Amish newspaper reflects faith, love of community
The Budget Newspaper
I love to read The Budget newspaper. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a national publication full of articles written by Amish “scribes” from all across the country. It is national, but yet it feels like a community newspaper, full of the bits and pieces of news that the writers would share in letters to family members. It’s as if they are writing to family.
The Budget reminds me of the little daily newspaper in my hometown of Abilene, Kansas. When I was growing up, my dad would sit in his easy chair in the living room and peruse the pages, looking to see who died, who had a baby, who got married, who graduated, who got baptized, and who spent the night in the county jail. The Reflector Chronicle told the tale of a small town where everyone knew everyone and wanted to know how they were doing. It’s so different from the news now, which is fast and furious and focused on the negative—so much so that we may begin to think that if it weren’t for bad news, there’d be no news at all.
The Budget proves that isn’t so. The scribes write of seeds sowed and reaped, fresh eggs for breakfast, canning and sewing frolics, fishing, communion and baptism, school trips, and weddings, and ice cream and bird watching. True, when there’s bad news, the scribes don’t sugar coat it, but they put it in perspective. One scribe reports that a bishop’s wife had brain surgery and never recovered consciousness—not the outcome the family wanted, but the wife “is blissfully happy in the presence of her Lord.”
They sprinkle their stories with proverbs like “If you want to feel rich, just count all the things money can’t buy,” or “Don’t be like the wheelbarrow which goes no farther than it is pushed.” Do you ever feel like that? I know I do.
On a day like today, I know why we admire the Amish so much. They work hard, they keep their family and their community close, and above all else, they trust in the Lord. The pages of The Budget reflect that faith in every word and every sentence. One couple ended their report with a thought we can all hang on to today and everyday: “We may not know what the future holds, but we can trust the One who holds the future.”
Amen!
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