Amish Grace

I am presently reading the newly released book Amish Grace, an examination of the forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community after the horrific shooting of 10 girls while they were at school (5 died) at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania on October 2, 2006. I can't remember the last time that a book has caused me to tear up with emotion like this one has. I will write more about this book in the December edition of The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter, but suffice to say at this time that I was deeply moved to discover that the primary reason why the Amish believers were able to respond to such tragedy with forgiveness had to do with developing a culture where forgiveness was inevitable. And the two primary texts that helped develop this culture were the Bible (of course) and the book Martyrs Mirror, a thousand-page tome filled with accounts of early Christian martyrs and sixteenth century Anabaptist men and women who died for their faith. (Since this spring, The Voice of the Martyrs has been selling this book online.) These stories are commonly referred to in sermons in Amish services. As the authors of Amish Grace write, "In retelling the martyr stories, the Amish surround themselves with historical role models who not only submitted their lives to God but also extended forgiveness to those who were about to kill them" (page 100).

We will be selling Amish Grace online soon. Get it, together with Martyrs Mirror, and by God's grace, begin the process of creating your own culture of faithfulness before the Lord.