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'You're supposed to have it' | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
long here. You're not supposed to... | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
You're not really supposed to shave it much, and you're not supposed to wear a moustache. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:20 | |
Two years ago, I filmed an extraordinary family going through a life-changing experience. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:27 | |
When I first met Ephraim and Amanda, they lived in a culture that shunned the modern world. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:35 | |
They were Amish, an ultra-conservative American church | 0:00:35 | 0:00:41 | |
where cars, electricity and modern clothing are totally forbidden. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:45 | |
The Amish look like they're from another century. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
But when Ephraim and Amanda challenged the beliefs of the Amish, they were thrown out of the church. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:57 | |
They were shunned by their friends and family, cut off from the world they'd been born into. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
It hurts to see my family struggling, and my family... | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
..going upside down about it. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
When I last filmed with them, they were on the brink of leaving the Amish way of life for good. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:18 | |
But they had yet to join the modern world. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
I'd often wondered if they could ever really get away | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
from the culture that had made them who they were. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
I wanted to know if they could ever really leave the Amish. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
OK, let's go to the water. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
It's been a few years since I last saw Ephraim and his family, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
and I caught up with them on a tour of the British Isles. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
They'd been invited over by people who'd seen the first film, and had wanted to meet them. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:58 | |
This is the first time they've been to a beach, and it's the first time they've ever been abroad. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:03 | |
Leaving the Amish has transformed their lives. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
CAMERA CLICKS | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
I hated my Amish clothes, I hated wearing suspenders, I hated everything. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:21 | |
'I guess I can be myself now, whereas continuing' | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
to go back to the Amish church was... I was trying to be someone that I'm not. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
My heart wasn't there any more. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
Being away from home for the first time | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
has made them think hard about what they want to do with their lives. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
'It has been a time of sitting back and reflecting and saying,' | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
"What is our life supposed to be? What are we supposed to be doing? | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
"Where do we go from here? | 0:02:55 | 0:02:57 | |
"Where does the Lord want us to be?" | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
Don't you know that we're all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ...? | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
There's one thing Ephraim IS sure of. He wants to save souls. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
..everything that we've done. If you hear my voice, please consider, every day 150,000 people will die. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:14 | |
It's this kind of thing that got him thrown out of the Amish church in the first place. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:19 | |
There's coming a day that God is going to judge the world in sin, righteousness and judgment... | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
Here you go, buddy, a fake trillion for you. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
Above all, the Amish believe in humility. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
They consider Ephraim's preaching to be nothing but pride. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
Take it and read it, there's a little test on the back. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
You've got to turn it around, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:37 | |
and when you get some time, just do the test there and you'll see if you'll get to heaven. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
-It's the gospel... -Ephraim's spent his time here in Britain spreading the gospel. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:47 | |
He hasn't had to work at all, and it's been a revelation. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
..the gospel message for you. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:51 | |
It's amazing. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
The Amish are famous for their fierce work ethic, | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
and Ephraim's always worked hard to support his family. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
But no more. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:08 | |
Shall we pray? | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
Our Father, thank you for this food. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
We ask that you would bless it to our bodies, Father. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
He's now decided to only do God's work, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
and to trust completely in God to provide for all his family's needs. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:23 | |
I've always had a secure job where money has never been an issue. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
And I expect the next couple of years will be different. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
You got your jackets? Put your jackets on, children. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
'I don't want to have a seven to five job. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
'But if the Lord just provides for us, that's all we need. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
'He says, "Follow me, seek my kingdom and my righteousness, everything else will be added," | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
'and that's my confidence.' | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
And so now we're ready to head back home and really... | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
..think about our life, and, yeah, walk the plan we have now. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:55 | |
Relying only on faith to sustain them, | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
Ephraim's bringing his family back to Pennsylvania, home of the same Amish community that rejected them. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:07 | |
Ephraim was born and raised in Lancaster County, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:19 | |
home of the first and oldest Amish community in America. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
Over the centuries, America has changed dramatically. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
But the Amish have not, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
and their old-fashioned ways are nostalgically envied by their modern cousins. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
The unofficial capital of Amish country here in Lancaster is a small town called Intercourse. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:42 | |
It's an ironic name for a town that attracts millions of tourists | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
who come to see the wholesome lifestyle of the Amish. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
'Yeah, we went on a tour through Amish land' | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
and saw how the people lived, the Amish people, very interesting. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
They just fascinate me, the way they operate, everything is done the old-fashioned way. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:08 | |
Maybe we should go back to that way of life. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
Maybe we'd have more peace in this world if we did. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:15 | |
The tourists who come here see a chocolate-box version of the Amish. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
'They don't fight amongst each other, they don't have a whole bunch of politics, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:25 | |
'they all eat the same way, they all dress the same way,' | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
they all work the same way, they all travel the same way. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
There's no competition, which makes life happy. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
But the Amish are anything but simple. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
Just like any other group of people, they have complex problems and deep divisions. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:47 | |
But this is kept hidden from outsiders, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
because the strict rules the Amish live by forbid them from being filmed. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:56 | |
I filmed these shots from quite a distance. | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
This is about as close as you can get without causing offence. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
The only way to see the true nature of Amish life is to film with those who are on their way out. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:09 | |
Elsie Miller has been Amish all her life, and so has her husband Jesse. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
But that's about to change. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
Just before I came to film with them, they'd had a visit. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
Their Amish ministers had come to warn them they were about to be thrown out of the church. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:37 | |
How did it go last night, Jesse? | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
They said that the church has agreed... | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
-..together on a group... -..as a group... | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
..that we're ordered to come to church. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
And I feel that's where the excommunication is going to come in. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:59 | |
Excommunication is the punishment for attending a non-Amish church. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:07 | |
They face being shunned by their friends and families, cut off from the only world they've ever known. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:15 | |
What they're going to do probably then is like, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
they're actually, er... | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
They're actually going to say that they're now handing us over to the devil. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:29 | |
I don't know if you've ever heard that, but that's how they do. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
I mean, um... | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
So according to the Amish church, the old order Amish, you are sinners. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:40 | |
Yes, because we're... | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
..leaving the church and going out into the world is how they look at it. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
We have chosen to take a deeper faith, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:55 | |
take a deeper Christian faith... | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
..so we can walk with God and Jesus... | 0:08:59 | 0:09:04 | |
..which the Amish, they don't do that. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
They came to this new faith with the help of Ephraim. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
When I first met Ephraim, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
he'd become involved in a growing evangelical movement with a clear target. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
I filmed him, along with other born-again Christians, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
setting up a huge tent right in the heart of Amish country. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
They call them tent meetings, a bunch of churches being together, singing and preaching the word of God. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:40 | |
They were here on a mission to convert the Amish, and at the centre of their campaign was the Bible. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:48 | |
Amish Bibles are written in an old form of German that few understand. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:54 | |
But reading the Bible in English is prohibited. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
It breaks the Amish reliance on the authority of their elders. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
THEY SING | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
It is a sin to do it today, | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
keep the people in darkness, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
by giving them a Bible | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
in a language that they do not understand, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
and telling them and warning them not to read it in English. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
God have mercy! | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
These tent meetings were just part of a larger conflict | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
between the Amish elders and the new faith of Ephraim and others like him. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:34 | |
There's a lot of Amish people that have been warned not to come to them, | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
for fear that they would then desire to leave the Amish culture. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
They could be excommunicated for attending. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
Elsie was amongst those who were won over to this new faith. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
Jesse followed. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:48 | |
He got on his knees and started praying. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
After he stopped praying, I said, "So, would you go to heaven?" | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
He said, "Yes, I would," and I said, "Why would you go to heaven?" | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
He said, "Because of what Jesus has done for me." | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
And that's not what he said an hour before. So I knew he was a new man. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
So I asked him, if the community is going to reject him, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
will he still follow Christ, and he goes, "Yeah." He said, "I have no choice." | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
It was just like, | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
the fear of rejection was gone. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
Jesse and Elsie started coming with Ephraim here, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
to Charity Christian Fellowship, one of the main evangelical churches campaigning to convert the Amish. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:28 | |
Father, help us during this time of need, | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
need for fellowship and wisdom and guidance. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
Thank you for this. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
Their Amish family are unhappy with their decision and don't want them to go. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
Amen. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
Thank you, Lord. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:50 | |
Elsie, Jesse mentioned earlier that you've received a phone call from your father. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:58 | |
Well, I guess it was one last attempt to see what he can do | 0:12:00 | 0:12:07 | |
to get us to change our minds before we get excommunicated. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
If he doesn't agree with anything I believe and I can't agree with his view, you know? | 0:12:11 | 0:12:18 | |
Elsie and Jesse are part of a growing exodus, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:26 | |
leaving their traditions and their families for modern evangelical Christianity. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:31 | |
Ephraim and his family are arriving back after months of travelling. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:48 | |
They don't have a house of their own, so they'll be staying with friends from his new church. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:55 | |
-Hi, Esther! -Hi, Ephraim. -God bless you. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
So in the bedroom inside the office, right? | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
-That's a huge camera. -The first thing to do is find a place to live. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:06 | |
Ephraim is praying he can find a house for free. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
We're looking at a house tomorrow. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
Let's see if it's what we want. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
I don't know, yeah, we just trust in the Lord. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
We'll take a peek at it tomorrow. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
They say they have a produce stand that we can help work, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
and feed some heifers, maybe to exchange the rent, but we'll see. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
It's not mine to figure out. I just need to pray, that's all. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
A few days later, I caught up with Ephraim. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
He'd already found a house, and wanted to get some help moving in. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:08 | |
We're trying to figure out who's going to help us to move in tomorrow. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
Some of my brothers are going to come, and their wives, hopefully. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:18 | |
This will be your family who are still Amish? | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
Yes, my family is still all Amish. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
His Amish family won't help if it means consorting with people from Charity, Ephraim's new church. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:31 | |
They wanted to know if there's other people there who are excommunicated. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
OK. I got to figure out a way... who's going to drive and my brothers can ride along. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:40 | |
Even though he's no longer part of their church, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
Ephraim still finds himself having to work around the Amish rules. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:48 | |
In the end, he finds a workable compromise. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
His Amish family have packed everything up, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
and people from Charity church are doing the unpacking. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:03 | |
Unlike the Amish, they don't mind being filmed, if it helps do God's work. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:08 | |
If somebody doesn't want to be on camera, just tell him. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
# If heaven's not my home | 0:15:23 | 0:15:27 | |
# Then, Lord, what will I do? | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
# The angels beckon me from heaven's open door... # | 0:15:31 | 0:15:40 | |
The house is on a farm, and Ephraim's struck a deal with the owner. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
In the summer months, he'll do some work around the farm | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
and run the owner's roadside fruit and veg stand. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
In exchange, they'll live rent free. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
It seems Ephraim's prayers have been answered. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
Exactly what we wanted. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:00 | |
Well, we didn't, we just wanted to work somewhere so we can work for the farmer in exchange for rent. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:06 | |
So we found it. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:07 | |
But there's more than rent to consider. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
Ephraim is counting on God to provide for all their financial needs. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
CHILDREN SHOUT | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
It is, it's still, it's a bit... | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
You know, even though the Lord has given us this place | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
for what we prayed for, it's still that thought, "What if he doesn't supply money?" | 0:16:26 | 0:16:32 | |
-Is it still a little bit scary? -It is a little scary, yeah. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
Ephraim's new home is deep in Amish country. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
But that's not to say it's completely separate from the outside world. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
Seeing the Amish like this in rural isolation, it might appear that they live apart from everyone else. | 0:16:53 | 0:17:00 | |
But the reality is quite different. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
For the most part, they live right alongside the modern world. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
Driving around, I found the freeways of Pennsylvania regularly jammed up by slow-moving Amish. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:22 | |
You'd think this day-to-day contact would be the death of their culture, but it isn't. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:27 | |
Even when rebellion and teenage hormones kick in, the Amish have a way of dealing with it. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:38 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
-These young guys hanging out are, believe it or not, Amish. -300 horsepower. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:54 | |
In their late teens, Amish kids are allowed to run wild | 0:17:54 | 0:17:59 | |
before they join the church, and get a taste of living in the outside world. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:04 | |
With the Amish work ethic drilled into them from early childhood, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
many of these guys are earning good money, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
which is why one particular form their freedom takes is hot rods. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
I'm told some will also be using their buying power | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
to try the effects of eye-watering amounts of drink and drugs, but that's not something I got to film. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:30 | |
Surprisingly enough, the vast majority of these wild teenagers | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
will return to the fold, get baptised into the Amish church | 0:18:34 | 0:18:39 | |
and trade in their fast cars for slow-moving buggies. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
They go back because they've been taught from birth | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
they'll go to hell if they don't live by the Amish rules. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
And they believe it wholeheartedly. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
But this fear of hell which holds them together is now tearing the Amish apart. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:03 | |
Born-again Christians promise them a guaranteed escape from hell, and an end to their fear. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:11 | |
It's a powerful message and the Amish are ripe for it. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
It's Sunday morning. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:32 | |
I've set up my camera down the road from Elsie and Jess's house | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
to get some shots of their Amish brethren on their way to church. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
Elsie and Jesse have been summoned to appear before the whole congregation | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
so their excommunication is made public. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
How are you feeling about today? | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
I feel pretty positive. I mean | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
since we started, you know, going this direction, we haven't... | 0:20:36 | 0:20:41 | |
..once really regretted it, and I don't think we would ever. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:48 | |
Despite her conviction, the prospect of standing before the Amish elders | 0:20:50 | 0:20:55 | |
is daunting, and they haven't decided whether they'll attend or not. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
Jesse used to look to the Amish rules to make every decision. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
Now, he's turning to the Bible. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
"And God said to Solomon because this was in thine heart | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
"and thou have not asked for riches, wealth or honour, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
"nor the life of thine enemies, as wisdom and knowledge for thyself..." | 0:21:14 | 0:21:20 | |
Something in the passage he's chosen seems to have settled the matter for Jesse. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
What have you decided to do this morning? | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
It really feels the Lord has laid it on our hearts that if...he... | 0:21:30 | 0:21:40 | |
if we're not going to Amish Church any more, why do we need to go when we get excommunicated? | 0:21:40 | 0:21:46 | |
They don't want us anyway. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
Having decided not to face the Amish, they'll be going to their new church instead. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:03 | |
The preacher is giving them a lift in his car. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
The Amish will carry on without them. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
Elsie and Jesse will still be expelled in their absence. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
They've now irrevocably severed their links with the Amish. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
CONGREGATION SINGS | 0:22:39 | 0:22:40 | |
Elsie and Jesse are now full members of Charity Christian Fellowship, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
despite the best efforts of their families to convince them otherwise. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
THEY SING | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
The Charity Church just does not have a good name among the Amish. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:57 | |
My sister said they heard from someone else that | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
the church at Charity is a cult, you know, like a cult thing, it's not about Jesus Christ. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:09 | |
THEY SING | 0:23:09 | 0:23:14 | |
Father in heaven, we thank you this morning. Thank you, God, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
for meeting with us, Lord. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
We pray for the Muslims, across the world, during this time of Ramadan. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:29 | |
We pray, Lord, that somehow you would point to them Jesus... | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
All around the packed church, I see Amish in transition to the modern world. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
Most of the women have replaced the Amish head covering with simple scarves. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:43 | |
Some of the men still dress and shave in the Amish way, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:50 | |
while others are in the process of shedding the look. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
It's full of people just like Elsie and Jesse. | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
Father, we pray for our brother Steve as he continues to minister and work with the Amish | 0:23:59 | 0:24:05 | |
in the southern end of the county. Thank you, Lord. Pray the soul of Jesus. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:11 | |
Ephraim was instrumental in convincing Jesse to leave the Amish. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
And so, when Jesse approached him after the service, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
I expected the huge step he'd taken to be acknowledged somehow. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
But there was nothing. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:29 | |
When Ephraim was excommunicated, he'd gone to the Amish Church to proclaim his new faith. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:35 | |
He'd hoped Jesse would do the same. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
Jesse's decision to come here instead has not gone down as well as he'd hoped with his friend. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:44 | |
Everyone behind the trees! | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
Today, Ephraim's got a bunch of his Christian brethren together to pull down a house. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
The house, which belongs to a good friend of his, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
will be torn down piece by piece and then rebuilt from scratch. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
They had mould in their house so they've closed up everything tightly, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
and they came back and the walls were all mouldy. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
And the Bible says | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
that if there's mould there and it increases after you close the windows | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
and doors for ten days, it increases, then you have to tear it down and burn it. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
Don't let one stone upon the other stone. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
And so, just as the Old Testament says, they're taking all the stones, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
plaster and timber to an unclean place and burning the lot. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:57 | |
They're following the Bible to the very letter. | 0:25:57 | 0:26:01 | |
It seems this new faith Ephraim follows is in many ways | 0:26:03 | 0:26:08 | |
just as uncompromising as the Amish Church he's left. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
CHILDREN CHATTER | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
Ephraim has given up working so that he can spread the Gospel. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
This morning, he's taken delivery of some car stickers and signs. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
Maybe this one here. I like this one. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
"The fool has said there is no God." | 0:26:49 | 0:26:56 | |
Psalms 14, verse 1. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
If you're going to a big city, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
you'll have 10,000 people will see your van, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
and 10,000 people are going to have to think about something they hadn't thought about before. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
I'm hoping that a couple of my friends will put these on their buggies. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
I think it will look really nice to have something like that on their buggies. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:19 | |
If someone put one of those on a buggy, what kind of response would they get? | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
Yes, it would be frowned upon very much. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
The Amish have this saying that they say, "You don't need to use | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
"words to win, you just live your life and let people see... | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
"..let people see the life of Christ in you." | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
So they would not think it's wise to have Scripture on your car or your buggy. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:50 | |
They'd think you'd be proud. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
But if you know there's a hurricane coming and it's going to touch down in a certain area, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:59 | |
you've got to get out of the houses and move, because they'll die, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:04 | |
so I think it's important that we | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
talk about the message. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
-Can I give you a gospel message? -Thank you. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
You're welcome. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
-Can I give a gospel message to you? -No, thank you. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
-All right. -There's a funfair going on in the nearby town today. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:26 | |
But Ephraim's set up his signs just outside. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
I don't want to be connected with the fair. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:32 | |
It's a wicked place. The whole thing is about money, and they're all trying | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
to get rich, trying to entertain, trying to satisfy their longings. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:41 | |
There's the gazebo, some of the pictures are really | 0:28:43 | 0:28:48 | |
demonic, you got the dragon trains, you've got | 0:28:48 | 0:28:53 | |
the evil house on the other street, | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
and it's just... | 0:28:56 | 0:29:00 | |
It's a place where I don't want to be. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:02 | |
A gospel message for you. Do you want to be in heaven? | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
All right. Don't stay too long in there, it's a wicked place. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:10 | |
-It's what you make of it, I guess. -OK, it's not what you make of it, it's what it is. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:17 | |
Here's a gospel message for you. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
-Thank you. -You're welcome. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
People are more receptive here than in England. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
In England they've been taught Darwin | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
quite... | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
a few years more than we have here. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:35 | |
The Bible says that in the beginning God created the world in six days, | 0:29:35 | 0:29:39 | |
and that's what's true, that's the truth. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:44 | |
That's what happened in six days. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
But Darwin doesn't believe that way. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
Or he didn't. He does believe that way now. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
Darwin now is saying, "Yes, Jesus was the Christ, I didn't acknowledge it in the past, | 0:29:57 | 0:30:02 | |
"but he is, and I wish I would have," you know. Darwin is in hell today, according to the Scriptures. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:09 | |
OK. How many fives are in 16? | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
This literal reading of the Bible is something he's determined to share with his children. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:21 | |
Ephraim and Amanda don't send their children to school. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
Instead, they do all the teaching themselves at home. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
We do books. But then we also learn through life. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
We butcher chickens, we...plant a garden. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:41 | |
All these things are learning experiences. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
When Amanda says that butchering chickens can be part of their schooling, she really means it. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:52 | |
CHICKEN CLUCKS | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
But the lesson today is not so much about biology as it is about theology. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:00 | |
The Bible says that the life is in the blood. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
So what it means is... | 0:31:04 | 0:31:05 | |
..that's what makes something live. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
Step back, Samuel. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
..is the blood, so when the blood's all gone, children, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
the animal is dead. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:19 | |
And when Jesus was on the cross, his life was dropped out on the ground for us and so when Jesus' blood | 0:31:19 | 0:31:29 | |
becomes ours we do have life because his life, his blood has life in it. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:34 | |
It's the day after the Elsie and Jesse's excommunication. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
The Amish believe they've been deceived into going to Charity Church, | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
and have handed their flesh to the devil. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:58 | |
I've come to see how they're coping with that. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
-It sounds very harsh. -Yes, but often what people do is, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:06 | |
like people who leave the Amish, if that happens | 0:32:06 | 0:32:12 | |
they'll afterwards just | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
like pray, pray to God and ask him to remove that curse. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:21 | |
I feel if we pray about it, I think he would. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
The Amish think that Elsie and Jesse are now living in a place of temptation and deceit. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:34 | |
They have a word for this place. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
They call it the "world". | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
The Amish keep themselves separate by having countless rules for every aspect of their lives. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:56 | |
Without those rules to guide them, Elsie and Jesse are now faced with bewildering choices. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:05 | |
The first thing they must decide is what to wear. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
When we were Amish, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:19 | |
the Amish Church decides a lot of things, you know, like how the clothes | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
should be made, and the colours we should wear, and the things that we can have and not have. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:31 | |
Nothing is forbidden any more. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
They can have anything they want. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
But after a lifetime of rules, they have no experience of making choices independently. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:49 | |
So now it's up to us to decide, you know, | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
what does God's word say about this or that, you know, and we try to make our decisions based on... | 0:33:58 | 0:34:06 | |
..what the Bible says. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:10 | |
Ephraim's putting up a fence for his chickens. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
I didn't need a set of rules any more to guide my life when I became a Christian. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:31 | |
Because I now have... | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
Here you go. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
..I now have living inside of me | 0:34:36 | 0:34:38 | |
God himself, who knows the difference between right and wrong, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:44 | |
and so therefore I don't need rules. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:46 | |
Don't point guns. We don't point guns at people. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
That is not sober. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
Christopher! How are you feeling when you're pointing the gun, sober or foolish? | 0:34:56 | 0:35:01 | |
Sober. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
Sober now but how were you feeling then? | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
-Foolish. -Foolish. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:09 | |
Yeah, Papa doesn't want you to do that. We want to stay sober. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
Thank you. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
I want something else to govern my children rather than a set of rules. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
I want them to know why, | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
why don't we | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
walk around immodestly? | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
And I want them to know it's because the Bible says | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
instead of having a set of rules. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:31 | |
The Bible talks about the sin of nakedness, | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
I didn't know that. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:37 | |
Isn't that a rule as well in a way? | 0:35:37 | 0:35:39 | |
It would be something that the Bible would have as a rule, | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
I guess, although it's not a rule, it's part of a life, part of a... | 0:35:44 | 0:35:49 | |
Yes, it's part of a life. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
It's much bigger than a rule, isn't it? | 0:35:54 | 0:35:56 | |
I've often asked why the Amish do things the way they do. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:10 | |
The answer is always the same. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
You don't ask why, they say. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:15 | |
It's just how we do. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
The Amish are taught to obey without question, and conform. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:24 | |
CONGREGATION SINGS | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
At first glance, the congregation of Charity Church doesn't appear to be | 0:36:32 | 0:36:37 | |
all that different to the Amish Church that so many of them have come from. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
Although Charity claims not to have rules like the Amish, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
their lives are governed by what they read in the Bible. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:51 | |
And they too keep their distance from the modern world. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:56 | |
But although it might not seem much of a difference, coming to this church | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
is probably the biggest change they'll ever make in their lives. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
Today, Ephraim's trying to drum up more customers for the produce stand. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
Stand over there and tell me how this looks. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:22 | |
They live rent free in the summer in exchange for running the stand. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:29 | |
But once winter sets in, the family will have to start paying their way. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:33 | |
Wow, this is such a busy road. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
It is a busy road. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:39 | |
The landlord recently offered them another deal. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
If sales are better than usual, they won't pay any rent at all. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
The stand's been far busier than they expected. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
This wasn't the plan when they first moved in here. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
Right now, it looks like a full time job. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
I really struggle with, OK, I've got to come out and sell stuff. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
The customers are here, flowers, I can sell things, | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
I can make it happen. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:08 | |
And I really just have to say, "God, please, you know, take that from me." | 0:38:08 | 0:38:13 | |
Look, if we sell flowers we sell flowers, I told him last night | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
I said, "OK, Lord, if this stand does better than normal | 0:38:17 | 0:38:21 | |
"we can be rent free, so you're going to make it happen, | 0:38:21 | 0:38:25 | |
"I'm not going to make it happen." | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
OK, maybe I should make signs, | 0:38:27 | 0:38:28 | |
put a sign in every telephone pole and just, you know, come out and really make stuff happen. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:33 | |
I said, "No, I'm not going to do it." | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
I told God this morning, if people need stuff then they're going to buy it somewhere, make them stop here. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:42 | |
Ephraim wants God to provide for all his family's needs. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
But even though the rent is covered, | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
there are other financial pressures to deal with as well. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
During the course of my first film with the family, | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
Ephraim's daughter Marie contracted leukaemia. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
It was the beginning of years of expensive treatment. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
So what will you be sending us, and what will it cost? | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
I will have to check, I thought we were sending everything. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
Although she's recovered now, she still needs chemotherapy. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:22 | |
Ephraim wanted to stop buying the medicine | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
and instead rely on God to keep the cancer at bay. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:33 | |
But the state wouldn't let him. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
We were going to take Marie off the chemo for a month | 0:39:35 | 0:39:37 | |
and we were going to stay off, and the law said | 0:39:37 | 0:39:40 | |
we have to go back on, and so that was really a stressful time, | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
saying, "Well, hang on, the Bible says that | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
"we believe she's healed, we want to continue down the natural route," | 0:39:47 | 0:39:51 | |
but the law is saying you need to continue or we'll make her continue. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:55 | |
In his old life, all his medical expenses | 0:40:01 | 0:40:05 | |
would have been covered in full by the Amish. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:09 | |
But now, he's relying on occasional donations from friends at Charity. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:21 | |
and his savings, which are disappearing fast. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:25 | |
Well done, Marie. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:31 | |
2.5 milligrams, is that correct? | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
OK, that's a very good price on that. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
On the way out of the hospital, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
he stops to try and get a better deal for the medicine Marie needs. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
So there's not much savings on that. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
So the only one that we save on is dexamethasone. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
OK, thank you. Bye. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
Ephraim's plan was to stop working and give all his time to God. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:01 | |
The way it's looking now, he'll need a miracle to carry on. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:06 | |
Amish children are taught only the basics. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
They have their own schools and leave at the age of 14. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:21 | |
Now that they've joined Charity, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
Elsie has to come to grips with home schooling. | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
Is it quite a lot for you to learn as well? | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
Yes, it is, like these books, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
these are different from what I had when I was going to school. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:45 | |
The Amish schools they have other kinds that are more, more simple. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
So some things in here | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
is a little bit challenging for me. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:56 | |
This morning we'll do a page in letters and sounds. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
It's a Phonics Seatwork Text. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:05 | |
With three children, it seems a lot for her to take on. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
And what's more, Elsie is expecting another child. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
Hurt? How about in hurt? | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
Jesse wants to buy a car, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
but he's having trouble selling his buggy. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
While only Amish would want it, no Amish would buy it off him. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:29 | |
Can you explain to me why it is | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
that they wouldn't be able to buy? | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
They don't want to help us | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
to something different than what we were | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
brought up from. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
The buggy is fundamental to the Amish way of life. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:49 | |
It's their means of going about their lives | 0:42:49 | 0:42:51 | |
as cars are totally forbidden. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
Buying a car is a big change and it'll transform the way they live. | 0:42:55 | 0:43:00 | |
But a car is not always a blessing. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:05 | |
The exhaust pipe on Ephraim's car is bust, | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
and he's having a go at fixing it himself. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
It's a bit of a learning experience. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
This is not the kind of thing you had to do | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
when you had a horse and buggy! | 0:43:26 | 0:43:28 | |
No, horse and buggy was, rather you had to figure out | 0:43:28 | 0:43:31 | |
what was wrong with the horse! | 0:43:31 | 0:43:32 | |
If he got sick, then I'd know. I know how to take care of horses. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
But vans is a new thing. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
But if I'm going to be using the van, I need to | 0:43:39 | 0:43:43 | |
learn how they work, otherwise | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
I'll spend a lot of money on paying people to fix my van. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:49 | |
That's not my vision. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:53 | |
He's going to replace the exhaust on his car | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
with one from this wreck. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:01 | |
This was Ephraim's first car. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
But a few months ago while he was on his way to church, he rolled it. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:11 | |
The whole family was inside at the time. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
We were singing, having a beautiful time | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
and the van came around like this and rolled, | 0:44:19 | 0:44:25 | |
it flipped in the air the first time and it came down right here, | 0:44:25 | 0:44:29 | |
and Amanda got the jar of it, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:30 | |
and then we rolled again and landed on the four wheels | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
and Amanda, she went unconscious for just a little bit. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:37 | |
But there was people there right away and they called the ambulance, | 0:44:38 | 0:44:42 | |
but it was icy and it was just... I got out and I said, | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
"Lord, what is this? We had an accident, we rolled twice, | 0:44:47 | 0:44:51 | |
"but we're not hurt, and what are you trying to say?" | 0:44:51 | 0:44:55 | |
And so I went on a fast on Monday, | 0:44:55 | 0:44:59 | |
and Tuesday morning the Lord woke me early, my quiet time, | 0:44:59 | 0:45:03 | |
and showed me that I was proud, I was actually proud of this van, | 0:45:03 | 0:45:06 | |
I was proud of how the Lord had given me this, and that we had prayed | 0:45:06 | 0:45:09 | |
and prayed and prayed, and then God gave us this van for 900, | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
and I was proud about that fact, that I hadn't missed it. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
So I repented of my pride | 0:45:15 | 0:45:17 | |
and wanting people to think that I'm spiritual. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
So it was a good lesson. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:27 | |
And by God's grace no-one was hurt. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:29 | |
And the Lord provided another van | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
that has much less mileage on and for even less money. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:38 | |
Cheap Heaps in Lancaster City | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
is just what its name suggests; a budget used car dealer. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:58 | |
Jesse and Elsie are looking for something with plenty of room. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
Elsie is now seven-and-a-half months pregnant. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:06 | |
OK. What are you looking for? | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
The red Mercury Villager. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
Let's go out outside, guys, take a look. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
This one has 5,000 miles on it. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:22 | |
OK? And a brand new inspection until next November. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:27 | |
How does it run? | 0:46:27 | 0:46:29 | |
-Runs very, very nice. -OK. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:30 | |
-You can go on a test drive if you'd like to do that. -OK. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
How does it feel to drive this? | 0:46:37 | 0:46:39 | |
Good. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:40 | |
It's a bit of a shock to see Jesse behind the wheel. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
But like many Amish men, during his wild youth, he had a car. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
It's fun driving. | 0:46:47 | 0:46:50 | |
But I'm not sure about this one. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:55 | |
There's something odd about the electrics. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
So how much is this? | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
How much do they want for this van? | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
-3,300. -3,300? -Yeah. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:18 | |
And how many miles does it have? | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
125,000. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:24 | |
Is that pretty good? | 0:47:24 | 0:47:25 | |
Yeah, they said it is. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:30 | |
Jesse may still be able to drive, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
but his navigation skills are a bit rusty. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
On the way back, we get lost. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
It's three quarters of an hour | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
before we find our way back to Cheap Heaps. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
Do you have any other questions for me? | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
Is there a switch for the interior light in that car? | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
I'm sure there is. I can check it for you. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:02 | |
Typically, it's just a matter of... did you turn it both ways? | 0:48:02 | 0:48:07 | |
I thought I did. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
-I didn't turn it past the symbols. -I'll check it for you. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:14 | |
There's more to buying a car than knowing how to drive, | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
and they seem overwhelmed by it. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
Are you guys looking to make a purchase right away? | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
Yeah, Saturday we're looking at making a purchase | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
but we're going to look at a few other vehicles first. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
Just as they're about to test another cheap heap, | 0:48:30 | 0:48:33 | |
Jesse gets a call from Ephraim. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
With God's help, he reckons he's found them a good car | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
from a trustworthy man. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:42 | |
Amen. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:44 | |
I suppose we'll take a look at that. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:47 | |
We should go home and pray about it again. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
'Yeah, it's got good tyres on it. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
'It's just inspected, it's good till next September.' | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
Early the next morning, I got a phone call from Jesse. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:05 | |
He was on his way to the hospital with Elsie. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
Their baby wasn't due until Christmas, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
but six weeks earlier than expected, Elsie had gone into labour. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
Father, we pray for Jesse and Elsie, Father, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
on their way to the hospital, or maybe there already, for their baby to be born. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
Father, we pray in Jesus' name that the baby will be healthy. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:26 | |
Father, we pray against any extra expenses | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
that could be incurred in the hospital. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
Father, we pray that they will not do lots of tests, but would only do | 0:49:31 | 0:49:35 | |
what is necessary for a safe arrival of their new child. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:40 | |
In Jesus' name, amen. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
You can go do your chores, children. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:46 | |
PHONE RINGS | 0:49:46 | 0:49:48 | |
Hi, Jesse, it's Eph. | 0:49:48 | 0:49:50 | |
How is everything going? | 0:49:50 | 0:49:51 | |
'It's going good.' | 0:49:51 | 0:49:54 | |
Do they expect the baby to be born today? | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
'Yeah.' | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
OK. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:01 | |
How close is the baby to being born? | 0:50:01 | 0:50:04 | |
-Any idea? -'Very soon.' -Very soon, OK. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:08 | |
Who is that for? | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
Andrew, I have some letters for them. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
Would you like to take them? | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
Thank you very much, I will do that, that's really nice of you. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:25 | |
When we arrived at the hospital, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
Elsie had already given birth to a baby girl. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
They named her Hannah Rose. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
But she lived for only an hour. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
If it was God's will, no matter what the doctors or nurses do, | 0:50:45 | 0:50:50 | |
they will not revive that child. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
If that child were to go, | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
he's going to take it. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
# Jesus has taken a beautiful bird | 0:51:05 | 0:51:10 | |
# Out of our garden of love... # | 0:51:10 | 0:51:16 | |
The funeral was held two days later at Charity church. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:20 | |
Standing out amongst the parked cars, | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
I saw one solitary Amish buggy. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:30 | |
Elsie's parents and some of her sisters | 0:51:30 | 0:51:35 | |
have violated their Amish rules | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
and come this once to a non-Amish church. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:44 | |
Most of Jesse's family stayed away. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:49 | |
After the burial, there was a meal in the basement of the church. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:01 | |
But none of their Amish family stayed. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
It was a step too far for them. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
It was a hard day but God is working things... | 0:52:29 | 0:52:34 | |
things out, through this. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
It has really brought our families together. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
And we hadn't seen most of our families since spring. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:53 | |
So it was, I think God used that | 0:52:54 | 0:52:59 | |
to break down some... | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
some barriers that had been there, some walls. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
During the funeral your parents were there with you. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:12 | |
Yes, yes, they were. It was very special. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:18 | |
I got to sit beside my mum | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
and my dad, they were sitting next to me, | 0:53:21 | 0:53:26 | |
and that was very special, yeah. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:31 | |
And we prayed that | 0:53:38 | 0:53:40 | |
they would hear a good message.. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
and we prayed that some seeds... | 0:53:46 | 0:53:49 | |
I think some seeds have been sown. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
They heard the gospel. | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
This move towards evangelical Christianity | 0:54:20 | 0:54:25 | |
is splitting Amish families. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
And it's a conflict that's far from over. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
There's no chance Elsie and Jesse can ever go back to the way they were. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
The only hope they have of getting close to their families again | 0:54:39 | 0:54:44 | |
is if they too leave the Amish. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
With winter approaching, Ephraim's closing down the produce stand. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:03 | |
We're done with the produce for this year, and so we'll take it down | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
and put it in the barn until next spring | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
and we'll put it back up again. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:14 | |
His plan to live rent free all year round, has not worked out. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:18 | |
We need to come up with 800 a month yet for rent and utilities | 0:55:18 | 0:55:24 | |
for November, December, January, February and maybe March. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
We might be doing flowers in March ready so. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
Four months for sure, maybe five. That's nice. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
So far Ephraim's been relying on God to provide for his family's needs. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:40 | |
He's been kept going with envelopes of cash, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
given anonymously, | 0:55:44 | 0:55:46 | |
most probably by sympathetic members of his church. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:49 | |
But with God no longer providing, | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
Ephraim's got no other choice but to take a job | 0:55:54 | 0:55:57 | |
doing building work. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
I expected him to provide. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:02 | |
You know, OK, it's October 20th, 25th | 0:56:02 | 0:56:07 | |
and there's nothing, nothing, not a dollar! | 0:56:07 | 0:56:10 | |
21st was a Sunday, I thought, "Well, maybe someone's going to walk up | 0:56:12 | 0:56:16 | |
"and give me an envelope." | 0:56:16 | 0:56:17 | |
Monday morning I said, "OK, Lord, there's nothing here." | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
We can live for a little bit... | 0:56:23 | 0:56:25 | |
..we're going to have to see what we can do for a couple of weeks, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
but, you know, what's the plan? | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
We go to pay rent; the rent is 800 a month too. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
Giddy up, horsies! | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
As well as the paid work, | 0:56:37 | 0:56:39 | |
he's come up with another very Amish plan | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
to bring in a bit of money. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
I haven't done this in a while. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:45 | |
This is going to be fun. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
He's bought this horse cheap and plans to fatten it up | 0:56:50 | 0:56:53 | |
and sell it on for a profit. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:55 | |
As a bonus, the horse also gives him an alternative | 0:56:57 | 0:57:00 | |
when his car's not working. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
Ephraim has always been at odds with the culture he grew up in. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
But at the same time, he's never completely escaped the Amish. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:15 | |
Though he's left the church, his simple values are not so different to those he was raised with. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:21 | |
But still, the Amish elders see him as a threat. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
And not without reason. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:27 | |
If this move towards evangelical Christianity takes hold, | 0:57:29 | 0:57:34 | |
it could be the end of the Amish as they are now. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:38 | |
But it could also be the beginning of something new. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:57:53 | 0:57:56 |