meal and lodging packages are available, along with discounts for groups of 12 or more.
Kauffman Amish Bakery Series
A Gift of Grace
A Novel
Amy Clipston
Rebecca Kauffman’s tranquil Old Order Amish life is transformed when she suddenly has custody of her two teenage nieces after her English sister and brother-in-law are killed in an automobile accident. Instant motherhood, after years of unsuccessful attempts to conceive a child of her own, is both a joy and a heartache. Rebecca struggles to give the teenage girls the guidance they need as well as fulfill her duties to Daniel as an Amish wife.
Rebellious Jessica is resistant to Amish ways and constantly in trouble with the community. Younger sister Lindsay is caught in the middle, and the strain between Rebecca and Daniel mounts as Jessica’s rebellion escalates. Instead of the beautiful family life she dreamed of creating for her nieces, Rebecca feels as if her world is being torn apart by two different cultures, leaving her to question her place in the Amish community, her marriage, and her faith in God.
Available in stores and online!
Kauffman Amish Bakery Series
A Promise of Hope
A Novel
Amy Clipston
In A Promise of Hope, the second installment in the Kauffman Amish Bakery Series, bestselling author Amy Clipston compellingly unfolds the tensions, loves, and faith of the inhabitants of an Amish community and the family bakery that serves as an anchor point for the series.
When Sarah Troyer tragically loses her husband, Peter, she is left to raise infant twins alone. Overwhelmed and grieving, she lives with her parents in the Amish community of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. Sarah is taken completely by surprise when a stranger arrives claiming connections to Peter’s past — Peter had told her he was an orphan with no family. From Luke, she learns her husband hid a secret life, one with ramifications that will change her own.
Sarah’s family, concerned for her and the future of her twins, encourages her to marry again. It should make sense … but Sarah’s heart says no. She feels trapped. Should she marry a man she doesn’t love? Or discover if her growing interest in Luke can be trusted?
A Promise of Hope is filled with surprising twists that will grip you to the very last words.
Available in stores and online!
Kauffman Amish Bakery Series
A Place of Peace
A Novel
Amy Clipston,
Bestselling Author of A Gift of Grace
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the English way of life—and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families.
Miriam Lapp, who left the Amish community of Bird-in-Hand three years ago, is heartbroken when her sister calls to reveal that her mother has died suddenly. Traveling home to Pennsylvania, she is forced to face the heartache from her past, including her rift from her family and the breakup of her engagement with Timothy Kauffman.
Her past emotional wounds are reopened when her family rejects her once again and she finds out that Timothy is in a relationship with someone else. Miriam discovers that the rumors that broke them up three years ago were all lies. However, when Timothy proposes to his girlfriend and Miriam’s father disowns her, Miriam returns to Indiana with her heart in shambles.
When Miriam’s father has a stroke, Miriam returns to Pennsylvania, where her world continues to fall apart, leaving her to question her place in the Amish community and her faith in God.
A Plain and Simple Christmas
A Novella
Amy Clipston
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the English way of life—and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families.
In the tradition of her widely popular Kauffman Amish Bakery Series, author Amy Clipston tells the tale of Anna Mae McDonough who was shunned by her family four years ago when she left her Amish community in Lancaster County, PA, to marry an Englisher and move with him to Baltimore. Now, eight months pregnant with her first child, she longs to return home for Christmas to reconcile with her family, especially her stern father, who is the religious leader for her former Amish church district.
So Anna Mae writes a letter to Kathryn Beiler, her brother’s wife, to enlist her help. Kathryn asks her husband, David, if she should arrange Anna Mae’s visit. David cautions her that a visit would cause too much stress in the family and instead suggests they visit Anna Mae and her husband in the spring. However, Kathryn arranges the visit anyway, believing in her heart that i
t’s God’s will for the family to heal.
When Anna Mae arrives in Lancaster for Christmas, the welcome she receives is nothing like what she had hoped for.
A book filled with love, the pain of being separated from one’s family, and the determination to follow God’s will regardless of the outcome, A Plain and Simple Christmas is an inspiring page-turner that will keep you guessing what happens next … right to the very last page.
Naomi’s Gift
An Amish Christmas Story
Amy Clipston,
Bestselling Author
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the English way of life — and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families.
Naomi’s Gift re-introduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has been burned twice by love and has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches — a time of family, faith, and hope for many others — Naomi is more certain than ever her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family’s quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a seven-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside-down.
Naomi’s story of romantic trial and error and youthful insecurities has universal appeal. Author Amy Clipston artfully paints a panorama of simple lives full of complex relationships, and she carefully explores cultural differences and human similarities, with inspirational results.
Naomi’s Gift includes all the details of Amish life that Clipston’s fans enjoy, while delivering the compelling stories and strong characters that continue to draw legions of new readers.
Available in stores and online!
ZONDERVAN
A Life of Joy
Copyright © 2012 by Amy Clipston
This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.
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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-41307-3
This title is also available in a Zondervan audio edition.
Visit www.zondervan.fm.
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clipston, Amy.
A life of joy / Amy Clipston.
p. cm. — (Kauffman Amish bakery series ; bk. 4)
ISBN 978-0-310-31996-2 (softcover : alk. paper)
1. Amish — Fiction. 2. Amish Country (Pa.) — Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.L58L54 2012
813’.6 — dc23 2011029927
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Cover design: Think Pen Design, Inc
Cover photography: © 2011 Scott Miller and Shutterstock
Interior design: Christine Orejuela-Winkelman
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11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 /DCI/ 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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