Freedom Can Be Found Anywhere | Eli Yoder

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Then I used to serve the devil, now I uh kind of make him nervous.
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Well I grew up old order Amish in Ohio, born and raised Amish.
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Grandfather was the main bishop, my mom's dad.
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I gotta change.
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That's the I'm gonna have to go out and just splatter my beers.
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You know, I don't want to, but I feel this urge I need to go.
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If you even get one vote no, let's say you have an enemy, which everybody does.
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Yeah.
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My dad had quite a few, so if it's one enemy don't like you, if he votes no, that one vote no now delays your shunning period for another two weeks, because we only go to church services in our own homes every two weeks.
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Because how I was thinking at 18 when I left.
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So I was like, okay, if I'm gonna go to hell, then I'm gonna go have fun to live how I want to live until I go to hell.
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Hey, beautiful people.
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Welcome to Escaping the Chains Podcast.
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I am your host, John Humphreys.
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Wait till you see what we have in store for you today.
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We are excited to have Eli Yoder with us today.
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Brother Eli, how are you doing?
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Doing fantastic.
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Thank you very much for having me.
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Tell us a little bit about yourself for those of us that don't know um your background or follow you on social media.
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Well, I grew up old order Amish in Ohio, born and raised Amish.
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Grandfather was the main bishop, my mom's dad.
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So I was expected to walk a fine line, you know, a lot of rules, a lot of legalism.
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And uh at age 18 I left the Amish to uh try to find purpose, trying to find peace.
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I just had enough of the power and control, so my dad's struggling with it, so I left at age 18, became a severe alcoholic after that because uh, well, I just couldn't find peace and purpose.
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I just kept struggling, but I thought that, well, I'd find happiness somewhere, you know, joy and happiness.
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But I hung around the ones that did all the the drugs and alcohol, and well, that also had an end.
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And I that's why I say, you know, having me on here just to share testimony on a Friday and Saturday night, I enjoy it more now because then I used to serve the devil.
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Now I uh kind of make him nervous.
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Yeah.
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Now we try to fight him.
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So so uh Eli is going to be speaking at our Friday night service that we do on Fridays, and you'll hear us talk about that from time to time.
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It's a service that we do here in Marion, and um, I think it is cool that we do it on Friday night because Friday night used to be um you were getting ready, you know what I mean?
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Getting ready to do something not holy.
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At least I wasn't.
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Yeah.
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Um when you say old or old old order Amish, what does that mean?
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Well, there's different levels of Amish, just like you would have denominational churches out here in the non-Amish world where you have, you know, Pentecostal, you got Catholic, you got Methodist, Nazarene, you got all these different denominations.
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The Amish are all different the same way.
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Most people from the outside looking in to have no idea that every Amish community has their own church ordinance with the rules.
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Uh baptized members agree and make an oath at baptism, which is 17 and 18 years old when you do that.
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And you swear and make an oath between God and the Amish church that you're gonna follow those rules in that church ordinance that you were born and raised in for the rest of your life.
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And we were one of the more conservative groups where you couldn't have bicycles, you which that's the reason I mentioned that is because that's what disqualified me for uh baptism in the Amish is I rode a bicycle.
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Most Amish allow bicycles, even e-bikes, you know, especially in Indiana, Homes County, Ohio.
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Well, so that I use that to kind of show people how they're all different.
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Some don't allow any power tools, some allow power tools for business use only, but not for personal use.
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So every Amish community is different with their own rules.
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So I would say our group that I'm from, we're only about a 1% that are that strict.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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So you were the they were the stri they were strict amongst the strict.
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Yes.
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In our world, you know what I mean?
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It that it all seems kind of strict to us.
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I had seen um I had seen a video where you said your brother, you have a twin brother.
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Yes.
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And he left and went to uh a more liberal Amish community.
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Is that is that what happened?
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Yeah, my twin brother and then my younger brother, that's a couple years younger than I am, both relocated to Tennessee tomorrow.
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Like we call them New Order Amish because they're allowed to have like solar power.
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They can have a phone shack at the end of the driveway, which in our group you couldn't have any phone at all.
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Yeah, you have to go to the English neighbors, we call everybody else English, yeah.
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That is not Amish.
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So we would go borrow their phone, but you couldn't own it or have it on your property.
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So down there, they felt like they were having experiencing a lot of freedom.
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Yeah.
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Because, hey, we can have power tools for construction, we can have a phone shack with solar power, and they had running water in their house.
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And the first time I went to visit them, I'm like, wait a minute, why did I leave the Amish?
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I mean, this is pretty cool because we were so strict.
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Yeah, and then he takes me in and shows me that that they have an actual shower, actual bathtub, indoor toilet in our community.
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You had to go to an outhouse.
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I'm like, wow, this is a huge difference compared to my old order group.
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So they clearly were experiencing a lot more freedom there when they relocated down there.
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Um so is he still there?
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Yes.
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Um, so what's the relationship like with him?
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With you not um would it be practicing Amish?
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Is that what you would call it?
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Like the culture or whatever, with you with you not being in that.
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Um, are you guys still close?
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Do you get a talk?
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Can you hang out?
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Everything like that.
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So you're you're are you welcome to go there and visit and stuff?
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For for his community, we can show up and we do every year, sometimes twice a year.
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I take my wife and my son down there, and we just kind of become Amish for the weekend and we eat their food and stay there, and and they're very welcoming.
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You know, they're not a strict, you know, back home in the old order Amish mom said, Hey, you have to have Amish clothes on in order to come out and visit me.
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Yeah, and you've got to park your car next door and walk over.
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So with my twin brother where he's at, they're not that strict.
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So I can drive in there, leave my car parked there all weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, help him.
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I even plowed his garden last year, yeah, eat their food at the same table, and it's pretty cool because they're not near as strict and not they're not as controlling out there.
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Controlling.
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Yeah.
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So let's get let's get into it because I I I want to unpack and hear your hear your whole testimony.
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I've um Zach, O T G Z Co kind of introduced us in it.
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So I I did a little bit of research, you know what I mean, watching your TikToks and things like that.
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But so let's talk about how did you get to a place like b before you left?
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Like what was life like and what was it that um what were the challenges?
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What were the things that you kind of missed?
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I can tell like in your t there there's things you still practice that you learn there.
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A lot of things I think we all should probably, especially for health purposes and food purposes and things like that.
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Right.
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Um, but so just kind of let's just let's just walk through your story as uh you know, from childhood to where you made the decision like I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna take off and experience life outside of here.
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Yeah, it was clearly a lifestyle that I still admire.
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I mean, I think the whole world can learn from the Amish lifestyle, just they don't depend on government resources from from anybody else.
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You know, they're they're dependent on their own resources, living off the land.
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They grow their own foods, you know, gardening, canning.
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Uh, we can all of our own meats.
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Uh the lifestyle is not why I left.
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When you say you can the meats, I do I want to touch on this.
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Okay.
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So I saw a video and you said like you didn't sit down and have like steak and hamburger.
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Like when they canned the meat, what was that like actually?
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So the pressure cookers we used was just like the vegetables.
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You put them all in there with your water and your salt, your ingredients, and then you s you turn the lid on and put it in a pressure cooker, and there's no electric.
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You know, you don't plug it in, it's just on a wood-burning stove.
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So when we butchered a cow and a hog and the chickens, we put that meat in chunks right in there the same way as the vegetables and can it.
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So we I never even heard of steak.
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That's wild.
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I never heard of a hamburger.
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So when mom had us kids go down the basement and bring that meat up, we took the lid off, dumped it in a pan, and warmed it up.
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It's the chunks of the chicken or hamburger, you know, it's never the kind of meat you would see out here.
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And and what's the so what's the shelf life on that too?
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Because that kind of five, six years.
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Five, six years.
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Yeah.
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That's crazy.
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Yeah.
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That is that's so wild to me.
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By the way, I still do that today.
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Yeah, I've seen I've seen some videos.
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He's pulling out corn from like, you know, I mean, 2020.
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You know.
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Um, so and we'll get back into the story, but like with that, so what was it like when like the first time somebody put a steak or a burger in front of you?
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What were you thinking?
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Yeah, I it was new to me, so I didn't even really know how to eat it.
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I mean, it was delicious, obviously, but it was just new.
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Yeah, it was delicious.
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I love going to, you know, restaurants when I first left and experiencing that kind of food, but it was all different than what I was used to.
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So it was definitely something that in the Amish, especially old order where I'm from, yeah, we had taxi drivers that would stop by restaurants or fast food.
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So I I had a little bit of outside food here and there, but not to the level of steak or you know, uh, some of the foods that you would have out here as far as the the restaurants like Applebee's and stuff like that.
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Yeah.
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All right, let's continue on the story now.
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I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you from time to time.
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Some of that, some of it fascinates me.
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I think just the shelf life alone, it's like, what?
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Right.
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You know what I mean?
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Because I've always wondered, like, how do people live in the 1800s?
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Like they they had it figured out better than we've got it figured out now.
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But yeah, I mean, as far as the the life lifestyle, you know, at a young age, clearly I thought obeying the church, you know, mom and dad got baptized.
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All of all of the elders, you know, my aunts, uncles, everybody at that age got baptized, and they followed the church rules.
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I saw them get shunned.
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Now, at a very young age, just because we were Amish doesn't mean we don't have the same issues.
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Like my dad, he would he abused us physically a lot.
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And so that sucked.
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And I always thought, I'm always wondered, are other kids being beaten?
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You know, I was told I was bad, you know, so I deserved it.
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So lots of times I couldn't sit for you know a week because I was beaten that bad.
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So sometimes I would wonder if other kids are also being disciplined that way.
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But I never viewed it as abuse.
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I saw mom get beat to a pulp a few times, but I just wanted to kind of bring that out as how from the outside looking in, people may view the Amish as, well, they got it all together, they're good Christians, they follow the Bible, but my dad had a lot of depression.
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He was an alcoholic, and I saw him not be able to follow the church rules a whole lot.
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So at a very young age, it was embarrassing to watch dad in church have to go sit separate because he was shunned.
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He couldn't eat with baptized members, and you're you're kind of So why was he was it because of the drinking or yeah okay.
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Yeah, he instead of helping him and say, Hey, how can we pray for you?
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you know, to help him through his depression and alcoholism, he got shunned for it.
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Which while looking back now, every time he got shunned, he it just added to his depression.
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He would just drink more.
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It didn't help him get delivered from it.
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So it spiraled out of control to where the Amish eventually would send him to a what call what's called an Amish counseling facility.
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But that's just Amish minded.
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You know, you gotta submit to the system, submit to the leaders, the bishop, and all of that.
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So they program you that way rather than true deliverance to help you from it.
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So when he came home from that, he was a bull, he was like a raging bull.
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It was even worse.
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So sometimes he would flip I would it sounds bad, it's my dad.
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If he came in the front door, I tried to go out the back door.
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Yeah.
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That's just the kind of mentality.
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So when you say shunned, I that's another thing I think sometimes on the outside, because I always thought shunned was like you were not allowed in, but so you could still operate in the community, you were just kind of pushed away.
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How does that work?
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He couldn't do any business during the shunning.
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So you can't take any money from a baptized member, you can't can't take any food from a baptized member, which means my mom.
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So when I was a little boy, I saw dad sitting in a corner, he had to prepare his own meal, he had to get his own silverware.
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Now, us kids could help him get giving that because we wasn't baptized yet.
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But he had to eat separately, and in church he had to eat separately.
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So he was always they they do this to make you feel shameful until you show remorse.
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If you show remorse, then they'll vote on your forgiveness, and then you're taken back as a church.
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So they vote on your forgiveness.
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If you even get one vote no, let's say you have an enemy, which everybody does.
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Yeah.
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My dad had quite a few.
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So if it's one enemy that don't like you, if he votes no, that one vote no now delays your shunning period for another two weeks because we only go to church services in our own homes every two weeks, because the other district goes the in-between week.
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So now two more weeks is added just because one of your enemies said no, nope, I'm not voting yes, so he's gonna have to wait two more weeks.
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So my dad had go through all of that.
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So basically, you didn't have real any real interaction with somebody else that was baptized.
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Right.
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So there's no making money.
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So my you're you're kind of isolated because you're not you're you can't do anything, you can't do no business.
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Yeah, you can go out and plow your field, you can do your own work and it's done on the farm.
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You're free to do that.
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But you can't go to any of the community events, you can't participate in buying, selling, go into an auction.
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Uh, even a barn raising, you they can't touch the board you're gonna lift up to put a nail in it.
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So you can't even be part of the barn raising, and you just gotta stay home and you're just kind of isolated.
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So shunning is pretty brutal.
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Yeah, it sounds like it would be mentally mentally tough, to be honest, you know.
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Because you can't leave, right?
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Like if you leave, then you got a whole other set of problems.
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So it's not like you could just take off and go hang out outside of the yeah, you know what I mean, the network.
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And then again, every community is different.
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Some of the new order Amish are not as strict on the shunning and how they practice shunning, but they all have a shunning phase that where they want you to feel shameful of what you've done if you broke any of the church rules.
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And drinking was clearly not okay in any Amish church.
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So they would always shun practice shunning if somebody was caught drinking alcohol.
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Yeah, I think that's something that we want to touch on too.
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Like, so we're talking about Eli's story, um, and we're talking about like the circumstances you were raised in.
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It's not a reflect not all of it's a reflection of a whole, you know, a whole entire people.
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It's just like with anything else.
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How how did how so so how did you get alcohol then?
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If if if if it wasn't really welcome in the community, how did they get how were they getting it?
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Did he make it himself or well mom couldn't make any more homemade wine for church, you know, communion reasons because my dad was an alcoholic.
00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:02.399
He used to get it that way.
00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:04.240
But so you have communion wine, I got you.
00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:04.639
Yes.
00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:08.879
Now, every Amish family is known to do construction.
00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.759
So my dad did construction for non-Amish people, and that's how those are the ones that would hook him up with the alcohol.
00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:20.879
You know, go to the regular drive-thru, go to the gas station and get his uh Bud Light or Budweiser, whatever he liked, and he that's how he got his alcohol.
00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:22.240
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:25.679
I was when I first got sober, I was house setting for my friend.
00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:32.879
I think I was staying in a motel and he uh Aaron Euler, my guy, and um he had me house sit for him.
00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:44.159
Well, while I was house setting, he had a pool and everything, but he had these huge um windows in a milksh uh maybe it's a milk barn, but the glass was so heavy he couldn't get a construction company to mess with it.
00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:49.759
So the Amish were working on it, and so the Amish were out there working on it while I'm house sitting.
00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:54.320
So, you know, I'm I'm off the streets maybe two months, you know what I mean?
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:58.000
And our interactions were very interesting because two totally different worlds.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:00.960
I had no shame in anything, you know what I mean?
00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:08.879
And uh we had my so my friend Aaron was a sheriff's deputy, so he had a sheriff's deputy, uh he had a sheriff's car in the driveway.
00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:11.120
This family pulls up all crazy.
00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:20.240
So the Amish had the one guy that was driving them around and would use the phone and take care of stuff, and then they were working and they were their work ethics crazy.
00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:26.240
They were out there pulling something that construction companies didn't even want to mess with because that glass was so heavy and thick.
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:48.240
So this family pulls up in the driveway, and the kid is fighting with the parents, and the kid is probably he was bigger than me, and he's in the back seat, he's swinging on everybody, and they pulled up in the driveway because they saw a uh deputy's, you know, a sheriff's deputy's car there, and the um, so everybody comes running out in the interaction.
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:55.759
So a local cop pulls up, so you have me who's been sober for, you know what I mean, eight weeks at best.
00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.840
You've got the guy who is driving them around who's a totally different, you know what I mean?
00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:10.240
He's and then you've got them, and they're just like, you know what I mean, and then you've got the cop, and then you've got this family that's like, we can't do anything with this kid because he keeps swinging on us.
00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:19.039
And I was looking around and I called, I talked to Aaron later, and I was like, dude, you're never gonna believe like that you couldn't make this up for a Saturday night live skit, man.
00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:23.840
There was because there were, I mean, maybe there was five or six of them, and then you had the police officer.
00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.440
He had no idea, he rolled up and was probably like, What is going on here?
00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:35.440
Because I'm out there in sweats and my hat tilted, and then they got this kid swinging on people, and then you got the homage guys out there.
00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:41.360
But but what I like, what was interesting is they weren't like they weren't like afraid or anything.
00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:43.120
They were out there like, oh, what's going on?
00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:43.840
You know what I mean?
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:45.039
Trying to get the story.
00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:53.600
So there's not really a point to that story, other than I always wondered what it was like for that that city cop to pull up to that scene and be like, dude, this isn't this can't be good.
00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:56.000
I don't know what's going on here.
00:16:56.399 --> 00:17:04.319
So, so um, so that so then uh so alcohol is something that can obviously be a problem in the Amish community, just like we have out here.
00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:07.680
Is there is is drugs or anything like that anything that's really heard of?
00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:09.440
Yeah, it happens in certain areas.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:17.200
We we heard the the stories of certain communities where they had those issues where you got some kind of outside influence to to even grow uh the marijuana plants.
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:22.319
You know, there was a guy that got busted for that in our community, and uh so he had to, he obviously got shunned and he stopped doing it.
00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:23.279
But it happens, you know.
00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.000
We're we were humans just like any but any other culture we had issues.
00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.839
So yeah, this I think the shunning thing's interesting because I always wondered.
00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:44.240
I al I always, you know, you hear about that, and we have a way that we use it out here, like, oh, you know, you've been shunned, which is completely I guess I thought that Zach, I thought that's kind of what that was too, is like if you got shunned by the Amish community, you're out, but it's not really a lot of people thought that's a shunning word.
00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:46.559
Now Eli Yoder can never return.
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:50.559
But shunning is just practice for baptized members that didn't obey all the rules.
00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:55.920
So if you were to return, if you're like one day you woke up and you're like, I'm gonna return, would they take you back?
00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:57.359
Depends on which community.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:01.680
For my community, it's an absolute no, because I've gotten tattoos and they believe that's an unforgivable sin.
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.480
And another sin they believe is unforgivable is a divorce.
00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.559
So if anybody wanted to join the Amish in my group, you couldn't if you had any of those.
00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:13.519
But there's a lot of new order Amish where if I'd have left my sleeve down where they can't see my tattoos, then you can join them.
00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:15.839
So it just depends on which district.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.720
Zach, we'd be screwed on the tattoos thing, Bob.
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:26.079
So it can anybody jo what's if somebody was interested on the outside, would they be able to like join the Amish?
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:27.039
Like, how does that work?
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:38.160
Yeah, it it's really hard, obviously, but there was one individual that made it, and he he went over to uh southern Ohio and became a deacon, and he ended up with 17 children.
00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:45.680
He's the only one to this day that I remember successfully joining the Amish, had a large family, and even became a preacher and then a deacon later.
00:18:45.920 --> 00:19:03.279
So I've seen I'd say a dozen or more that tried it and then failed because the one was 44 years old, he joined the Old Order Amish in Maine, and as soon as he was baptized and they cut him off from having his English family visit, they they were gonna cut him off, and he said, Well, that's not love.
00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:04.880
You didn't tell me this before I joined you.
00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:06.079
So then he ended up leaving.
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:09.200
He actually reached out on my TikTok and had me a line up a driver and picked him up and left.
00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:09.680
Really?
00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:10.400
Yeah.
00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:11.119
Oh.
00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:13.599
Good stuff.
00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:18.160
So, so with your father, you're you're kind you kind of have this stuff going on.
00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:29.680
So I'm assuming in this community when it comes to like the the punishment, it's probably not something that do the kids get around and kind of talk about, like, hey, does your dad or is it something you just what's in your house stays in your house kind of thing?
00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.119
Yeah, they try to keep it that way.
00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:37.759
I mean, people do talk, I mean, everybody other kids saw my dad being shunned, so me and my siblings got bullied a lot in school.
00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:39.200
Uh oh, your dad's a drunk.
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:40.160
And so that sucked.
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:42.319
You know, you had bullies because of our dad being different.
00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:45.839
We didn't really know of any other Amish men that had such a drinking problem.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:47.680
At least they wouldn't being shunned for it.
00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:50.960
So dad was kind of the the black sheep in the community for that.
00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:51.920
Yeah.
00:19:52.480 --> 00:20:01.920
So as so as you're going through this, you get older, um like at what point were you kind of like, I don't know if this is the life this is the place that I want to be.
00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.200
I remember as early as 12 years old, I thought, I don't want to be here.
00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:09.200
I'd like to try the outside life, but a great fear grips your heart when you think that.
00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:18.640
Because since childhood, innocent young minded, you know, one and a half, two years old, you're taught that if you're not Amish, you can't get to heaven, you can't please God.
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:20.240
So you have to be Amish.
00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:25.920
And so, therefore, when I had those thoughts of I want to change my lifestyle, this sucks.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:26.720
I want to leave.
00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:29.279
Oh, I can't do that because I can't, I'd go to hell.
00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:29.599
Yeah.
00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:32.240
So that was my mindset at a very young age.
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:39.920
And then even up into the teenage years when I was working with dad, where we started kind of having a better relationship, breaking rules with him, even drinking with him.
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:44.160
Even then, I'm like, man, you know, he's living like that.
00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:45.519
Who cares if I left?
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:51.839
I've heard of stories of other people leaving, so then my mind, my mindset kind of shifted to, well, others tried it.
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:58.160
But then again, in church, some of the ones that tried it and maybe got killed in an accident, the preachers would use that as a sermon.
00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:06.640
And it was like fear gripping you, like God killed that person in a car accident because they left and broke away from the promise, the oath they made at baptism.
00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.200
So then that would really strike you with fear, like, oh man, I don't want to get killed in a car crash.
00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:24.799
On a smaller scale, like there's churches, you know, the westernized church, uh, there's some of them that will do like, oh, this person left our church, and you know, now they work at Burger King.
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:45.839
Like they have these things that they do to where it's like, oh, if I leave, and it's probably not as intense because, like, you know, you can kind of come and go from church, you know, it wasn't raised, but um, I think it's a tactic that you see a lot of people that want control, even if it's unintentional, you know, but they want control, so it's like, oh, if you leave here, you're never gonna be as close to God.
00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:54.640
You know, you'll you'll never um your kids aren't safe if you leave here, you know, like your whole everything will just be a disaster in your life if you walk away from this.
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:58.240
Yeah, it's a fear tactic that the enemy will use to try to control you.
00:21:58.480 --> 00:21:59.599
So, for example, this sounds bad.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.160
But this is how I was thinking at 18 when I left.
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:09.039
So I was like, okay, if I'm gonna go to hell, then I'm gonna go have fun and live how I want to live until I go to hell.
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:12.160
That was my mindset at age 18 when I finally left.
00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:12.960
Yeah.
00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:14.960
So now you're working with your dad?
00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:16.400
Is it construction?
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:16.880
Yeah.
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:21.200
Okay, because I had seen on the I had seen on one of your videos you said you did some farming too.
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.599
Like, so is there do you do all do all of it, or is there teams of like construction?
00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:30.559
These guys do the construction, these guys do the do the farming, or is it all everybody does everything?
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.680
Yeah, at the breakfast table in the mornings, we got our assignment for the day.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:35.680
I was usually the plowboy at a young age.
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:45.119
But when I got up in the upper teenage years just before leaving the Amish, Dad always chose me to go work with him because I was the only one that wouldn't tell on dad.
00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:53.839
Most of my brothers had this guilty conscience of God's gonna do something bad to me if I don't tell mom that dad was drinking again or whatever the stuff dad was doing.
00:22:54.079 --> 00:23:02.720
But for example, I went with dad one time and it's it's lunchtime, and he's sitting all the way over by himself and he has this thing over his head, and I'm like, what is he doing?
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:17.279
He gave me my lunchbox, so I'm eating and I'm curious, and I snug up behind him, and he has this cassette player, and he has these these earmuffs on, and then I look at this little album he has with this disc, he's jamming out the Dolly Parton.
00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:20.640
I'm like, okay, he's definitely going to hell because I was still younger, you know.
00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:25.039
I'm like, oh man, God can't be happy with him listening to Dolly Parton.
00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:33.039
But I saw dad starting to have fun, like he was listening to stuff like that, worldly music, and I'm like, man, I want to do that too.
00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:41.039
But then I didn't tell on dad, so dad started thinking, realizing, hey, every time I take Eli with me, he doesn't let the cat out of the bag, he keeps the secret.
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.880
So then he that's why he sometimes said, Eli's not going to the fields today.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:46.079
He's gonna go help me today.
00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:55.599
Yeah, but he didn't have any other Amish crew helping him because of his drinking, he didn't want to get busted, so it was always just me and him doing little jobs like a deck or a porch, yeah, you know, roofing.
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:58.799
We did a lot of roofing, you know, barn siding, stuff like that.
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.279
The Amish are crazy on a roof.
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:04.880
I've seen him up there in the snow on a on a straight slant.
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:06.720
Just it's like, how are they doing that?
00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:07.599
You know what I mean?
00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.279
There's some of the I don't know any other culture that has a work ethic like they do.
00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:12.640
Oh, it's wild.
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:16.000
Icy snow and just walking around on, like, you know what I mean?
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:26.319
Like I'm walking around on I'm it I'm in more danger walking on a sidewalk in the snow of falling than them up on a roof where you know I mean, if one slip and you're you're done.
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:28.240
You're going for a ride first.
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:31.279
So so so he was experimenting.
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:33.359
Um, I guess that's what you call it.
00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:36.960
It seems like he had learned some things that he liked outside of the culture.
00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:44.000
And um, so it sounds like were you guys getting so were you getting closer to, or you know, was it like working with him and stuff?
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:45.839
Like, did your bond get better?
00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.000
Yeah, there was good days and there's bad days.
00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:50.240
If he was having a bad day, you didn't want to be around him.
00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:50.559
Yeah.
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:55.599
But the good days, I try to hang on to those good memories because he would do some some wild stuff.
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:58.960
For example, he told me one day, we we even had our lunch packed.
00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:03.759
He goes, The uh English people that we're working for are not home.
00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:04.640
Let's go watch television.
00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:06.160
So we went and watched television.
00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:12.880
And that's the day I realized my dad has a lot of experience flipping through channels.
00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:13.920
Like he had this thing figured out.
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:20.400
He goes to a sports channel where they were doing the dirt bikes, you know, all the little hills, and then you get down and you turn and come back.
00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:24.559
And then he looks at me and says, When you were on the roof today, did you see that dirt bike down in there?
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:27.359
I'm like, Well, yeah, but what are you getting at here?
00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:31.359
And then he says, We're gonna go try to do exactly what we're seeing on that TV.
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:34.960
So he goes out there and it has dust on it, and he tries to fire this thing up.
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:36.000
It wouldn't start for 20 minutes.
00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:37.839
I'm like, Oh, this is God saving them.
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:48.160
You know, but then my dad gets it fired up, and oh my goodness, my daddy takes off with this thing, and there was no brake lights.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:26:16.559
He saw a dip in the field, and he was full blast going at this thing, and he went airborne, and then my dad separates from this dirt bike, his hat flew off, his beard sticking behind his neck, and he goes down below, and I'm running because I see dad separate from the dirt bike, I'm running full speed to him, and during that running to get to him to where I can see down below the hill, I'm thinking, how am I gonna explain this to the Amish church and my family?
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:23.279
And then I clear the hill, and my dad is down below with his hands up, going, Yeah, that was awesome.
00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:28.240
And you know, he was drunk, obviously, he was drinking, and uh it didn't hurt him.
00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:29.920
And I say, Hey, how about the dirt bike?
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:32.400
My dad goes, Ah, we'll work for free, we'll work that off.
00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:35.359
But that's just who he was.
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:40.880
He he loved having fun, so I I just I I had some fun, happy moments with him.
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:46.319
Even going to a uh, he called it a worldly restaurant in Mount Victory, Ohio.
00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:50.240
There was a restaurant, and he says, Hey, uh, today we're not gonna eat our lunch mom pack.
00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:54.799
We're gonna go ahead and just go to the worldly restaurant and I'm gonna introduce you to shrimp.
00:26:54.880 --> 00:26:56.480
I'm like, What is shrimp?
00:26:56.720 --> 00:26:57.519
And that's what he did.
00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:00.960
I got me a big old plate of shrimp, and everything's tasting really good.
00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:06.400
He's he's one bud light after another, and then these pilots, there's a little airstrip behind the restaurant.
00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:12.960
So these little Cessna's come flying in, the pilots come in, they're sitting next to us, and they were kind of you know eyeballing us, you know, Amish people sitting there.
00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:14.079
They thought that was pretty cool.
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:16.400
My dad gets real talkative when he's drinking.
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:18.000
So he strikes up a conversation.
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:25.920
I'm still just enjoying my shrimp, and and all at once dad says, Hey, uh, us Amish people have never had an airplane ride.
00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:27.519
Like, oh no.
00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:30.400
Of course, what does the one pilot respond with?
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:34.319
It would be an honor to take an Amish guy on an airplane ride.
00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:35.440
So here we go.
00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:40.640
I'm I'm like satisfied with this worldly shrimp, and all at once I feel like the shrimp's not about to come up.
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:41.680
I was about to barf.
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.119
I'm like, God's gonna strike us dead if I go on an airplane, right?
00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:53.119
And so here we go, and we go in the airplane, and I can't hear a thing dad is saying up there because these little sessions are really loud.
00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:58.640
Yeah, but then all at once, as the plane turns sideways, I'm leaning on the glass, terrified, thought I was gonna die.
00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.200
I notice something that looks really familiar.
00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:03.359
It's our Amish farm.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:12.240
Dad told the pilot to fly above the farm, and we're looking down, and out of nowhere, here comes my younger brother out of the barn between the house and the bar, and he's waving at us.
00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:16.240
He has no clue that his brother and his daddy are in that airplane.
00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:19.359
So some of those wild stories like that, I'll never forget.
00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:21.839
But look who my dad was.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:28.960
Like, I thought he'd go to hell for this stuff, and I knew that if the church found out, dad is in big trouble.
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:34.160
But I still to this day, the church has no idea about the airplane because I never told anybody.
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:40.240
And if they find out, it means they're breaking the rules because they're not supposed to be watching this anyway, right?
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:42.000
That's right.
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:46.400
So so you're starting, so you're getting good memories, though.
00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:47.119
You know what I mean?
00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:48.079
Like it's happening.
00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:54.160
So um, and so your mom, was she still pretty strict and just like, did he frustrate her?
00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:55.279
Like, what was that like?
00:28:55.599 --> 00:29:00.960
That was a lot of arguments because she knew he was doing things he shouldn't have been, and she questioned me in depth when I got home.
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:02.240
Hey, what all was dad doing?
00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:03.200
And I'd just be tight-lipped.
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:05.279
I'm like, no, nope, I ain't saying nothing.
00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:07.920
Never once did I see mom shunned.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:08.319
Not once.
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:10.559
She see her daddy was the bishop, my grandfather.
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:12.160
So she walked a fine line.
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:15.680
She was obedient to the church, all the rules, but dad was the opposite.
00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:17.920
Like, they were so night and day difference.
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.119
I often wondered, like, how how did they even get together?
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:31.279
I mean, what made him the only thing I figure out is because my grandfather started this community in 1951, and he wanted to preserve what he started with those rules.
00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:35.200
So he he made a rule that you can't go to any other Amish community to date.
00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:37.359
So my dad had limited options, obviously.
00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:37.599
Yeah.
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:38.559
So that's the only thing.
00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:40.640
How does that work in the old order?
00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:43.759
Does the does the young man decide who he wants to marry?
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:45.519
Do is there a lot of family influence?
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:46.640
Like, how does that work?
00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:48.640
Yeah, you gotta stay within your community.
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:51.039
You can choose whoever you want, even first cousins in my group.
00:29:51.119 --> 00:30:00.079
You can marry your first cousin, second cousin, you just can't go to the new order Amish and get the worldly Amish that have more that allow more worldly things like power tools or battery tools.
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:03.599
So the the women have tinier caps in some of the new order Amish.
00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:07.279
We were strictly forbidden to date any girl in the New Order Amish because of that.
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:08.400
Oh, I see.
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:13.279
So there was obviously then friction with that with the two different personalities.
00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:16.319
Um so so you've been working with him.
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:20.720
At what point do you make the decision, like, okay, I'm leaving?
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:32.559
And and was it like, and how long did it take you to like come actually whether I don't know if you packed your bags, but like if you packed, like how long did it take thinking about like really committing to it and then actually going?
00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:47.599
Yeah, it took a long time to plan that out because I wanted to leave when I was 16 and I thought I was going to, but the person that I approached and asked was working at the pallet shop next door to our farm, and he he broke the news to me, I can't help you while you're 16.
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:48.720
You gotta be 18.
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:50.559
But when you're 18, get back with me.
00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:50.880
Yeah.
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:55.680
So I had to hang in there until I was 18, but I knew that I had been through enough.
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:59.680
I'm ready to escape all of it, I'm ready to start over fresh, start a new life.
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.000
And so he he stayed to his word.
00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:09.119
As it approached closer to 18 years of age, I told him that I'm serious, I'm gonna leave because the baptism classes lasted eight weeks.
00:31:09.440 --> 00:31:12.960
So it's every other Sunday, so it's a total of 16, 16 weeks.
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:18.319
And I could not keep the rules the way the way the rest of my age group did.
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:22.799
You know, I got in trouble for just leaving the top button on my collar open.
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:26.799
That was too worldly because it shows more of a lay-down collar.
00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:27.039
Yeah.
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:34.400
And I even had my cousin in another community make me a shirt with a three-inch cuff at the end of the shirt, and ours is only an inch and a half.
00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:39.839
So I'm breaking dress coat rules, and then the the final icing on the cake was me riding a bicycle.
00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:46.559
I grabbed it off the English neighbor's trash pile, and I was really wanting to know what it's like to ride a bicycle.
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.519
I know of other Amish to have bikes, I want one too.
00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:57.839
And then when I questioned the church about the other Amish going to heaven with bikes, and but we can't, that was the greater sin to question the church.
00:31:58.000 --> 00:31:58.640
See what I mean?
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:02.240
Yeah, you're not allowed to question your authority, the bishop and the elders.
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:06.079
And so at that point they announced to me that I disqualified for baptism.
00:32:06.160 --> 00:32:09.200
And I was just turning 18, and that's when I said, that's it.
00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:10.319
So if I'm leaving now.
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:19.039
You disqualifying, does that mean just for that class, or does that mean so so that means you would have had to wait longer to get They only do it in the fall.
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:30.480
So I would have had to wait a whole year, which is humiliating to wait with the next group because I'm older than the Because you all grew up together too, so everybody obviously knows like you kind of got Amish held back, I guess, is what that is.
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:30.720
Yeah.
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:36.559
And the reason it was hum humiliating for me is because nobody had ever disqualified for Amish baptism in my community.
00:32:36.640 --> 00:32:38.400
So I'm the first guy disqualifying.
00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:39.759
And I'm like, yeah, I'm out now.
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:41.279
I'm this is this is too embarrassing.
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:41.920
I'm just gonna leave.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:43.599
So that's when I got a hold of my buddy.
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:48.720
I said, hey, I'm definitely leaving now, and I proved to him, you know, I'm gonna be 18, so he picked me up.
00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:50.319
Did you talk to your parents about it?
00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:50.640
No.
00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:51.440
Before you left?
00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:56.319
No, my community, like I say, we're like a 1% with strict conservatism.
00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:07.279
And we don't have the roomspringer, like you see in television shows portraying the Amish as having a season of running around roomspringer, selling wild oats, experiencing the party life and driving a car.
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:08.640
We didn't get that opportunity.
00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:11.039
So you have to plan your escape in secret.
00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:22.400
If they find out you're having thoughts of leaving, they'll ship you off to another state in another community where they call it like the Amish counseling facilities, and they'll break you down until you submit to the church.
00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:25.279
So I was fearful of that, so I kept it top secret.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:26.960
I didn't even tell my own twin brother.
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:27.440
Yeah.
00:33:27.599 --> 00:33:30.160
So I had to keep it all secret until I was ready to leave.
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:31.200
So how'd you get out?
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:35.839
The neighbor helps, but like what was the Well, I had to wait till Sunday morning because I was in a youth group.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:38.000
So the youth group leaves last.
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:41.200
So mom and dad, the younger siblings, all went to church.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:42.960
Now it's just me and my twin brother.
00:33:43.119 --> 00:33:44.880
So now I don't have to worry about them.
00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:47.359
I just gotta worry about my twin brother, which is a lot easier.
00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:51.599
So I had my uh buddy lined up to meet me there at nine o'clock.
00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:54.799
So I looked at my twin brother and I said, Hey, I'm not feeling good.
00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:56.559
Well, you go to church no matter if you're sick.
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:57.680
I don't care if you're throwing up.
00:33:57.759 --> 00:33:59.279
You there you just don't skip church.
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:00.720
And he goes, Wait a minute.
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:02.480
You're gonna leave the Amish, ain't you?
00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:03.599
See, twins got bond.
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:03.920
Yeah.
00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:06.799
They got a we had a great bond, and I said, Yep, you're right.
00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:08.079
What are you gonna do, stop me?
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:09.039
I said, You should leave too.
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:09.440
Come on.
00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:10.320
Well, he had a girlfriend.
00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:11.199
I knew he ain't gonna leave.
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:12.719
He's got an oldest girlfriend, you know.
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:15.840
So he he said, Well, I kind of suspect that you've been acting a little different.
00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:18.079
I'm like, Well, as long as you're not gonna stop me.
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:21.760
So he went on to church, and my driver pulled up next door in a pallet shop and off.
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:23.920
Did he never say anything about it?
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:24.880
My my brother?
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:25.440
Yeah.
00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.559
Well, he did, once he went to the new order, Amish, where he's at now.
00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:31.199
But at the time he didn't he didn't run off and tell them or anything.
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:31.679
Nope.
00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:34.960
Well, he clearly, they clearly discovered it when he came to church by himself.
00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:36.719
Eli ate with yeah.
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.400
They knew then that something was up.
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:39.599
So what was that like?
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:50.639
So you just take off and you have this whole world and all these things you've been taught, and now you're surrounded, you know, you're surrounded by everything.
00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:51.679
What was that like?
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:52.880
It was a culture shock.
00:34:52.960 --> 00:35:02.480
And actually, to be honest with you, it was enough of a culture shock that I thought I'd probably end up coming back because it was so anxiety just going into town.
00:35:02.559 --> 00:35:04.239
There's people everywhere, there's cars everywhere.
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:11.840
I go into the store and there's you know, we might have gone to the store twice in the entire year just to get salt and ingredients and flour and mason jars to can.
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:18.400
Other than that, we didn't, but when I went, when I left the Amish and now in the city with my buddy, I'm like, man, I don't know if I can do this.
00:35:18.639 --> 00:35:19.440
What town were you in?
00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:20.639
Kenton, Ohio.
00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:21.599
Kenton, Ohio?
00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:21.920
Yeah.
00:35:22.159 --> 00:35:26.880
Small town, you know, barely 2,000 people, but it was overwhelming for me.
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:27.440
Yeah.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:31.760
But the the biggest shock was so I wanted a car.
00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:33.760
I want to know what it's like to drive.
00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:36.320
My buddy told me, he said, uh, you gotta wait.
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:37.199
Just be patient.
00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:48.079
I know you use your cash, you saved, and you bought this car, but you're gonna have to wait until I help you learn how to drive, and then we gotta get tags, we gotta get insurance, you gotta get your license.
00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:53.440
Well, I couldn't even get my license because my group doesn't allow social security numbers.
00:35:53.599 --> 00:35:59.760
So now they're telling me I gotta go get a birth certificate and an ID in order to apply for a social security number.
00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:04.320
But then when I went to get a birth certificate, they said, Well, you've got to have an ID and a social security number.
00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:05.280
You've got to prove who you are.
00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:10.239
And I'm like, So this took nine months for me to get all this worked out.
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:14.239
I ended up using my Amish school report card, which was issued by the state of Ohio.
00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:16.000
They report all that back to Ohio.
00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:21.039
And so I had to use that to prove that I was born and raised Amish before I could get the ball rolling.
00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:23.599
But in the meantime, I'm getting impatient.
00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:24.320
This is my car.
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:27.360
And the Amish, if you own a buggy, you're gonna hop on it and you're gonna go.
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:28.239
So that's what I did.
00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:30.239
My buddy was gone on a Saturday.
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:32.880
I hop in the car, it's automatic.
00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:34.559
I'll just put it in drive, and I'm driving.
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:36.239
Oh man, I thought I was cool.
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:39.039
I turned that music up, I'm jamming out to Spice Girls.
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:40.960
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:47.920
And then I go around this buggy, and I realize it's my crush from school.
00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:49.199
Her name was Edna.
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:52.639
And I'm like, she's gotta see who this is.
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:54.400
I want her to see my freedom.
00:36:54.480 --> 00:37:03.679
So I made sure I was waving and I was so distracted, I drove that car right off the curve, rolled that car, totaled it.
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:09.840
When it came to a stop, it was still the Spice Girls were still asking me in the song, tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:11.119
I'm like, I don't want this now.
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:11.440
Yeah.
00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:13.039
So I learned the hard way.
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:18.880
I realized that if I want to make it out here, I'm gonna have to listen to my buddy that you know wanted to help me out.
00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:23.280
I can't just because I don't have Amish rules, yeah, don't mean I don't have, you know, yeah.
00:37:23.920 --> 00:37:25.280
We got a set of rules out here.
00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:27.039
The government for sure does.
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:28.639
Did Edna see you?
00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:31.199
Oh, she saw me, but she also saw me once I rolled.
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:32.719
So she was definitely staying.
00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:35.280
Yeah, I'm not staying in the first order.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:38.480
Well, I was convinced at that point Edna probably thought, well, God's punishing him.
00:37:38.639 --> 00:37:39.599
I'm not leaving the Amish.
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:41.119
Yeah, she's done, she was done for.
00:37:41.199 --> 00:37:44.639
She ain't never leaving, she won't even go to the store again after seeing that.
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.239
Did you so what was communication like with your family after you left?
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:52.320
I didn't go back for many years because I knew that they were heartbroken.
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:54.239
I knew my mom, you know, she was bawling.
00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:56.320
My brother even told me she was bawling for days.
00:37:56.480 --> 00:37:56.639
Yeah.
00:37:56.880 --> 00:37:59.920
Because she believed that, you know, I just gave myself over to the devil.
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:05.280
In her world, you basically just entered hell, like basically, right?
00:38:05.519 --> 00:38:05.920
Yeah.
00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:07.039
What was it like?
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:08.239
So so you said years.
00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:08.880
What was it like?
00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:11.440
Who was the first person you got a hold of?
00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:16.400
Um who was the first family member that you got a hold of after you left?
00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:18.800
He actually got a hold of me and it was my dad.
00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:25.920
I got a job at the pallet shop right next door because my buddy worked there, and the boss told him to let me know that he'll give me a job.
00:38:26.079 --> 00:38:28.159
So I go in the next day.
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:38.079
He took me, of course, to get a haircut, and I was a whole I that was uncomfortable because peeling that hair off, and now I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and I walk in to start working, and here comes my dad.
00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:42.960
I mean, my heart sunk because I had a diary where I wrote all of my pain.
00:38:43.039 --> 00:38:44.719
You know, you don't talk to nobody about that.
00:38:44.800 --> 00:38:46.000
Shows weakness of a man cry.
00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:51.119
So you don't talk about my pain I was going through, but I wrote it all in that diary, and I forgot the diary.
00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:59.440
My dad comes down and I see that diary in his hand, and I'm like, Oh, it broke my heart because I'm like, now he read everything I said about him.
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:03.360
I mean, I cussed him out in there when the days when he was the worst and beat me physically.
00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:07.599
So he comes down, and I've never seen my dad cry.
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:15.840
He looks at me and he has just a river of tears flowing down his chin, and through those choked-up tears, he says, Now I know why you left the Amish.
00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:16.880
And he held that diary up.
00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:20.559
And I snatched that diary out of his hand, turned around, and I threw it in the dumpster.
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:22.480
I didn't want to see him hurt like that.
00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:24.159
But that showed me something.
00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:25.519
Oh my goodness.
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:26.880
My dad loves me.
00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:31.199
And out of nowhere, when I threw it in the dumpster, my dad comes up there, gave me the biggest.
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:32.159
I've never had dad hug.
00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:34.400
Amish don't show compassion, you know, like that.
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:36.159
They're not affectionate people.
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:42.159
And so he comes up and gave me the biggest, tightest hug, and he's bawling, he says, I love you, and that's where our relationship started.
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:46.719
Secretly, we were starting to meet up, we even drank together after without the church and the family knowing that.
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:49.199
So you started to build a relationship with him after you left.
00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:49.679
Yeah.
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:50.880
So what was that like?
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:57.360
And I mean, obviously, he already he had to have thought before that he wanted to leave.
00:39:57.440 --> 00:39:57.519
Yeah.
00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:01.599
With with the lifestyle, you know, with the thing, the decisions it seems like he was making.
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:04.719
Like it seemed I'm I'm sure the thought had crossed his mind.
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.280
So I was so how did he respond to you actually getting out?
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:09.599
Was it kind of like I'm happy you got out?
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:10.239
Right.
00:40:10.400 --> 00:40:14.559
Yeah, he he realized I realized pretty quickly that dad was actually happy for me.
00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:21.679
So when he came to my house, which I had just met my wife, we were dating at that time, and he'd come to our house and he was just letting loose.
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:26.320
He'd pour out his his heart, how he was feeling, he was cussing the bishop and all the stuff that's going on.
00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:27.840
I'm just so sick of it.
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:31.119
And then he said, uh, I'm gonna leave the Amish.
00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:33.199
He said that before, and I didn't take him serious, you know.
00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:33.440
Yeah.
00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:35.599
So I left in 98 when I turned 18.
00:40:35.679 --> 00:40:42.400
So I saw my dad here and there get a hold of me with the pallet shop phone number, and I'd go pick him up late in the evenings.
00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:46.639
That happened for the next five years from 98 to 2003.
00:40:47.280 --> 00:40:48.880
And then he said something one day.
00:40:49.039 --> 00:40:52.639
He had a back, he was uh in a barn raising and hurt his back, so he's home from church.
00:40:52.719 --> 00:40:54.000
I mean, he's hurt pretty bad.
00:40:54.480 --> 00:40:57.760
He said, Eli, I'm not just saying it.
00:40:58.320 --> 00:40:59.360
I'm gonna join you.
00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:00.159
Can I live with you?
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:02.880
I said, Well, yeah, you can live with me, of course.
00:41:03.360 --> 00:41:09.119
And so he gave me a date and a time on a Sunday morning when everybody goes to church.
00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:14.000
Now I realize he's not just saying it, he set the date and time himself.
00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:18.159
And so it was uh it was on a Sunday morning, June 17, 2003.
00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:20.800
I remember the day very well because I was well well prepared.
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:24.960
I was going to I was going to uh have my dad and have a relationship with him.
00:41:25.039 --> 00:41:26.000
I'm excited, right?
00:41:26.480 --> 00:41:31.199
But on Saturday, we're planning all of this, and me and my wife are talking about it.
00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:32.480
We're like, we're we need a bigger vehicle.
00:41:32.559 --> 00:41:35.280
We could just we don't just have enough room with this little car.
00:41:35.840 --> 00:41:40.719
Let's go ahead and go to the dealership and see if we can get a bigger SUV so we can pick up dad's stuff.
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:52.320
And we're there, the deal ain't made yet, and we're still trying to get a loan, my first loan, and I get a phone call from my Amish twin brother Levi Yoder in Tennessee where he lived, because he got a phone check.
00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:54.320
He said, You ain't gonna believe this.
00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:55.360
And I said, What?
00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:58.480
He said, Dad just committed suicide.
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:03.039
That hit me like you wouldn't believe.
00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:08.880
I blamed myself for many years because did I not gain his trust?
00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:10.880
Did I not say something right?
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:18.239
What made see my brother when he told me this bad news, nobody knew that I was about to pick my dad and leave the Amish.
00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:21.679
Now I know he loved all of my other siblings.
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:24.639
There's ten of us, there's two sets of twins in my family.
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:27.280
I'm the only one that's left the Amish.
00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:29.119
Why would he just choose me?
00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:31.519
But I I was struggling with why.
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:36.000
So now that is that is the moment when I went into really deep alcoholism.
00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:37.519
It I just about destroyed my life.
00:42:37.599 --> 00:42:40.559
I had DUI, I had I ended up in jail.
00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:41.519
I mean, I was a mess.
00:42:41.679 --> 00:42:47.519
And I I was literally really, really, really close to uh joining him at one point.
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:49.679
I was that depressed for why he did what he did.
00:42:49.840 --> 00:42:57.440
I used to lean on his tombstone in the Amish cemetery and just I'd drink a case and dump another case down into the ground and just drink with him, talk with him.
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:01.679
So that's that was my lowest point in my life is when he did that.
00:43:02.960 --> 00:43:06.320
How did your were you talking with your mom at all at that time?
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:07.280
Not much.
00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:08.880
I it was hurt, it was too painful.
00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:10.880
I didn't want to talk about it, so I stayed away for a while.
00:43:11.119 --> 00:43:11.360
Yeah.
00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:14.159
So how did how does the Amish community handle that?
00:43:14.559 --> 00:43:22.960
So because he was the first one to die that way in our community, which my grandfather, the bishop, obviously made all the you know, my mom had to obey that.
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:27.199
So they buried him, they were gonna bury him outside in a field, no marking.
00:43:27.599 --> 00:43:29.119
He said that's what we must do.
00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:30.559
Because they're God's church.
00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:34.079
So they view themselves as God's church, so they're gonna do the judging for God, right?
00:43:34.639 --> 00:43:39.440
So since they didn't have time to vote to forgive him, then they condemn him.
00:43:39.599 --> 00:43:44.079
And they read an excommunication letter over his grave and buried him separately in a corner.
00:43:44.239 --> 00:43:47.119
Now I like that my oldest brother and my mom fought back a little bit.
00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:58.960
They disagreed to put him outside the cemetery, but then they came back and said, Well, we need we'll can bury him him inside the Amish cemetery, but in the opposite corner and put a fence around him.
00:43:59.119 --> 00:43:59.840
So they agreed to that.
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:02.159
One thing they forgot.
00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:04.159
I don't fear the church.
00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:05.360
You can't shun me.
00:44:05.519 --> 00:44:10.079
That fence they put around him, I had a little party in the Amherst Cemetery, and I destroyed that fence.
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:16.800
Then they put another one in with metal posts even deeper, and I had another party and destroyed that fence.
00:44:18.639 --> 00:44:21.920
So I was fighting the church for a long time there, but he's still by himself.
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:24.480
Uh no fence around him, but he's in the opposite corner there.
00:44:24.559 --> 00:44:37.840
And now they bought, I was out recently and they bought a couple more acres so that they can go out the other side because the cemetery is filling up and coming towards my dad, so they're gonna stop and they're gonna go to the other side, the new section to bury because they don't want to get near him.
00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:39.440
They they condemned him.
00:44:41.599 --> 00:44:44.400
How long did it take before you did talk to your mom?
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:58.559
After the after that five years after the whole thing happened, I went out, put my Amish clothes on, parked my car next door, and I showed up and I I just talking, didn't want to bring it up.
00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:04.239
I was watching to see if she'll bring it up, but then she finally did, and I was shocked what she told me.
00:45:04.800 --> 00:45:06.400
Now I wasn't saved yet at that time.
00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:07.760
I didn't I was not a believer.
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:10.480
I ran from God, I didn't care about Christianity.
00:45:11.360 --> 00:45:18.239
But one thing that meant a lot to me later on when I got saved, but I was happy to hear it at the time though.
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:23.440
She said this when we heard the gunshot behind the barn, we didn't know where it came from.
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:28.239
It's not unusual for one of my brothers to be out there hunting, you know, target practice or whatever.
00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:32.639
So they didn't really pay much attention because my dad was out there for a while by himself, over an hour.
00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:44.719
When my youngest brother found him, he was on his knees praying, and I'm not going to go into details what all he looked like, but one thing that stands out to me, my mom said, then he came screaming to the house, mom follows him out there.
00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:59.760
They see dad on his knees down there with the injury, and he is praying the Lord's Prayer in German, and he's asking God for forgiveness for all the sins that he had done, including the one he had just committed with his self-injury.
00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:03.280
That I needed to hear.
00:46:04.079 --> 00:46:09.760
Because I realized he was confessing that sin to the Lord, and it didn't matter.
00:46:09.920 --> 00:46:19.119
Once I got saved and understand the plan of salvation, I realized just like the thief on the cross was saved the last minute, that's what God did the last minute with my dad.
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:21.920
So what the church done means nothing now to me.
00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:26.239
Because God saved my daddy Henry Yoder at the last minute.
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:30.480
Because he was still alive.
00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:37.119
God gave that, and what he showed me later as I was praying into it, I believe the Lord showed me that that was a testimony.
00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:38.480
God allowed it to play out that way.
00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:42.239
It was a testimony to the Amish church, and it went right over their head.
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:43.039
Yeah.
00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:48.320
Because there was so there gosh.
00:46:48.559 --> 00:46:50.000
It's both things, kinda.
00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:52.000
It's both and you know what I mean?
00:46:52.079 --> 00:47:03.679
Like they they put judgment on him, but at the same time, what they the there are good things that they had taught him for him to be in a position with when you've got a couple moments left, that's where you go.
00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:12.639
I mean, that kind of shows his heart, too, even with all of the mess and the mistakes and all of the rebellion and everything like that, for him to that's where you go to.
00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:14.000
You know what I mean?
00:47:14.159 --> 00:47:17.599
Is it is kind of a testimony to a lot of the things he was taught.
00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:22.400
Yeah, and then later, of course, you know, I was I was out at the funeral, had my Amish clothes on.
00:47:22.639 --> 00:47:24.000
So you were allowed to go to the funeral?
00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:25.599
Only if I wear Amish clothes.
00:47:25.760 --> 00:47:25.920
Okay.
00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:32.800
And then I I was even allowed, since I dressed up in my Amish clothes, I was allowed to stay on the buggy and even hold one of my brothers on the way to the graveyard.
00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:33.920
So that was special.
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:37.679
But I I left early and did not witness.
00:47:37.840 --> 00:47:43.440
Later on, I found out that they did, in fact, read off an excommunication letter over his grave and gave him over to the devil.
00:47:43.519 --> 00:47:52.880
They did a little ceremony where if they don't, if the Amish Church didn't have the chance to forgive that individual, they will do a letter where they pray and give you to the devil.
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:56.320
That just seems a bit over the top, doesn't it?
00:47:56.480 --> 00:48:12.559
Like, I mean, you're sitting around thinking about what the rules are gonna be, and you're like, well, hey, let's not forget that if you do X, Y, or Z, like that's that's very gosh, and I so I feel like if you were a kid watching that, or anybody watching that, like that's pretty intense.
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:13.280
Yeah.
00:48:13.519 --> 00:48:35.440
Like, you know, I mean, that that would strike a lot of fear into your heart, like to like these people have the authority to hand me over to the devil is and there was another Amish man that ended up doing the same thing a few years later, and they did bury him in the middle of the field, no marking the horses, the goats, the cows are running over all of they don't you can even see where he's buried.
00:48:35.760 --> 00:48:37.119
And that's a big deal to them, right?
00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:40.800
Like like for me when I passed away, I don't care what my girls do, you know what I mean.
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:49.440
But for them and the the tradition and everything to just be thrown out in a field kind of um is pretty a disrespectful way to go, I would say.
00:48:49.599 --> 00:48:50.159
Right.
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:58.400
Oh so so your mom told you kind of how that all went down, and you have you do have a relationship with her now.
00:48:58.639 --> 00:48:59.119
Yes.
00:48:59.360 --> 00:49:11.360
I didn't for a long time because I I was angry, my resentment turned into bitterness, bitterness turned to anger, anger turned into hatred, and I felt like I needed to be a voice for my dad.
00:49:11.519 --> 00:49:16.800
And I fought back and I put I knew it's against our religion, but I put fake flowers, real flowers.
00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:19.760
I started doing videos when I first started my social media platform.
00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:22.239
A lot of my followers would even stop by there.
00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:28.960
All at once, in the corner where dad is by himself, is loaded with flowers and decorations, and it don't even look like an Amish cemetery.
00:49:29.119 --> 00:49:29.840
You're not supposed to do that.
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:30.719
You're not supposed to do that.
00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:39.360
So my mom cuts me off and said, Don't you ever come back to visit since you're doing all of this?
00:49:39.519 --> 00:49:43.760
Because she has customers buying eggs and candies and bread and pies.
00:49:44.480 --> 00:49:45.199
They talk.
00:49:45.599 --> 00:49:50.400
She she learned everything I was doing, and she said, And do you not even come to my funeral when I die?
00:49:50.639 --> 00:49:51.440
She was angry.
00:49:52.320 --> 00:50:02.880
So last year, 2025 in March, I was praying, and I was praying for my mom, asking God to soften her heart.
00:50:03.039 --> 00:50:08.480
But what he what he in fact did is put some conviction on my heart too, I can't bring my dad back.
00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:10.719
Just go out there and reconcile with your mom.
00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:15.440
And I did, I went out and asked her, I said, what can I do to make it right?
00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:18.320
And she said, Go remove everything from dad's grave.
00:50:18.480 --> 00:50:19.760
And I did right then and there.
00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:22.000
I went straight out and removed it all, came back.
00:50:22.159 --> 00:50:27.360
We actually cried together, got my first mama hug, and now I can go out and visit as much as I want.
00:50:27.440 --> 00:50:32.480
And it and I know I won't regret that when my dad when my mom dies, because making me.
00:50:32.960 --> 00:50:36.639
I mean, for her, like so on the outside looking in, it could be like, What's the big deal?
00:50:36.719 --> 00:50:44.159
But for her, that's her life, like that's her life and her belief is like, you know, I mean, doing that is a form of disrespect.
00:50:44.559 --> 00:50:46.480
Whatever it is, you know what I mean?
00:50:46.559 --> 00:50:48.320
That's a big deal to her, so that's awesome.
00:50:48.480 --> 00:51:00.239
So what I so when you left, you're out, you know what I mean, you're out partying, and then this this happens with your father, and you get into a dark place where you're almost thinking about taking the same path.
00:51:00.480 --> 00:51:02.079
How do we go from there?
00:51:02.320 --> 00:51:05.679
And drinking, and were you experimenting with pills and everything like that?
00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:07.440
Did were you driving a truck then?
00:51:07.679 --> 00:51:07.920
No.
00:51:08.159 --> 00:51:08.880
Okay, good.
00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:17.760
Because if you were driving a truck and you were in that but um, so like how do you go from um how do we get from that that dark place?
00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:19.599
What pulled you out of it?
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:26.960
Well, I clearly only knew to do what my dad, what I saw my dad do, and that was drink to numb the pain.
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:31.599
So I did until I was some people I was working with at the time got me introduced to some coke.
00:51:31.840 --> 00:51:34.320
So I'm doing harder drugs now to numb the pain.
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:42.400
And I knew that my wife was going to put her foot down because she got to where she said, Look, we got a newborn son here in 2006.
00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:43.920
By 2004, I had a DUI.
00:51:44.079 --> 00:51:48.800
By 2006, it was such a level to where she said, It's either me or the alcohol.
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:50.079
You got a choice to make.
00:51:50.400 --> 00:51:51.679
And I just couldn't do it.
00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:56.719
And she left for a little bit, and you know, there was a couple evenings where she stayed away, and I was wrestling with this.
00:51:57.039 --> 00:51:58.320
How do I overcome this?
00:51:58.480 --> 00:52:03.679
And then one night, I'm just completely trash drunk.
00:52:04.079 --> 00:52:05.519
She had to help me get in bed.
00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:09.599
Two hours later, I'm completely alert, looking at the ceiling.
00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:12.559
And I'm like, why am I wide awake?
00:52:12.639 --> 00:52:17.679
Normally it'd take me hours and hours to do this, you know, to get to wake up out of a uh mess like that.
00:52:17.760 --> 00:52:18.559
She had to help me in bed.
00:52:18.639 --> 00:52:19.440
I'm sloppy drunk.
00:52:19.599 --> 00:52:23.280
So then I get up out of bed and I'm like, I gotta change.
00:52:23.760 --> 00:52:24.239
That's it.
00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:26.239
I'm gonna have to go out and just splatter my beers.
00:52:26.400 --> 00:52:29.199
You know, I don't want to, but I feel this urge, I need to go do it.
00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:33.119
So I walk out in my garage refrigerator, and I just start splattering my beers.
00:52:33.440 --> 00:52:36.800
And the door opens up, and my wife's standing there, bawling.
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:38.719
She goes, What are you doing?
00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:39.920
I said, I don't know.
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:41.039
I I like my beer.
00:52:41.119 --> 00:52:42.800
I don't I guess I'm done.
00:52:43.039 --> 00:52:44.320
And then she says this.
00:52:44.559 --> 00:52:46.159
This is where my faith started.
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:52.719
She said, I laid there and I told God, I'm gonna have to divorce that man if you don't change his heart, and I'm not gonna go to sleep until you answer.
00:52:52.800 --> 00:52:57.599
And she laid there praying all night long until she saw me get out of bed and do that.
00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:00.000
And so you wake up and you're just thought, you know what I mean?
00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:00.559
Yeah.
00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:03.920
And you don't even know why, because you're like, I like my beer, but here I am.
00:53:04.239 --> 00:53:04.800
I knew it.
00:53:04.960 --> 00:53:05.920
See, I knew God was real.
00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.000
I was taught about God, I almost teach you about God.
00:53:08.159 --> 00:53:08.480
Yeah.
00:53:08.960 --> 00:53:19.280
But at that moment, I knew that if God can hear my wife's prayer, He can hear me if I pour my heart out with my dad's situation, all the prep pain.
00:53:19.440 --> 00:53:20.800
That's where everything turned.
00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:24.480
So when you ask the question, what how did I get myself out of that dark hole?
00:53:24.639 --> 00:53:27.119
That evening when that happened, that was the turning point.
00:53:27.440 --> 00:53:30.320
So it was Jesus Christ and your wife, your wife praying.
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:35.679
Yeah, God used my wife to get me to that point where I can then start seeking.
00:53:35.760 --> 00:53:37.360
And that's when I started actually seeking the Lord.
00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:39.760
I started getting a Bible and actually reading it and start, you know.
00:53:40.159 --> 00:53:40.719
How was that?
00:53:40.800 --> 00:53:41.599
What was the transition?
00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:44.480
So do like the Amish operate out of the same Bible we do?
00:53:44.719 --> 00:53:48.239
No, we had to have the 1522 version, Martin Luther translation.
00:53:48.559 --> 00:53:50.159
It had to be German we were taught.
00:53:50.239 --> 00:53:53.760
Uh, but we the here's the here's the downfall for the Amish in my group.
00:53:53.840 --> 00:53:59.119
Not all of them are the same, some have English Bibles, but we were taught you cannot interpret salvation.
00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:06.480
That is the English worldly people saying they're saved through faith, and then they live of the world and have electricity and cars.
00:54:06.719 --> 00:54:11.840
So we were warned that if anybody says you're saved, that's the devil deceiving them.
00:54:12.320 --> 00:54:18.400
So we could read, you know, we we had scriptures to back up why we have to be separate from the world, different from the world, all of that.
00:54:18.559 --> 00:54:20.719
But we were not allowed to interpret salvation.
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:22.480
That was the danger zone.
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:31.840
So you start reading the Bible, and so do you feel like that night was your encounter, like your encounter moment?
00:54:32.079 --> 00:54:33.679
Or well, let's hear it.
00:54:34.079 --> 00:54:35.119
2017.
00:54:35.519 --> 00:54:41.119
I had read the Bible here and there, even returned back to some alcohol when my wife wasn't watching, even got addicted to porn.
00:54:41.199 --> 00:54:47.119
I mean, I'm talking just some of the same stuff I was already trying to lay down because I want to I love my wife.
00:54:47.199 --> 00:54:48.159
I love my son.
00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:51.840
I wanted to keep my wife, I didn't want her to leave me.
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:55.519
So I decided that I'm gonna go ahead and go back Amish.
00:54:55.679 --> 00:54:59.039
After everything I had been through, I'm like, I'm gonna have to please God.
00:54:59.119 --> 00:55:01.920
I know he's really hurt my wife's prayer, so how do I please this God?
00:55:02.079 --> 00:55:05.840
See, the first mentality us humans think is, okay, I fall short of the glory of God.
00:55:05.920 --> 00:55:07.119
Now I gotta do something.
00:55:07.360 --> 00:55:14.159
Rather than seeing it with Jesus already did it, I couldn't see that because I viewed God as an angry being on a throne in heaven and he's angry at me.
00:55:14.239 --> 00:55:16.480
So I didn't see a gracious, loving God.
00:55:16.639 --> 00:55:18.480
So I thought I got to fix myself.
00:55:18.559 --> 00:55:25.119
So when I prepared to go back Amish, my cousin that left the Amish shortly after me got furious with me.
00:55:25.199 --> 00:55:29.360
And he slammed his fist down and he said, Eli, make me a promise before you go back.
00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:30.480
I said, Yeah, what is it?
00:55:30.880 --> 00:55:32.480
He goes, make me a promise.
00:55:32.559 --> 00:55:36.559
You're gonna read an English version of the Bible before you return back to the Amish.
00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:41.119
I said, Fine, and when I find the verse that justifies me going back to the Amish, I'll show you.
00:55:41.199 --> 00:55:42.239
He goes, Fine.
00:55:43.280 --> 00:55:48.719
And I sat there in my semi-truck that week and I was praying and I was reading my Bible.
00:55:48.800 --> 00:55:57.440
Now I had done this before and I laid it down a couple of verses, hoping God's pleased with me by reading a couple verses, you know, and go back to porn and we I was watching more bad stuff than I was reading the word.
00:55:58.000 --> 00:55:59.599
But this day something was different.
00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:01.760
And I was in John 14.
00:56:02.960 --> 00:56:04.079
And I stopped.
00:56:04.559 --> 00:56:06.320
I had just read six, verse six.
00:56:06.400 --> 00:56:08.800
You know, he's the he said, I'm the only way, the truth, and the life.
00:56:09.039 --> 00:56:17.119
Now I get down into the verse, the 20 verses, and I stopped and I got angry and I screamed at God.
00:56:17.519 --> 00:56:20.320
I said, God, if you're real, I need to hear from you.
00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:21.679
You need to show yourself from me.
00:56:21.760 --> 00:56:23.119
I'm planning on going Amish.
00:56:23.199 --> 00:56:27.760
Right now, I'm in a semi-truck, planning on going Amish, but there's no Amish between me and you.
00:56:27.920 --> 00:56:29.599
There's no religion between me and you.
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:32.639
It's me, and if this is your word, speak to me.
00:56:32.800 --> 00:56:42.320
And I looked back down and read 26, where Jesus was getting ready to ascend, and he said, I leave the comfort of the teacher, the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you and remind you all that I said to you.
00:56:43.119 --> 00:56:45.599
And at that moment, the word manifested.
00:56:45.679 --> 00:56:48.559
I felt what I call the glory of God come over me, like the peace.
00:56:48.639 --> 00:56:50.239
It filled me with peace, like a burning.
00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:53.760
You know, the Emmaus walk when they were walking with Jesus and then he just disappeared.
00:56:54.079 --> 00:56:57.840
They said, When he was walking with us, did our hearts not burn within ourselves?
00:56:58.320 --> 00:56:59.119
My heart burned.
00:56:59.199 --> 00:57:01.840
I I felt, I mean, I was like on fire.
00:57:02.239 --> 00:57:06.719
Then the next verse, verse 27, Jesus said, My peace I give to you.
00:57:06.800 --> 00:57:08.719
Not as the world gives, do I give to you.
00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:10.639
Let not your heart be troubled.
00:57:10.719 --> 00:57:13.119
And that is when I and I just bawled.
00:57:13.440 --> 00:57:15.199
I felt the glory of God and I bawled.
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:19.039
And that is when I knew he wanted to have a relationship with me.
00:57:19.199 --> 00:57:21.760
And I called my cousin and I said, Hey, I'm not going back on.
00:57:21.920 --> 00:57:22.559
And she goes, Why?
00:57:22.639 --> 00:57:23.679
I said, I'm saved.
00:57:23.920 --> 00:57:25.039
Oh, praise God.
00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:32.639
That's when I believed God for the first time and realized I don't have to go do something he wants in here in my heart.
00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:33.679
I'm saved.
00:57:34.239 --> 00:57:36.000
What a powerful statement.
00:57:36.320 --> 00:57:42.480
Such if you're listening, like you have got to read the Bible for yourself.
00:57:42.559 --> 00:57:43.519
And we need guided.
00:57:43.840 --> 00:57:45.039
You do need to be discipled.
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:50.639
Like, don't get in there because you we have self-show, you know, you've got to be the you've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
00:57:50.719 --> 00:57:52.000
He's got to guide you through it.
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:56.239
But if you're listening, a lot of times the answer's in the Bible.
00:57:56.320 --> 00:58:00.480
And don't let you need to be discipled and taught.
00:58:00.639 --> 00:58:00.880
Yes.
00:58:01.119 --> 00:58:19.280
But don't let people tell you what the Bible's saying without checking into it yourself and doing your own background research, because more so than all the demonic stuff we see in the world today, and all of this stuff, the most dangerous thing you can do is be misled by somebody that you trust spiritually.
00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:24.880
Or be misled and think that you understand the Bible because you heard somebody else preach a sermon on it.
00:58:25.039 --> 00:58:36.559
You get into it on your own, and you do need even me, and you know, after my years of being saved, I have people that help guide me through the Bible, but the good ones are always like, read it for yourself.
00:58:36.800 --> 00:58:37.280
Always.
00:58:37.440 --> 00:58:40.960
Or we're reading it together, and there's so much power.
00:58:41.360 --> 00:58:44.639
I can't, we've gotten to a place where you have so much access.
00:58:44.719 --> 00:58:47.519
And this is what I was telling somebody, you know, talking to somebody about the other day.
00:58:47.679 --> 00:58:49.119
I ordered a Bible on Amazon.
00:58:49.280 --> 00:58:50.400
I was really excited about my pastor.
00:58:50.559 --> 00:58:51.440
I was like, you gotta check it out.
00:58:51.519 --> 00:58:52.320
It's like the lamb skin.
00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:53.599
Pastor Knight, love you.
00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:55.679
But he, you know, you gotta do it.
00:58:55.760 --> 00:59:01.760
This is for like, you know, when you're speaking, you know, when you're gonna preach, it's so light and mobile, like this Bible.
00:59:01.920 --> 00:59:10.079
And it comes up in a box in Amazon, and I open it, and for a split second, you know, I just sit it down and I felt convicted.
00:59:10.159 --> 00:59:25.840
I was like, I can order a Bible to my house, and there's people in China right now holding on to one page of that thing, and they might bump into somebody else that has a page that if you don't know what I'm talking about, like literally what they go through to just learn, and they know that page.
00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:33.840
And that may be the only, like the only Bible they ever get is a page that they got because they can't, they don't a lot of them can't, you can't keep a whole Bible.
00:59:34.079 --> 00:59:37.920
It is such, but but we're so like for me, I'm so spoiled.
00:59:38.079 --> 00:59:45.840
We have Bibles all so we do the service, and this is the building that we do the service in, and we ask people for Bibles to hand them out, and we got hundreds.
00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:52.239
You know, we have these things laying around everywhere, but there's places where that is bigger and greater than gold.
00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:55.039
And there's so there's a reason for that.
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:56.880
There's a reason why it's that book.
00:59:57.039 --> 01:00:01.199
There's a reason why the world, if it's not with us, it hates that book.
01:00:01.360 --> 01:00:06.719
There's a reason people have to hide that book because there's so much, all of your answers are in it.
01:00:07.440 --> 01:00:12.239
The keys to understanding your father, the best that we're going to, are in it.
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:16.800
And so if you're listening, don't bypass how important it is.
01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:25.519
It's cool to do devotions and stuff, but to dig into that thing and be like, who was who, you know, if you're reading something, who were they writing this to?
01:00:25.679 --> 01:00:26.800
Who's writing this?
01:00:26.960 --> 01:00:29.360
What was the point of writing this?
01:00:29.440 --> 01:00:35.599
And you start to understand like this beautiful book that's full of encouragement but truth as well.
01:00:35.679 --> 01:00:39.599
Like, you know, if if some somebody can misteach you, we go from glory to glory.
01:00:39.679 --> 01:00:44.880
That doesn't mean from Cadillac to Cadillac, that doesn't mean from trailer to mansion.
01:00:45.039 --> 01:00:47.840
Because if you look what like Paul's life, we've talked about this.
01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:51.920
Glory to glory in Paul's life doesn't look like what I would consider glory.
01:00:52.159 --> 01:00:57.760
Going from one town to the next, getting beat, thrown in prison, and threatened death, that's not glory to glory to me.
01:00:57.920 --> 01:00:58.639
You know what I mean?
01:00:58.880 --> 01:01:07.920
But the glory to glory is like knowing him, and we're always one step closer to eternal life with our Father, you know.
01:01:08.400 --> 01:01:09.599
So that's beautiful.
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:11.280
He found it in the Bible, people.
01:01:11.679 --> 01:01:12.079
Imagine that.
01:01:12.320 --> 01:01:17.920
And I praise God for allowing me to get saved while reading his word, because now that's what I use, the truth.
01:01:18.079 --> 01:01:22.159
John 8 32, it says, if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free.
01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:30.480
And since he used that truth to set me free, I want to use that truth and tell people how I discovered the truth and read your Bible.
01:01:30.800 --> 01:01:34.159
If somebody gets saved reading the Bible, then the Holy Spirit is in your heart.
01:01:34.239 --> 01:01:35.039
Don't overthink it.
01:01:35.119 --> 01:01:36.800
It's he you're no different than Paul was.
01:01:36.960 --> 01:01:38.480
We receive him through faith.
01:01:38.719 --> 01:01:40.880
And then he leads us together at that church.
01:01:41.039 --> 01:01:44.400
He leads us and guides us and teaches us just because what the way the word says.
01:01:44.480 --> 01:01:44.960
He doesn't lie.
01:01:45.280 --> 01:01:46.480
You seek, you shall find.
01:01:46.639 --> 01:01:52.719
But I think we're in the mentality of, well, if I just go to church this Sunday, maybe God will be happy, because that was my mindset before I got saved.
01:01:52.800 --> 01:01:54.960
I'm like, well, I gotta go Amish to please God.
01:01:55.039 --> 01:01:55.840
See, that's how we think.
01:01:55.920 --> 01:01:59.920
We think, well, we've got to do something rather than viewing it through the lens of Jesus.
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:02.960
He loves us, he forgave us, and he wants to live in our hearts.
01:02:03.199 --> 01:02:25.119
I know there was a time when I've made a fair share of mistakes, and I felt, you know, I had to step back from everything, and I was sitting at the table, and um, you know, I was kind of just I still loved God, but I was kind of doing my own thing again, you know, and I remember sitting there, you know, because I loved like it like I loved telling people about Jesus.
01:02:25.199 --> 01:02:26.800
I don't care about the microphones and stuff.
01:02:26.880 --> 01:02:31.199
I, you know, this is cool, but I like I will tell you at the gas station.
01:02:31.360 --> 01:02:32.000
You get what I'm saying?
01:02:32.079 --> 01:02:35.440
I don't need, I don't like that like that's how we got to this place.
01:02:35.599 --> 01:02:39.199
A lot of people is people will tell me sometimes, like, hey, how do I get to do what you do?
01:02:39.360 --> 01:02:45.119
And it's like, what I do is like in its most purest, beautiful form is if somebody needs prayer, I pray for them.
01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:47.840
If somebody needs to hear about Jesus, I tell them.
01:02:48.000 --> 01:02:50.000
That's the most important thing that I do.
01:02:50.159 --> 01:02:54.639
I love helping get stories out, and you know, I love giving my testimony and everything like that.
01:02:54.800 --> 01:03:05.599
But what's truly important is you know, those inner interactions that you might have with somebody at stake and shake when you're busy and you don't want to stop and talk, but you know, you should.
01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:09.920
Um, and I think that's a that's an another interesting thing.
01:03:10.079 --> 01:03:17.760
Um, something had just crossed my mind and it um and it left me, but you had said, uh what did you say?
01:03:18.400 --> 01:03:20.239
Well, just keep talking and we'll get back to it.
01:03:20.320 --> 01:03:21.760
It'll pop back in there.
01:03:22.079 --> 01:03:25.440
Um so you found you found it in the Bible.
01:03:25.679 --> 01:03:29.039
Um, oh you were talking, we were talking about Paul and glory to glory.
01:03:29.199 --> 01:03:30.800
I that and I was telling that story.
01:03:30.960 --> 01:03:35.760
So so I'm sitting at the table and I'm I'm talking to God, and I had missed it, you know what I mean?
01:03:35.840 --> 01:03:37.599
Because I stepped down from everything.
01:03:37.760 --> 01:03:49.840
I was showing up to celebrate recovery and stuff, but I missed like the interaction I had with people, you know, and because I was sitting to myself and I was sitting there and I was eating pizza because I had let myself just completely go.
01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:57.679
I wasn't getting my hair cut, nothing, and I was like, God, what do I have to do to get back into your good graces?
01:03:58.159 --> 01:04:04.800
And I don't know if you've ever felt like Holy Spirit kind of laugh at you, but that that's what it felt like.
01:04:04.960 --> 01:04:08.880
And then I heard, like, what do you think you did to begin with to get there?
01:04:09.280 --> 01:04:10.719
And I was like, oh.
01:04:11.519 --> 01:04:24.480
And then I started to reflect, it was like I thought speaking and telling 80 people about Jesus, like, you know, I mean, I'm collecting something in the spiritual bank, and I'm starting to look at other people and be like, Well, what are you doing?
01:04:24.559 --> 01:04:25.039
You know what I mean?
01:04:25.119 --> 01:04:39.519
Like, I witnessed, and I had got to such that fall was actually God's grace, so he could reel me back in and be like, your ego got your ego went someplace where that's gonna be a really interesting conversation to have to Jesus one day.
01:04:39.599 --> 01:04:42.079
Like, hey man, I'm glad I earned myself in your good graces.
01:04:42.159 --> 01:04:43.440
And he's like, Hold on, Bub.
01:04:43.679 --> 01:04:45.840
You know, I mean, I found you when you had nothing.
01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:46.639
You know what I mean?
01:04:46.719 --> 01:04:51.039
All of that, all of that stuff you think you're doing, that was what I gave you that.
01:04:51.119 --> 01:04:52.320
That's a door that I opened.
01:04:52.400 --> 01:04:53.679
It's not there without me.
01:04:53.840 --> 01:05:04.960
And I realized, like, man, we have got to be very careful thinking that I'm out here earning some special, you know, some special place, or I've earned my, you know, I mean, and and that was my thought.
01:05:05.119 --> 01:05:09.760
That's what was distancing me from God, was saying, what do I have to do to get back into your good graces?
01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:11.599
Which there's nothing biblical about that.
01:05:11.679 --> 01:05:11.840
Right.
01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:12.639
You know what I mean?
01:05:12.719 --> 01:05:14.320
And and it's actually the opposite of that.
01:05:14.480 --> 01:05:17.599
It was like I thought I was starting to have a lot of faith in myself.
01:05:17.840 --> 01:05:18.159
Right.
01:05:18.400 --> 01:05:20.960
You know, it's easy to get distracted, man.
01:05:22.159 --> 01:05:23.119
It really is.
01:05:23.360 --> 01:05:28.320
Because you are like you, you're doing it for the right reasons at first, and then something, something happens.
01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:29.519
And I'm grateful for that.
01:05:29.840 --> 01:05:31.199
There was humiliation in that.
01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:33.440
I fell on my face, like that whole process.
01:05:33.519 --> 01:05:34.079
You know what I mean?
01:05:34.159 --> 01:05:38.639
What a year I sat, like it wasn't my favorite time, but then just that voice.
01:05:38.800 --> 01:05:41.119
And I almost cried again because it's like, I hear God.
01:05:41.199 --> 01:05:42.079
Like, you know what I mean?
01:05:42.159 --> 01:05:43.599
Like he's still there.
01:05:44.480 --> 01:05:46.559
I would have gave up on me, you know.
01:05:46.639 --> 01:05:47.920
Like, I would have gave up on me.
01:05:48.079 --> 01:05:49.920
Like, this dude's too hard headed, you know.
01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:52.000
I mean, and look at him down there taking glory.
01:05:52.159 --> 01:05:54.000
I had to be to be in that situation.
01:05:54.079 --> 01:05:59.760
I was taking glory and credit that should have been God's at some point there, and then to have some negotiation.
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:00.480
With God?
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:01.519
Like, what do I got to do?
01:06:01.679 --> 01:06:06.960
Tell me the 10 things I can do to, you know, to glorify you, to get you to, you know, love me back.
01:06:07.199 --> 01:06:07.760
Right.
01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:08.239
Yeah.
01:06:08.480 --> 01:06:11.920
All at once became like a good works kind of mentality.
01:06:12.559 --> 01:06:12.960
Oh, yeah.
01:06:13.199 --> 01:06:14.320
But praise God for his grace.
01:06:16.000 --> 01:06:16.239
Yeah.
01:06:16.480 --> 01:06:17.519
It humbled me.
01:06:17.760 --> 01:06:24.159
You know, I stood up from that table and like I catch myself now, and it's like, I don't go up there, you know, we'll have this service and stuff.
01:06:24.239 --> 01:06:27.039
I'm not pointing at people and preaching at people anymore.
01:06:27.119 --> 01:06:27.760
You know what I mean?
01:06:27.840 --> 01:06:31.599
I'm coming from a humbly broken place and very transparent.
01:06:31.679 --> 01:06:32.639
Like, you know what I mean?
01:06:32.800 --> 01:06:37.360
I am still learning, and I probably I'm never gonna stop.
01:06:37.519 --> 01:06:39.280
You know, I'm never gonna stop.
01:06:40.159 --> 01:06:41.840
So that's that's powerful.
01:06:42.000 --> 01:06:47.920
And now you kind of you you've written a book and you kind of you get to witness to people on a regular basis.
01:06:48.000 --> 01:06:49.039
Like, how awesome is that?
01:06:49.280 --> 01:06:51.280
Yeah, it's just amazing what God did after that.
01:06:51.360 --> 01:06:53.119
That whole thing, that's where my ministry started.
01:06:53.199 --> 01:06:59.519
Just I was already doing videos, uh, just kind of doing some some QA Amish, you know, teaching people about the Amish culture.
01:06:59.679 --> 01:07:02.960
And now I started sharing my faith and and just the testimony.
01:07:03.119 --> 01:07:12.480
I mean, I didn't even have to preach, I just shared my testimony, how I found the truth, and people just started flocking to my page and it started growing because I realized pretty quickly many people were church hurt.
01:07:12.719 --> 01:07:17.199
Many people couldn't measure up the requirements, you know, keep the requirements of of where they come from.
01:07:17.360 --> 01:07:21.119
It wasn't just m my people, the Amish that had rules and legalism.
01:07:21.360 --> 01:07:24.320
I was discovering that there was many denominations out here.
01:07:24.480 --> 01:07:35.760
Now, a lot once I started doing like in 2017 and into 18, I started doing like testimony interviews and just interviewing people that came out of the Amish, and it just blew up because a lot of people could relate to the testimony.
01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:42.880
I think it's it's very interesting because like watching some of your stuff, I have no knowledge of the Amish whatsoever.
01:07:42.960 --> 01:07:53.760
You know, like I've seen them out and about when we go up in what's in northern Indiana, like Shipshawana and stuff, and they have little there's restaurants that are Amish restaurants and stuff, but I've no no understanding whatsoever.
01:07:53.840 --> 01:08:00.880
But there was some stuff that I saw you talking about, and like that hit home, and it's like it's it's crazy because it's all parallel.
01:08:00.960 --> 01:08:01.920
Yeah, you know what I mean?
01:08:02.079 --> 01:08:09.519
If we are, if it is like you know, we're not really fighting flesh and blood, it's all parallel and um controlling spirits and stuff like that.
01:08:09.599 --> 01:08:23.279
And and you have to give some of the people grace because like they're doing it out of what they see as love, but but seeing a lot of your um some some of your content, it hits home for me or anybody else that may have had some wounds.
01:08:23.359 --> 01:08:26.479
So I'm assuming it's not just Amish people that get a hold of you, right?
01:08:26.720 --> 01:08:30.399
Oh, yeah, there's been so many different Jehovah's Witness Mormon Catholics.
01:08:30.560 --> 01:08:32.479
The other day I had a Catholic testimony.
01:08:32.640 --> 01:08:36.159
They were going to church, they thought they were pleasing God by just following what they were taught.
01:08:36.239 --> 01:08:43.359
Their mom and dad, you know, they raised them in in the Catholic Church, and she got across my testimony, and it shook her to her core.
01:08:43.439 --> 01:08:45.680
She went and opened her Bible, started praying and seeking.
01:08:45.840 --> 01:08:51.279
I mean, on her knees, and before you knew it, she felt she she felt the Holy Spirit and it changed her entire life.
01:08:51.600 --> 01:08:55.600
And now she says, I'm not Catholic anymore, I'm I'm saved, I'm a born-again Christian.
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:56.079
Now I know.
01:08:56.159 --> 01:08:57.760
But one thing that stood out to me.
01:08:58.239 --> 01:09:02.479
So she was going to church, she said, Catholic, devoted, obeying the parents.
01:09:02.880 --> 01:09:04.479
But she always doubted her salvation.
01:09:05.119 --> 01:09:07.359
Now she doesn't have to doubt her salvation.
01:09:07.760 --> 01:09:10.960
She's had once we're connected with God, we have peace.
01:09:11.520 --> 01:09:14.960
He fulfills that void that is in our hearts, that we're seeking.
01:09:15.039 --> 01:09:17.520
We have to have a connection with him, have a relationship with him.
01:09:17.840 --> 01:09:20.239
When a person has that, you can see it.
01:09:20.720 --> 01:09:23.520
You have the peace, like Paul said, to live is Christ, to die is gained.
01:09:23.600 --> 01:09:26.079
You know where you're going now, and you can see that shift.
01:09:26.319 --> 01:09:26.960
Yeah.
01:09:27.279 --> 01:09:30.560
And just the denomination and all of that stuff doesn't really matter.
01:09:30.720 --> 01:09:32.319
You can have that within any of them.
01:09:32.560 --> 01:09:33.359
You know, you know what I mean?
01:09:33.600 --> 01:09:37.840
I have seen people walking in the light that may claim different things like that.
01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:44.960
It's it's so, you know, even some of that, some of this, you know, it's specific individual entities and and places.
01:09:45.039 --> 01:09:52.800
It's not so much like the title on it, because you get you can get a building of people together, yeah, no matter what their title is.
01:09:52.880 --> 01:09:55.760
And if they get on fire for Jesus, they're on fire for Jesus.
01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:57.119
And you know what I mean?
01:09:57.199 --> 01:09:58.319
It doesn't matter what we call them.
01:09:58.640 --> 01:10:01.039
Even this lady said, I'm still going to the Catholic Church.
01:10:01.520 --> 01:10:04.800
My family still goes there, I still go there, but I know I'm saved now.
01:10:04.880 --> 01:10:07.680
I have a relationship with him, but I had to get into the word.
01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:14.000
My testimony of getting saved through the word encourages people to get into the word and start seeking the word for themselves.
01:10:14.079 --> 01:10:14.239
Yeah.
01:10:14.399 --> 01:10:15.840
And then you become more like the word.
01:10:16.079 --> 01:10:17.920
You have that relationship, that connection with God.
01:10:18.319 --> 01:10:19.359
Relationship is so important.
01:10:19.600 --> 01:10:29.439
That's one of the things we talked about because I don't think we got back into it, but we have a Friday service that we do here in Marion, and Eli's going to be speaking at it here in just a little bit.
01:10:29.520 --> 01:10:33.039
And we were talking about like how important interaction is with people.
01:10:33.199 --> 01:10:35.359
So um, you just went on a cruise and stuff.
01:10:35.439 --> 01:10:41.680
Do you like do you have people kind of come up to you just like talking to you and like introducing themselves and telling their stories?
01:10:41.840 --> 01:10:43.840
Like it that probably happens to you quite a bit, huh?
01:10:44.000 --> 01:10:49.279
I didn't think it would on a cruise being all the way down below, you know, the Caribbean islands, down on the Virgin Islands, way down there.
01:10:49.439 --> 01:10:53.680
And on that cruise ship for seven days, I had 62 people that recognized me and came up and talked to me.
01:10:54.000 --> 01:10:56.720
So, did you have a chance to kind of witness to them and hear their stories?
01:10:56.800 --> 01:10:58.960
And what a beautiful life, huh?
01:10:59.119 --> 01:11:10.079
Even though it may seem exhausting to some people, it's like what an honor it is to for people to see you as somebody that, like, hey, I want to, I want you to hear my Jesus story, or I want you, I want to share my pain with you.
01:11:10.239 --> 01:11:10.399
Yeah.
01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:10.960
So important.
01:11:11.279 --> 01:11:13.840
It's a blessing just to be able to, you know, we are the church.
01:11:13.920 --> 01:11:21.359
As believers, we are the church, and wherever we go, we can we can be an encouragement to people and share our faith with people and and fellowship together.
01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:26.560
I mean, we were sitting at the the smoke deck where people are smoking, I'm just observing and listening.
01:11:26.720 --> 01:11:28.800
Before I know it, we're talking about Jesus.
01:11:29.119 --> 01:11:32.159
And somebody pops up and goes, I want to know if I'm saved, and I'm praying over people.
01:11:32.319 --> 01:11:36.079
And then more hear it, and then we have an hour of just praying, and you know, it was beautiful.
01:11:36.399 --> 01:11:49.039
My my grandpa before he passed away, uh, he was a he was a funny man, but even after he quit smoking when restaurants had the smoking sections, he was still sitting in the smoking section, and everybody like, why'd you do that?
01:11:49.199 --> 01:11:50.560
He was like, better company.
01:11:52.479 --> 01:11:54.960
You know, he never left the smoking sections.
01:11:55.199 --> 01:11:55.760
Right.
01:11:57.279 --> 01:12:00.159
So I think that um, yeah, we've covered a lot.
01:12:00.239 --> 01:12:02.159
I really appreciate you coming on.
01:12:02.319 --> 01:12:03.840
Um, I was excited about it.
01:12:03.920 --> 01:12:06.000
It's been really cool actually to get to know you.
01:12:07.199 --> 01:12:07.920
550?
01:12:08.880 --> 01:12:09.680
530.
01:12:10.800 --> 01:12:12.800
Nathan, you're gonna have to cut that part.
01:12:14.800 --> 01:12:15.920
So we got a few minutes.
01:12:16.159 --> 01:12:17.039
What are you thinking, Zach?
01:12:17.199 --> 01:12:17.920
You got any questions?
01:12:18.239 --> 01:12:21.840
So we'll just we'll just pick back up and do something so you can see that.
01:12:22.319 --> 01:12:24.960
Zico, you got any questions for Eli?
01:12:31.119 --> 01:12:33.520
Well that's not very helpful.
01:12:33.680 --> 01:12:39.760
What do you think what's the most outside of like the faith thing, what's the most what's the question you get asked the most?
01:12:40.159 --> 01:12:42.399
What do you feel like you get the most of?
01:12:43.279 --> 01:12:50.319
Well, a lot of people are always thinking the the uh Amish culture where I'm from, they got it all together, that they are Christians, and so they're shocked.
01:12:50.479 --> 01:12:51.199
That's number one.
01:12:51.279 --> 01:12:52.079
I thought they're Christians.
01:12:52.159 --> 01:12:52.880
Are they not Christians?
01:12:52.960 --> 01:12:57.920
I'm like, well, just like any other denomination, they claim to be Christian, they say they're Christians, they'll answer you that way.
01:12:58.319 --> 01:13:00.560
But they don't know the church system and how it works.
01:13:00.640 --> 01:13:04.000
So that that's been the biggest shock to people as I do QA's.
01:13:04.159 --> 01:13:04.239
Yeah.
01:13:04.800 --> 01:13:06.560
Like, wait a minute, I thought they have it all together.
01:13:06.640 --> 01:13:07.920
I thought they're Christians, you know.
01:13:08.000 --> 01:13:10.800
So that's probably the number one question I get.
01:13:11.039 --> 01:13:11.680
Yeah.
01:13:12.079 --> 01:13:14.720
And again, I mean, some of them, you know what I mean?
01:13:14.800 --> 01:13:19.439
There's there's there's true Christians in all of the different things, you know what I mean?
01:13:19.520 --> 01:13:24.000
And and we hear a lot of the stories about um control, you know what I mean?
01:13:24.079 --> 01:13:33.119
And I think even that, like when you break some of it down, like I feel like some people control out almost out of like the finding Nemo thing of like I don't want anybody to get hurt, right?
01:13:33.279 --> 01:13:43.520
And then a couple generations go by and you have yourself a system that is actually hurting people, you just can't see it because it's like um you know, it's like that frantic control thing.
01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:48.000
Um what uh so so so like with your book, what is it about?
01:13:48.079 --> 01:13:49.359
I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
01:13:49.600 --> 01:13:54.319
Yeah, it's called Undeceived because I clearly, when I found the truth, I didn't realize how deceived I was.
01:13:54.399 --> 01:14:11.920
So I I called it, I named it Undeceived, but it's got my whole story, you know, of growing up Amish, my experienced childhood, you know, the trauma, the abuse, all the way through disqualifying for baptism, and then after I left, all the struggles that came with after I left, trying to get adapted to the to the non-Amish lifestyle.
01:14:12.000 --> 01:14:18.399
And then, of course, my testimony all the way until 2017 when I got saved, which that's 19 years of alcoholism and drugs.
01:14:18.560 --> 01:14:18.880
Yeah.
01:14:19.039 --> 01:14:26.880
And uh drugs was very short-lived because I realized it was so good that it was going, oh man, I because I was already addicted to alcohol.
01:14:26.960 --> 01:14:28.800
I'm like, yeah, this is way worse.
01:14:28.960 --> 01:14:31.840
I mean, I liked it so much, I was up all night long tripping.
01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:32.960
I didn't even have to go to sleep.
01:14:33.039 --> 01:14:34.720
I'm like, man, this really took care of the pain.
01:14:34.800 --> 01:14:36.399
Yeah, but it scared me at the same time.
01:14:36.479 --> 01:14:38.960
I'm like, I know that I have to cut this off now.
01:14:39.279 --> 01:14:46.479
So that was short-lived, but I always went back to alcohol, but that was 19 years before I actually got saved and got into the word.
01:14:46.800 --> 01:15:01.840
What an interesting pursuit, what an interesting world vision to be, you know, I mean, to spend that many years in the Amish community, then that many years in basically alcoholism and everything, then get saved, and now you're spending the years like this.
01:15:02.000 --> 01:15:06.399
That's yeah, you've kind of you've lived a that's kind of a fascinating life, really.
01:15:06.640 --> 01:15:06.880
Yeah.
01:15:07.039 --> 01:15:22.000
And I put that all in in my book just because the uh now sharing the testimony is is important, yeah, but in the book, I never thought that people would respond back to my website with thousands of testimonies how they got saved after reading my book.
01:15:22.159 --> 01:15:22.880
It's like the Bible.
01:15:23.359 --> 01:15:26.159
They they see what I did, and God uses that.
01:15:26.319 --> 01:15:28.239
See, Revelation 12, 11 is happening.
01:15:28.800 --> 01:15:35.039
They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and love not even their lives on to death.
01:15:35.600 --> 01:15:39.760
I love that because when we share our testimonies, God uses it to help other people.
01:15:39.920 --> 01:15:47.039
He draws them to him by by just sharing how you got saved, what Jesus means to you, and that's that's been a blessing to be on a platform.
01:15:47.119 --> 01:15:52.479
I use six different platforms and just share that testimony and then the book that that has my.
01:15:53.199 --> 01:15:54.239
Where can people get the book from?
01:15:54.479 --> 01:15:55.840
Just my name, Eliyoder.com.
01:15:56.000 --> 01:15:57.439
So you just go to Eliyoder.com.
01:15:57.520 --> 01:16:01.439
It's available in all the online bookstores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all that stuff too.
01:16:01.680 --> 01:16:06.000
So um, Eli, can they also so is there links to your social media on your webpage?
01:16:06.239 --> 01:16:07.199
It's in every one of them.
01:16:07.439 --> 01:16:10.000
So I mean I recommend if you're on TikTok, check it out.
01:16:10.079 --> 01:16:16.560
Is it like his TikTok's great, and he's got this backdrop, and somebody was telling him he needed to iron the backdrop.
01:16:17.199 --> 01:16:19.039
What was your response?
01:16:19.439 --> 01:16:21.279
Oh man, I get I get some wild reasons.
01:16:21.439 --> 01:16:28.159
You know, and that's not everybody's gonna be nice, obviously, if you have a platform like I have, but it was bothering them to where they said they couldn't listen to the gospel.
01:16:28.239 --> 01:16:30.399
Them creases have gotten to go.
01:16:30.479 --> 01:16:33.279
I'm like, okay, now I'm really gonna leave it there.
01:16:33.600 --> 01:16:39.920
I think that's one of the things I like love about your page is it's not you haven't set there and polished everything up.
01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:40.479
You know what I mean?
01:16:40.560 --> 01:16:45.039
You didn't bring in like a wreck and roo and be like, I gotta have it's like it just you know what I mean.
01:16:45.119 --> 01:16:50.960
And if somebody has something to say about that, instead of like, you know what I mean, some of us may be like, oh yeah, maybe I do need to change that.
01:16:51.039 --> 01:16:52.560
He's like, no, it's still there.
01:16:52.720 --> 01:16:53.600
You know what I'm saying?
01:16:53.920 --> 01:16:54.399
Love it.
01:16:54.560 --> 01:16:55.199
That's so cool.
01:16:55.680 --> 01:17:04.159
I mean, I have a humorous site, and my dad was a humorous, so lots of times I respond back to some of the negative people with humor and and it silences them.
01:17:04.239 --> 01:17:06.239
They're like, whoa, I thought he was gonna let that one go.
01:17:07.119 --> 01:17:08.960
You're supposed to be a mad, angry Christian, right?
01:17:09.119 --> 01:17:11.600
Like supposed to argue with everybody all the time.
01:17:12.079 --> 01:17:13.279
Oh, Eli.
01:17:13.520 --> 01:17:16.159
So yeah, go check him out, check his platforms out.
01:17:16.479 --> 01:17:31.119
It's really actually, to be honest with you, it's really uplifting, and there's a lot of um stuff, Zach, that like like I get informed because now what's going on in the world is like like beef tallow uh stuff like that that our grandparents used to use for stuff.
01:17:31.199 --> 01:17:33.600
We're going back to that, like, oh yeah, it actually worked.
01:17:33.840 --> 01:17:38.319
I remember one time my grandpa looked at me because I was using like dove soap, and he was like, that's face soap.
01:17:38.479 --> 01:17:42.239
And I was like, oh, you ignorant old man, you know, but he was right.
01:17:42.479 --> 01:17:43.359
You know what I'm saying?
01:17:43.520 --> 01:17:46.079
Like all these years later, it's like you find out he's right.
01:17:46.239 --> 01:18:05.680
So there's so many things that actually from that Amish culture that are healthy and people are like reintroducing is like, oh, there is like all of these health benefits to living this, you know, this way, and canning and you know, the what the way with the meat and everything, and also in case of like you know, a catastrophe, like they've got that part figured out.
01:18:05.840 --> 01:18:18.720
But that's something I've over the last year, peptides and all this stuff are starting to get popular, and it's like this is just basically a breakdown of what my grandma and grandpa tried to tell me were the way to do things baking soda for everything, you know what I mean?
01:18:18.800 --> 01:18:22.399
It's like they used it for every you know, they used uh beef tallow.
01:18:22.479 --> 01:18:25.680
You can cook with it, they use it as soap, all this stuff, and it's like you serious?
01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:34.239
Yeah, my tattoo guy, he sent me home with some, and I was like tallow, and I started to Google it, and I was like, it's just basically beef creeps, you know what I mean?
01:18:34.800 --> 01:18:38.239
Oh, so yeah, I've um go check out the website.
01:18:38.319 --> 01:18:42.000
We're excited because he's actually going to be um sharing with us tonight.
01:18:42.159 --> 01:18:43.439
Do you know what you're gonna talk about?
01:18:43.680 --> 01:18:44.960
Yeah, the rejection part.
01:18:45.279 --> 01:18:46.560
I went into kind of a little bit.
01:18:46.640 --> 01:18:56.319
You know, one of the biggest things that that I realized later on after I got saved is all the things that triggered me to go to alcohol and things, all the reasons I left the Amish.
01:18:56.399 --> 01:18:58.079
The number one reason would be rejection.
01:18:58.319 --> 01:18:59.840
I didn't feel like I could measure up.
01:18:59.920 --> 01:19:05.039
So my main topic tonight will be rejection and what that resulted in my life, what that leads to.
01:19:05.760 --> 01:19:06.479
That's gonna be good.
01:19:06.560 --> 01:19:07.359
We're excited.
01:19:07.840 --> 01:19:09.279
You got anything, Zach?
01:19:11.680 --> 01:19:24.079
I'm interested in how like your medicine stuff like that because my remote makes their own medicine like a little bit cold, so that's the whole thing.
01:19:24.960 --> 01:19:25.199
Yeah.
01:19:25.359 --> 01:19:30.560
So Zach was saying like the the the stuff that they that you do for like flus and colds and stuff.
01:19:30.640 --> 01:19:32.079
That's is that strong?
01:19:32.399 --> 01:19:34.560
I feel like the garlic and stuff would be Yeah.
01:19:34.720 --> 01:19:34.880
Yeah.
01:19:35.119 --> 01:19:41.359
Yeah, it like this morning when I took a s a spoonful of the uh what I call antibiotics, home remedy that I mixed together.
01:19:41.439 --> 01:19:44.319
Uh I got the ingredients for it that I did the video on.
01:19:44.479 --> 01:19:48.239
It's got a spoon of cayenne pepper and black pepper in that.
01:19:48.479 --> 01:19:52.399
And when you mix it all together, when you swallow that, it it it has a sting to it.
01:19:52.960 --> 01:19:53.760
It's opening you up.
01:19:54.079 --> 01:20:03.680
But it's the it's the natural ingredients that you need for, and I have never ever gotten the flu or got bronchitis or pneumonia, none of that nasal drainage ever since I've been taking that stuff.
01:20:03.840 --> 01:20:04.239
It works.
01:20:04.319 --> 01:20:06.319
I mean, it worked for us when I was growing up, it still works today.
01:20:06.560 --> 01:20:06.880
That's cool.
01:20:07.039 --> 01:20:08.720
Do the Amish use ivermectum?
01:20:08.880 --> 01:20:10.239
Like, I for the animals, yes.
01:20:10.479 --> 01:20:11.279
So they actually use it.
01:20:11.680 --> 01:20:12.560
Do they deworm?
01:20:12.720 --> 01:20:12.960
Oh, yeah.
01:20:13.199 --> 01:20:13.760
Like as humans.
01:20:13.920 --> 01:20:14.479
How do they do that?
01:20:14.800 --> 01:20:16.079
Well, they take ibervectum.
01:20:16.159 --> 01:20:21.039
So they just we had animal uh stuff that we took for even the hogs and the cattle.
01:20:21.199 --> 01:20:22.159
We took stuff like that.
01:20:22.319 --> 01:20:28.479
My uh grandfather, he was actually uh very educated in home remedies and stuff that he mixed together that would work.
01:20:28.560 --> 01:20:30.159
He was considered like the Amish doctor.
01:20:30.239 --> 01:20:30.399
Yeah.
01:20:30.560 --> 01:20:36.960
So he would come to homes and check out people what their problem was, and he would put some concoction together, and before you know it, you're getting better.
01:20:37.039 --> 01:20:37.439
Yeah.
01:20:37.680 --> 01:20:45.199
You know, if I got a deep cut, you know, they would come over and they would put that the aloe vera plant and take a leaf off and wrap it around there and put wrap it up.
01:20:45.279 --> 01:20:46.560
I mean, that's what we did with home remedies.
01:20:46.800 --> 01:20:47.520
You use honey a lot?
01:20:48.159 --> 01:20:49.119
You have the hives and everything.
01:20:49.359 --> 01:20:49.680
Oh, yeah.
01:20:49.760 --> 01:20:50.399
Yeah, yeah.
01:20:50.640 --> 01:20:58.239
That's what I I I worked with my friend Devin, he's probably upstairs, Devin case, and uh just one spring, and it was fascinating when I started to research.
01:20:58.319 --> 01:20:59.359
It's like you can use that for anything.
01:20:59.439 --> 01:21:00.800
They use that on cuts and stuff too.
01:21:00.880 --> 01:21:01.520
Just yeah.
01:21:01.680 --> 01:21:02.640
Uh it's wild.
01:21:02.880 --> 01:21:15.600
So that's cool to know that they use that because the um the deworming thing I saw some this has nothing to do with the podcast really, but I saw that in other countries they do that at least like once a year, but you know, some of them on a regular basis.
01:21:15.680 --> 01:21:16.720
And then here we don't.
01:21:17.119 --> 01:21:17.920
But we used to.
01:21:18.239 --> 01:21:22.239
From what I understand, is back when we were on farms and stuff, it was something you know what I mean?
01:21:22.319 --> 01:21:27.199
Because like you collect the obviously, like you're gonna collect that stuff through the years.
01:21:27.520 --> 01:21:29.119
I'm gonna have to look into that.
01:21:30.800 --> 01:21:31.680
Awesome.
01:21:32.159 --> 01:21:36.239
All right, well, I think it's about time to head upstairs.
01:21:36.880 --> 01:21:38.800
I really appreciate you coming on, Eli.
01:21:39.039 --> 01:21:40.159
That was a good conversation.
01:21:40.239 --> 01:21:41.439
We'll have to have you back.
01:21:41.520 --> 01:21:47.600
I'm I'm assuming that we'll, you know, um over, you know, in the future we'll be having you back here.
01:21:47.680 --> 01:21:50.079
And uh I'm I'm excited for that.
01:21:50.159 --> 01:21:50.880
But that was great.
01:21:50.960 --> 01:21:59.279
I was I was looking forward to having you on, and I wasn't sure how the conversation was go, but I it really flowed from the minute you got here, even when we were talking before.
01:21:59.439 --> 01:22:03.920
So if you guys haven't, go check Eli out on Eliyoder.com.
01:22:04.079 --> 01:22:07.199
You can get his book there, get onto all of his social medias.
01:22:07.359 --> 01:22:08.800
Um, highly recommend it.
01:22:08.880 --> 01:22:10.079
It's a lot of good content.
01:22:10.239 --> 01:22:16.880
Some of it's really funny, some of it's informative, and then it's a lot of a lot of stuff about Jesus, and we praise God for that.
01:22:16.960 --> 01:22:18.159
So go check him out.
01:22:18.319 --> 01:22:24.239
Um, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, we are on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast.
01:22:24.479 --> 01:22:31.840
Um, go check us out, subscribe, um, give us a review if you can, and share an episode, share this episode with a friend.
01:22:32.079 --> 01:22:32.800
We love you guys.
01:22:32.960 --> 01:22:36.319
Eli, do you have anything else to say to the people before you close out?
01:22:36.560 --> 01:22:39.279
Well, what comes to mind right away is just be you.
01:22:39.600 --> 01:22:40.399
God loves you.
01:22:40.479 --> 01:22:41.520
You're right where you're at.
01:22:41.600 --> 01:22:42.800
You don't have to change anything.
01:22:42.960 --> 01:22:44.319
Today's a day of salvation.
01:22:44.399 --> 01:22:47.680
I mean, he wants into your heart, doesn't matter what you were taught.
01:22:47.920 --> 01:22:54.239
Most people will deviate and they want you to fit in and change who you are so that you can be accepted.
01:22:54.399 --> 01:23:01.359
Most people will change to be accepted, but be who you are, accept who you are right now, and just call out the way I did in my testimony.
01:23:01.520 --> 01:23:05.760
Just call out because he wants into your heart and he'll add on to you everything he has for you.
01:23:06.079 --> 01:23:07.039
He's got a plan for you.
01:23:07.199 --> 01:23:07.439
Yes.
01:23:07.520 --> 01:23:07.920
Amen.
01:23:08.159 --> 01:23:08.800
Praise God.
01:23:08.880 --> 01:23:10.159
Thank you so much, Eli.
01:23:10.399 --> 01:23:12.159
Thank you, Zico and Nathan.
01:23:12.239 --> 01:23:13.359
We appreciate y'all.
01:23:13.520 --> 01:23:15.520
You guys check us out next week.
01:23:15.680 --> 01:23:16.399
We love you.
01:23:16.560 --> 01:23:24.000
Go follow us on all the platforms and go go check out Eliyoder.com, get the book and check out the TikToks and everything else.
01:23:24.319 --> 01:23:27.039
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today.
01:23:27.199 --> 01:23:32.159
Make sure you subscribe to our channels and follow us and give us reviews on all of the platforms.
01:23:32.319 --> 01:23:35.600
If you really liked what you heard today, share it with somebody that you care about.
01:23:35.760 --> 01:23:36.159
Thank you.
01:23:36.319 --> 01:23:37.039
We love you.