The Medicine-Interview of a {formerly Amish} Woman, Part 3

 
An Amish woman who was shunned for her faith and left the Order when she was married and in her 30's, is opening up about her experience. Once she began questioning the "faith" based on Jesus Christ, her troubles began inside the Order. She's graciously allowed me to interview her. All the words are solely "Deborah's" and in her "voice" and because of her contacts, in present day, with the Amish, she needs to remain anonymous (thank you for understanding, ahead of time). I only edited paragraph sizes (smaller bites for easier reading). Bold, italics, and larger print are all mine, to emphasis areas of interest. We'll be doing a series based on questions from Hillary's gracious readers! Thank you Hillary and all your dear Facebook friends for giving us a plethora of material.


The interview will be published on Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to join the discussion in the "comment"s block. Any malicious comments will NOT be published. This is meant to be a safe place for her to share her story for the first time.


Join me in welcoming her......




Q:  Did you find Grace in your Christian life and how did you form a healthy view of God?

    Deborah: I have found the grace of God to be vital in true forgiveness or any real change in my inner man.

      For instance, I can mentally know I need to forgive and I can make a mental decision or choice to forgive, but only by the grace of God that comes through the working of the Holy Spirit, can true forgiveness take place in my heart. Wondrous Grace, that supernatural ability to be like Jesus.

      I would like to add something here concerning the Grace of God.

      I believe there are many people that have a misunderstanding of the Grace of God. There is this idea that Grace is like a sort of "magical blanket", if you will, that covers anything about us and in us that is not pleasing to the Lord. These things are covered by this "magical blanket of Grace" and He isn't able to see them.

      I disagree with that idea and believe it is a great disservice to the people of God when they do not know about and partake of true Grace that is available to all believers.

     The Grace of God is the supernatural ability of God to take any of those things you may feel like hiding from Him, change them or take them out of you and replace them with Himself. You will then become more and more like Him, not a "magic blanket covered" version of self.

     There is a huge difference.

 

    Q: What has the healing process been like for you since leaving your Amish roots?

    Deborah: To be honest, for me much of the healing in my life has happened without me being aware of it, which is probably the case with most healing.

    

     Time was a big factor I'm sure, time and some distance.

      As for my personal healing process, He will often make me aware of some emotional connection that has the ability to cause pain in my life. I will then give Him that relationship or situation and invariably I will discover some time later that it no longer has the power to hurt me on a level that is detrimental to me

      There was a grief process  to go through when separated from family members but it is amazing how the Lord has been restoring some of those relationships for me.  But they are very different then the relationships we had when I was in the Amish order because they are new, not a recycled version of the old.


   They are on the basis of me being who I am versus me being who they want me to be.

      I believe the Amish are a people in bondage to a belief system with cult-like tendencies.

       The way the Lord explained it to me was as follows; the more individual personal choices that are taken from a people group, the closer it becomes to a cult. 

      The Amish do have a range of personal choices left to them, such as the freedom to choose a spouse and the freedom to choose a vocation however, there are some conditions to these choices. For the Amish, their choice of spouse also needs to be in the Amish order and their vocation choice is limited by the amount of education they are allowed to pursue.

      Q: Have you found peace in Christ?

    Deborah: Yes, I have found peace in Christ. Growth in all areas is a process but the Scripture is true....we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1