Amish people work. Often they farm, but they also work in other jobs and businesses. Their church recommends acceptable types of work, which may vary among churches. If they can’t work, they rely on their families and communities for help. Amish usually don’t accept welfare, food stamps or use unemployment insurance.
Continue reading
In November I traveled to the Big Valley (Kishacoquillas Valley) in central Pennsylvania, about 70 miles northwest of Harrisburg. The Big Valley is home to three or more Amish groups, yet it’s off the well-worn paths around Lancaster, PA. Amish people wear their religion on their sleeves, heads, legs and feet. They travel in old ways with horses and buggies, maintain their homes without most modern conveniences and are among the remaining successful family farmers. They make their own clothes, prepare wonderful food, hardly eat in restaurants, restrict their interaction with outsiders, marry within their religion, and form tight-knit communities. Amish people believe God asks them to live this way. Despite all these differences from the rest of the U.S., their populations appear to be growing and there is a general diaspora among Amish communities: the children grow up, get baptized in their church, marry, and often move out to new places where they buy farms, start businesses, have children, and form new communities.