Inspired - Personal Experience

From Amish Rules to the Living Word

A Lancaster County Amish Farmer’s Journey from Religion to a Personal Encounter with Jesus

Have you ever noticed the vast difference between reading or hearing about something and actually experiencing it for yourself? That truth became gloriously real to me in 1986.

It was 4:00 a.m. on a Lancaster County farm. Alone in the early-morning stillness, the heavy weight of conviction was overwhelming. In that moment I made a full surrender to Jesus Christ. Then a sudden peace and an exceeding joy rose from the depths of my being—joy so deep and pure I had never known anything like it, far beyond all I had experienced until that hour. A few hours later, when I opened the Bible, the very first words my eyes fell upon were from the Apostle John—words that described exactly what had just happened to me. This was no longer religion. This was reality. I had heard about Jesus for years. Now I had experienced the Word of life.

You Just Don’t Get It

Forty years later, on a Friday morning in August 2026, I sat across from John Smucker at a local coffee shop in the town of Intercourse - in the heart of Amish country. As the owner of Equipter, I was meeting with him to talk about a possible joint venture. As John began sharing about a recent trip he had taken, my heart was stirred and my mind went back to those days when I was still Amish. That conversation became a vivid reminder of what God had done in my life years earlier.

John is the owner and founder of Smucker’s Energy here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—a company that installs solar systems for businesses, Amish farms, and Amish properties. He had just returned from a trip to Israel with his wife and son.

When I asked how the trip had been, his voice lit up.

“It was an incredible experience,” he said. “You and your wife really need to go. You need to see and walk through those ancient places that have been preserved. Having the guides speak of the very spots where biblical events took place was amazing. I had read about them in the Bible for years, but this was completely different.”

Then he said again, “You and your wife really need to go!”

John told me how they took countless pictures and videos. When they came home and showed them to both sides of their extended family, the response was polite… but not what John expected. The wonder simply wasn’t there.

With quiet intensity he spoke words I hope I will never forget:

“You just don’t get it. You need to touch, feel, and smell. Without that, you just don’t get it. Until you are actually there and see for yourself—until you touch, feel, and smell—you just don’t get it.”

As John spoke, my heart leaped. The difference between looking at photographs of Israel and actually standing in those places is the same vast difference between hearing about Jesus and experiencing Jesus Christ for yourself.

My mind went back to my personal encounter with Jesus Christ and to the Scriptures I read just hours after that personal encounter, words that had left a deep and lasting impression on my heart.

That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled,
of the Word of life;
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
—1 John 1:1-3

That morning I knew exactly why Apostle John wrote those words. For the first time I was reading them not as distant history but as a description of what had just happened in my own heart. The apostles were not merely talking about Jesus—they had heard Him, seen Him, looked upon Him, and handled Him with their own hands. The eternal life that was with the Father had stepped into time and space, and they had touched it. Now I understood—because I had touched Him too.

The same shift from second-hand report to personal encounter is recorded in the Gospel of John. A Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well, left her water pot behind, and ran back to her town telling everyone what He had said. Many believed because of her testimony. But after the townspeople came out and heard Him themselves, they declared:

“Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”
—John 4:42

From Rules to Relationship

I lived the life many people still idealize: the horse and buggy, the plain clothes, the strict Ordnung, the community, the Amish traditions. Earlier I had been one of those Amish teenagers the world knows for “Rumspringa.” After that season I was married to my wife Lydia and remained deeply dedicated to the Amish religion we had been raised in. I had heard the Bible read. I had heard sermons about Jesus. I knew the stories. I kept the rules. Yet even while I carefully followed every tradition, an inner ache remained—an emptiness that no amount of outward obedience to the Amish traditions could fill.

John Smucker’s words about Israel became a living parable of the gospel.

You can read the Bible.
You can attend church.

You can keep every religious tradition of the Old Order Amish or any other system.
You can even look at the “pictures” of other people’s faith.

But until you personally touch, feel, and experience the living Christ—until the eternal life that was with the Father is manifested to you—you just do not comprehend it.

Have you only looked at the pictures of other people’s faith, or have you handled the Word of life for yourself?

That morning in 1986, years of striving to please God by zealously following a religious culture ended, and a personal relationship with Jesus began. The rules that had governed my Amish life in Lancaster County suddenly became secondary to the Person who had walked into my heart. The fellowship the Apostle John wrote about—fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ—became mine.

The Invitation Still Stands

Not everyone has the ability to visit Israel. There are no excuses not to draw near to Christ and have your own personal encounter with Him. The opportunity is open to the well-known and the unknown, the despised and the rejected. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord has access to the throne of grace and will find help in time of need.

You don’t need a plane ticket to Israel. You need a personal encounter with the risen Jesus. All can enter—without money!

Perhaps you have been busy, disappointed by past experiences, afraid of what full surrender might mean, or simply feel you are not good enough. Jesus still meets hungry hearts exactly where they are. He still manifests Himself. He still lets those who seek Him hear Him, see Him with the eyes of faith, and handle the Word of life.

If all you have ever known is religion—Amish, Catholic, Muslim, or otherwise—there is more. There is the real thing. There is the touch, the feel, the very real reality of Eternal Life.

You just don’t get it… until you experience Him for yourself.

Come, draw near, and experience Jesus Christ for yourself.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”
—Psalm 34:8“

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
—1 Peter 2:3

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
—Jeremiah 29:13