We seen me go to Pa to help in something I hadn’t done in about 10 yrs. Help build an Amish barn. There is a special history to the old Stolzfus barn and residence. It was one of the very original places settled upon when the Amish first came to America in the late 1600′s and early 1700′s. The person who settled upon it, Nicholas Stolzfus, had been kicked out of his Amish community (overseas somewhere) because he fell in love and married an English girl. He settled in Pa, and that’s where the first Pa Amish community began. Today, there are more

                                                           Joplin, Mo. May 2011

Stolzfus in Pa then any other Amish name, and it seems that every person in Pa is related in some way to the Nicholas Stolzfus, the man who married the “English” girl. This is why the Amish decided to rebuild this barn and try to preserve the place, in recognition of Nicholas Stolzfus. I do believe the property is still not completely done because they ran out of funds.

I have always enjoyed building things with my hands! Even back in the “Amish in the City” days back in 2004, when I was staying with the rest of the cast in the Hollywood hills, what helped me keep my sanity was I preoccupied my mind with making little wooden inventions for the rest of the cast in the house. Also later in the episode we see a bunch of us go down to Joplin, Mo to help with the Disaster relief after a huge tornado swept through making a huge 1/2 mile wide path by 6 miles long. I will never in my life forget the feeling that swept over me when I first drove into Joplin and seen the devastation. There is a small part of me that hopes I never do forget it. I think I need the images of a scene like this to help me stay thankful for all things my family and myself have. I discovered that there is no way for a town to prepare for something like this. Everyone, myself included, can convince oneself that it won’t happen to me. However, this was just less then 3 hrs away, and some of the debris landed not an hr from my house. It will take years for Joplin to be rebuilt! Oh how small of a dent a small group of us made in one day!

The one bright side to the whole thing was how many thousands of people were pitching in from all over not just the US, but the whole world! Regardless what some may think, we still have by far the best and most loyal country in the world, and lets hope we never lose sight of that!

Somewhere in the middle of episode 4 there is a little too much of Mose. Mose sitting in his basement in the of the night talking to people and looking for a home for Michaela. Mose looking through old letters from Amish people, etc. It is hard for me to watch the personal stuff. However, I will let you in on a little bitty secret. The personal, private, emotional stuff is about to hit a brand new level. Over the next few episodes I will probably hide, deny any of it ever happened, and claim that NatGeo had a body double filling for me. During this time while I am hiding out in a cave with no phone reception or internet service, feel free to let your cable bill run out.

 Michaela finally got a chance to try the Amish life for several days in a row. What a surprise for so many people! She stuck with it and somehow came out the other side unscathed. A special thanks to Leah and Rachel for letting us follow this experience of Michaela’s. The good news is, she came out calling me and wanting more Amishness. The one thing I hadn’t spoken much with Michaela about was the Faith the Amish believe in. Will this change, and if so, will she be receptive of it, or will it turn her?

Episode 5.

 If we seen too much of Mose in episode 4, skip episode 5. I may take a trip to some original places where it all began. I may try to make sense out of a culture that is has weathered the test of time, and I may find myself nervous as could be of holding an event in front of a very large number of people. Will I come away with any answers?

A little unknown fact for a lot of people is that doing what I do when I am in the public spotlight, comes with consequences. An Amish person who grew up in a meek and humble manner and has always been taught to stay under

                                                             Barn in Lancaster, Pa.

the radar can and usually be the topic of criticism among the Amish communities and sometimes even among some ex Amish. So what could possess me to take a chance and still keep doing what I am doing?

Also, we see more of Esther Miller. A girl who has some pretty large dreams and aspirations. Will her past help or hinder her in pursuing these dreams? And just how much can one’s faith or religion go in helping make one’s decision?

Stay tuned for the answers to these any many more in episode 5.

Until next time… Machs Gut!

Helllloooo… Heeeellllloooooo!
That’s me down here in this imaginary hole I’ve crawled into in the last week or so. Things have come so thick and fast with thousands of Emails, text msgs, phone calls, and random people just stopping by the Car dealership where I work, that I have found a happy place in the back of my mind where I go and hibernate for periods at a time. That being said, please keep the Email, facebook, and Twitter communications coming. I enjoy it, but if I don’t get back to you for a day or so, It’s because I am                                                            

episode 3 review.

                                                        Pennyslvania Barn Building

There was probably no one who was more relieved then I was when I finally was allowed into Jonas’ hospital room and realized I could get him to respond a little. I did feel very badly for him about the fact that not only had he just lost a car, his job, at least until he can get back up and running, but also the blow of his family.
A little behind the scenes footage. It was extremely difficult to get a Hospital to let us film inside their premises. If you notice, some of the original stuff, like the scene between Hoss and I, was shot out on the side walk off the hospital property. It takes quite a while to work your way to the top of the chain of command at a large hospital like that to finally get permission to film inside the walls.
A scene that I had forgotten about, but that you can find on NatGeo’s website is where I was visiting Jonas at the hospital, and I felt bad that they had him on just tubes and liquid, so I snuck in a bag of cheese and gave him some of that without hospital staff knowing about it. You can see that clip here…

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/amish-out-of-order/ngc-a-snack-from-mose/

It is amazing, and I never fail to be proud, when if someone of the ex Amish, falls upon hard times, the others go back to default settings, and everyone comes out and shows their support. It’s times like these when you realize that differences, regardless how big or small, vanish when one of us gets in trouble.

For those of you who remember some of the other shows I’ve been a part of. When Amos M left the AMish, he moved in with Shana and I, like so many other kids did. He worked on my construction crew. In 2010, when I finally had to get out of construction and find work elsewhere, Amos moved out and started his own little community about 45 minutes from my home. It is here that Hoss and Peggy started coming into the picture. I was impressed with how quickly the Ex Amish kids took to Hoss and Peggy. Currently Hoss is very active in helping these kids fix broken cars, and other things they need.

Curtis, oh Curtis. Although I didn’t give him an opportunity to get too close, It is not unusual for someone like him to try to come into the community and, with the Lord by their side, feel obligated to lead the kids to a better place, out of the concern of their heart. I suppose my thoughts here are these. Most of these kids left the Amish community because of the Curtis’ within the Amish community. It will be very difficult for a stranger to come in and convert or successfully condemn these kids.

4 preview.

Coming up in 4, Begins with me taking a trip out East to help build an Amish style barn. It again follows Michaela some more as she tries her hand at another Amish place. I might add that many times during her searching for the proper place for her in life, as in episode 4, I felt my heart strings tugged remembering when I was at that exact same place in my life. Somehow, in a strange way, from 2 completely different worlds and backgrounds, I found that we had so much in common, and were alike in so many ways! But before I go to far and let the end of her story slip, lets move on to other things.

                                                       Group in Joplin for tornado relief

A massive tornado 1/2 mile wide and 6 miles long, made it’s way right through the heart of Joplin, Mo. With the help of Chris l and Albert L, we got together a bunch of boys, and go to help rebuild some of the damaged houses. Joplin was one of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed! Some of the stroies I heard while I was down there, brought one to tears. The man who was found lying face down in his bath tub on top of his 2 very small daughters trying to protect them by sacrificing his own life, yet the house collapsed and killed all 3.
A military man happened to be eating in a Pizza Hut when the tornado touched down, rounded up everyone inside from customers to employees, made them go inside the walk-in ice box, but there was no way to close the door from the inside, so he stood outside and tied a bungy cord around the handle and held it shut. He saved the life’s of 16 people, but his own body has never been found. After a visit like that, you are truly grateful for your own life, house, and healthy family.
Might I add that in this episode it does spend more time on me trying to find a place for Michaela to live. I was thouroughly disappointed in the fact that I was unable to find her a place in an Amish community for a while.
Some food for thought here. Is it just me, or do I talk slow and monotonus on camera? Because I find myself praying that someone else will appear on the screen so I can fade out.

All teasing and contemplating aside, I do feel that this episode is probably the deepest and most loaded episode to this point. I hope you like it, and you can tell me so. I sometimes don’t get internet from down here in my little “Happy Place”, but when I do, you can tell me whether or not you agree with me.

Until next time, Machs Gut! (Make it good)

Sometimes, I look on in envy at other TV producers. When they cast for a lot of their shows, they can put up postings on Web sites, they can hold open calls or hire casting directors, or people will submit tapes. And certainly, whenever I have made shows like that, I have been able to use those resources and see the benefits. It doesn’t make those shows easier to produce, but casting for them essentially becomes more about sorting through options until you find the best people to put on the show.

But for better and for worse, I specialize in doing projects about subcultures, such as Amish: Out of Order on the National Geographic Channel and the upcoming American Gypsies, also for Nat Geo. Usually, my projects are about people who don’t apply to be on TV; they are about people who we have to search for, who avoid the spotlight, who aren’t always readily accessible. They aren’t easy to find, and when you find them, quite frankly, they aren’t always that TV friendly.

Daniel Laikind, Producer of Amish: Out of Order

There is a reason why there aren’t dozens of TV shows about the Amish the same way there are dozens of dating shows, or shows about housewives. Finding anyone Amish or ex-Amish to appear on camera is as hard as hell. It took us three years to make Devil’s Playground, nearly a year of which was spent just finding anyone on rumspringa to appear in the film. The casting process we used for Amish in the City was just as challenging. We hired five teams of two to live in different Amish communities around the country for two months at a time and embed themselves in those communities
to get to know the town, understand the unique areas (because, as we discussed last week, no two Amish communities are alike) and make sure that the local bishops and elders knew that we had positive intentions.

Our casting teams were required to go through an “Amish boot camp” to learn about the culture, to know how to approach people without causing undue attention or panic. Each team had to send home a daily journal of their activities, positive and negative, so that the other teams could learn from their experiences. We called it the “A.D.U.”: Amish Daily Update. After nearly two months of this, we had found a handful of Amish who were willing to appear on the show, which we thought would make for a great and thought-provoking series. But we just didn’t have enough. We were still missing one character, someone who really could be the anchor of the show. We were missing our star.

Just then, one of our casting producers sent us back a tape of an unlikely TV character. We popped the tape in, and were introduced to a man named Mose Gingerich — and we found the missing piece.

In general, most Amish are taught to accept what God places before them, so while there is certainly a lot of internal struggle, it’s rare to find Amish who outwardly question their place in the world. Even those Amish who leave the faith usually do so with more of a stoic acceptance than a spirited debate. This mindset may be good for them as individuals, but it doesn’t always make for the most captivating moments to watch as an audience. Yet Mose Gingerich was and is unlike any other Amish or ex-Amish person that I have ever met. On that first tape, Mose didn’t do much more than show us a puzzle that he had made, and a homemade fire engine that he had built while he was Amish — but he had a quality that was rare. Mose asked questions. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know what was out there and he wanted to know why. The subject didn’t matter; whether it was how something worked or why God chose his path, Mose didn’t accept anything for what it was. He asked questions, and when he was given answers they led him to form new questions. This didn’t always sit well with his Amish community, but when he appeared on the show it struck a deep and resonant cord.

When Amish in the City premiered to record ratings, Mose became a surprise star. An Amish man with a strange accent and a stranger name, an inquisitive attitude but a wry sense of humor, allowed the audience to see Amish people in an entirely different light. Mose had never been on a plane, never ridden an escalator and never swum in the ocean. But his wonder and fascination with these things allowed all of us to truly see and appreciate our society in a new light.

Mose was also able to articulate these feelings and excitement in ways that other Amish often struggle with. The Amish are taught to be humble, and they don’t often speak about themselves, so Mose’s ability and desire to talk about his feelings was unique.

Instantly, the public latched onto him. Mose was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “Breakout Stars of the Year.” He appeared on Good Morning America and was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. He went on Regis and Kelly, Jimmy Kimmel Live and countless radio shows. Everyone wanted to talk to the Amish guy. There was even an NBC show that was in the process of writing its first season, and one of the writers kept coming into the writers’ room and doing his “impression” of Mose. Everyone loved his impression so much that they insisted that he create a character out of it. And that’s how Mose Schrute, Dwight’s beet-farming cousin on The Office, was created. Michael Schur (@Kentremendous), who is now the executive producer of Parks and Recreation, was the writer and actor who played Mose.

Each new experience on the show and in life brought Mose a sense of wonder, but also one of conflict. It drew him further away from his family and made it less and less likely that he would ever go back to the Amish life he grew up with. For Mose, this wasn’t just a decision to leave town. Everything that he had been taught said that not being Amish meant that he would spend the rest of his life in hell.

The series ended and the attention died down, but Mose’s struggle didn’t end. It grew. He knew that the Amish life wasn’t for him. He had many goals that he wanted to accomplish, but he also had a past that he couldn’t fully leave behind. He settled in Columbia, Mo., where he and a number of other ex-Amish helped turn the area into a safe place for other ex-Amish — a town where they can live with one foot in the Amish world and one foot in the English world, and where they can meet other people who are also struggling with this journey.

Yet Mose’s personal struggle didn’t end there. He met a wonderful woman, Shana, and married and now has a great family. He also has a successful career, first running a construction company and now as one of the top car salesmen in town (yes, a man who grew up with a horse and buggy now sells cars — as I’ve said, Mose Gingerich is the most interesting Amish man alive). However, he still has a thirst to learn more, to help others and find his own true happiness.

One of the reasons why I developed and produced this show was because I wanted to watch more of Mose. Even though he and I had stayed in touch, hearing him on the phone wasn’t enough. I wanted to produce the show so that I could see once again what Mose was doing, to see him on TV experiencing new things, asking the questions that so few people ask and opening himself up to an audience.

Over the next few weeks, Amish: Out of Order goes to some amazing and challenging places. This week, a young Amish man gets into a terrible car accident, and the ex-Amish in Columbia rally around him. But most interestingly, it once again causes Mose Gingerich to ask questions: to wonder why the Amish use these events as a sign from God, and whether the ex-Amish can use this tragedy to strengthen their community. He asks if maybe it is time to start to repair his fractured relationship with the Amish and his own Amish family. This event causes the series to take a dramatic turn that we follow over the rest of the season. Strap yourselves in, because once Mose Gingerich — the Most Interesting Amish Man in the World — starts asking questions and stirring the pot, you never know what trouble it’s going to cause….

So yes, honestly, I sometimes wish that my subculture shows were easier to make and that they didn’t always have to take years to produce, and maybe I could just put out a casting call and have unlimited people to chose from, But here’s a little secret. I know the truth. All those other producers, when they are sifting through their hundreds and hundreds of submissions and watching casting tape after casting tape, are ultimately looking for a character just like Mose. So even though our process may take longer, and I shudder to think about how lucky we were to find him, in the end the result was pretty perfect.

The Most Interesting Amish Man in the World Daniel Laikind is the co-founder and president of development and production of Stick Figure Productions. If you have ever seen any nonfiction about the Amish, there is a good chance he produced it, as he did Amish: Out of Order, currently airing on National Geographic Channel, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. He also developed, produced or executive produced lots of really interesting non-Amish projects that you can read about on his website. And despite being nominated for a bunch of prestigious awards, he has never won any of them, and yes, he is a little bitter about it. He was born, raised and currently resides on the small island of Manhattan, and you can follow his scattered musings on the world of TV, film, pop culture and his Derek Jeter obsession on Twitter (@dlaik1) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/dlaik1).

102 Culture Clash in review:
As before mentioned, I was in the air to hang with Anderson Cooper when 102 was being aired. I apologize to readers and Twitterers for not being available during this time, and hopefully this won’t happen again. I did, however, watch the episode. Obviously one of the most talked about topics was about the chicken getting slayed by a quiet looking Kansas girl trying to show an English girl the ropes of being Amish. I was neither for or against the airing of this. In other words, I grew up on a farm where seeing and helping my mom and sisters doing hundreds of these procedures during each summer for English people who would then come in and buy them dressed. I felt if this was in some way educational to Michaela or viewers, then rock on!
Speaking of Michaela. When she contacted me through facebook early in 2011, and told me her story and sincerity of going Amish, I was skepticle. However, she didn’t go away, and after a month of communicating back and forth, I agreed to meet her and give her a few lessons on Amish life. I think the reason I was drawn to her and Helping her was because I saw myself 10 yrs ago. A kid who needed help, needed change, and was reaching out to someone for that. To me it really doesn’t matter whether you’re English, Amish, or any numerous branch of other religion or sect of people. What’s important is that if you are miserable or unhappy with the life you are leading and you feel you can be a better person and make a bigger difference somewhere else, I will do what I can to make that happen. For way to long in my life, I needed someone in my life to help me reach that place and achieve those goals, and for that reason, I have always had a soft spot for the under dog struggling to get his or her head above the surface.
Many, many of you are emailing or asking me if she then went back? I guess the end of the episode did make it sorta look like her story was over. My answer to you is this. Her story continues. Making that transition is one you can’t make overnight. She will be a pretty big part of the rest of this series, so of course, I don’t wish to ruin the end of the book for you in the first chapter.
As far as Cephas, Him and myself would have long, heated debates on credit and do you need it or not in life to get somewhere. All in good fun of course. ( whereas the note he showed to the camera, of which I still have a copy of). He was a very opinionated kid with huge aspirations, which I’ve never faulted him for. A kid with more dreams, goals, and potential then most ex Amish kids I know. He was elated when he got his “good faith” loan to buy his first house, and promptly called me to “rub” it in to me that he succeeded without credit.
My birthday party came after a very long, stressful day at the dealership. My lovely wife asked me out to dinner, and afterward she wanted to go dance at “Whiskey Wild”, probably the largest Country bar in Columbia. I half way suspected something, but wasn’t sure I had the energy. However, It is amazing how a 5th wind can kick in when you walk through a door and see a bar full of close friends who want to celebrate a birthday with you. I turned 32 on July 27, 2011.

Coming up in Episode 103 “You can’t go Home again”…….

Jonas Stutzman’s accident, which I touched upon above, How difficult it can be for someone like him struggling already to make it in the outside world, and then still have past doors closing even harder on him.
We see some of the outside influence of people from around Columbia or other parts of the country coming into Columbia and trying to convert these kids to different beliefs and religions. Let me state for the record that I have had thousands of people contact me for these kids numbers or emails because they seem to see innocense, vulnerabilitry, or someone who they hope to convert to a religion or belief they strongly believe in. I have never, and probably never will, give out contact info for these kids. They have gone through way to much by leaving the Amish, and need to learn a certain amount of things on their own.
Once again, thank you for all the people who are hooked on Amish: Out of Order, or people who even watch not because they’re hooked, but because they are curious or wish to educate themselves on this culture. Always feel free to respond to my Blogs! No questions are to dumb, and myself, Amos, Jonas, and the rest of the group love to hear thoughts on the show.

I will be doing “Live” Tweeting again Tuesday Night during episode 103. Follow me at @AmishNCity.

Until next time… Auf Wieder Sehen!

I wanted to comment on the fact that the next morning I was so drained mentally and physically from all the excitement and anticipation that it was a little harder then usual to be at work by 8:00 and put in a full 14 hr day, but as usual, I survived. Sometime that day, somewhere between feeling overwhelmingly like the world and everything was coming at me too thick and too fast, and watching the clock on the wall begging for it to spin faster so I can go home and relax, I found myself questioning how I ever got to this point. How did I allow myself to get to where I have so much going that I am questioning whether I can handle it all at once? Then it hit me. I did this. I brought this upon myself. I am a busy body who loves to have as much going and be as active as possible. It is only on rare moments where it comes at me faster then I can handle. With that thought in mind, I smiled, calmed down, and kept doing what I do.

101: I have to admit, I anticipate that this episode will be the least watched of any of the other 9. I say this because all of us from film crew, office staff, editors, producers, and beginning stages of the cast, were just getting to know each other. It took several episodes to really begin to click. For that reason, I figured the opening episode may not be quite as well received. Also coupled with the fact that as a person who spent probably as much or more time on this as anyone, behind and in front of the camera, I am my own biggest critic. For me, it is always hard to watch myself on TV. I find myself embarrassing to watch, a slow, boring speaker, and in hind sight often wish I had sat a little differently, wore a different shirt, or worded something a little differently. It is also, I might add, slightly difficult to accept, sometimes, when I realize how much time was spent on one particular scene, and how few seconds of it made it to the screen.
From my perspective, the stuff in episode 101, was just the usual things I was used to when I was growing up. In other words, the scene when Chris and his brother Reuben Y. went to pick up Michael in the middle of the night, is something I’ve seen all my life. I take it for granted everyone knows this is how a new kid leaves. Apparently not. I have to keep reminding myself that the things that I would consider good TV, often don’t reflect viewers opinions, because they didn’t grow up with these things. Indeed, many people have never heard of these things.
For Esther M. from Kansas, I lived in Kansas back in 2001 and 2002, and taught an Amish school out there in Yoder, Kansas. This is where I met her and her family. She had already graduated from the 8th grade, but I taught her siblings in school, and Esther and several of her sisters were my assistant teachers periodically during my time there. Great family, and I was thrilled to have someone from my past Amish life come on board to tell her story!
Amos M. and I have always been close, and he was happy to introduce his updated life and the friends he has helped leave the Amish and how, as him and I have called it, “the chain of love” has kept going, from when I helped him when he left to now he is extending the same help to others.
I was sad to see a great friend of mine, Abe S. go back to the Amish, but also knew he really missed his Amish family and past life. I truly believe he is happier back among the Amish, and I do still occasionally stop by to visit him.
To me, by far the biggest story in the opening episode, was the story of Chris L and the cage fighting. A little scoop on Chris L. Him and I have always been close friends, but he has always avoided the camera because like so many others, he has been a little camera shy. When I approached him regarding following his first cage fight, I was thrilled when he willingly participated! Since most ex Amish are fiercely competitive, myself included, this story was my “baby”. also the reason there was so much on the line here, was the fact that if he loses his fight, we probably won’t use that story or any of the footage we had shot of his training etc. I’ve never been prouder of anyone then I was of him when he came out of that cage the victor!
As far as myself, always the humble one, my role in the first episode was simply to be the introductor/ narrator. I got little screen time, and that was just fine with me. However, I promise in the future episodes, you will get enough and sometimes too much of me!

What to expect in episode 102.
Without giving too much away, in 102 we will introduce Michaela, an English girl who contacted me because she is tired of her life as a city girl in a big high school in St Louis, Mo. We will watch her evolve as she wishes to become Amish, and attempts several activities among some Amish families.
And we will introduce my good friend and one of my biggest inspirations among the ex Amish. Cephas Y, where he works, and some of his future goals.

Cephas Y.

Side Note: It is my goal to post a blog on this web site between each episode once a week. It is also my goal to do LIVE tweeting during each episode over the next 9 episodes. There may be exceptions, like this week when there is a pretty good chance I will be filming with a guy I don’t know by the name of Anderson Cooper for an Interview on CNN. This may be filmed over the airing of 102, but I don’t have the complete times yet. If it is possible, I may just make Anderson Cooper hold while I pull out my cell phone do my Tweeting. Does that not sound like a good idea? LOL. BTW, when my connection from NatGeo contacted me about this interview earlier this week and asked if I knew who Anderson Cooper was, in true Construction worker fashion, I said, “isn’t that a brand of window”?

Until next week: Auf Wieder Sehen!

I do not remember when was the last time that I was so nervous. After spending the last few days before the show doing over 30 radio shows US wide for promotion, And making sure my computer is ready to try this new thing called “live tweeting” during the show, (something NatGeo wanted) here we go.

A little about the show. This is a 10 part documentary following my life story, my new families, and that of some of my ex Amish friends in and around Columbia, Mo. since they left the Amish. It begins with the Yoder boys going out to an Amish community and picking up a new kid who wishes to leave. Problem is, the kid backs out and they just wasted 7 hrs of driving. At some point during the 10 episodes, I will be taking a road trip, which takes me through Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and finally, Pennsylvania. It follows a good friend of

Chris L. lands heavy punches on his opponent.

mine who wishes to become an MMA fighter, an English girl who desperately wishes to leave behind the High School life, and convert to Amish, several of the ex Amish kids as they build new life’s and find jobs in the outside world. Some of them even travel as for as Oklahoma and work in the oil fields. he series follows multiple story lines, some of them uplifting and inspirational, some sad and very tragic, and some just plain will move you to tears.

It goes without saying that there has been a little criticism regarding the filming of the show, since it is regarding a people who don’t wish to be filmed or talked about. That being said, I have no regrets. I feel, and have always felt that for every person who is a doubter, there are 100 people who have been and will continue to be inspired by it. do not know possible for any one person to stand up and do something in the spotlight without having critics. But at the end of the day, that is truly what this series is about for me. An opportunity for the network, cast, and NatGeo to put together a series that gives hope, inspires, and educates.

I wish nothing but good to come from it, and hope it is rated high, and is well received. Regardless, I rest knowing that I did the best I could possibly do for my part, and now comes the hard part… watch it cross the big screen for the first time and receive the feedback.

I would love to receive feedback from people who are watching this series, and see different view points about it.

Every person on earth if he or she looks back, can think of something somewhere that impacted their life in a positive way, Quite possibly even altered the path they were taking in life. I can think of many such moments in my past. Some of the notable mentions would be these.

1. When I chose to teach school as an Amish teenager. Some of the most rewarding years of my life!

2. The day I finally chose to leave the Amish and my family behind for good.

3. And finally, the day I committed to marry a woman who was non-Amish.

There were many more, but I am about to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of probably the most important month of my life! NOVEMBER 2010! There are 3 big deals that happened during this month that I will mention in story format.

The first and smallest of these was this. I had been hunting on my wife’s Grandpa’s property for 7 yrs, and had bagged several large bucks, but in the summer of 2010, he passed on and the family sold the property. For the first time since I had left the Amish, I was without a place to hunt on. I remembered the huge trophy I had seen several times on her grandpa’s property, and how he had eluded me, and I was saddened by the fact that he would probably never hang on my wall now.

One week before deer season began, I called a friend in Jefferson City and asked if he had a place I could hunt. He had 2 farms, a 250 acre farm where he had seen several large bucks on his cameras, and an 80 acre farm where his cameras has seen small bucks and does. He gave me permission to hunt there. I was not a happy person, but it was better then not hunting at all.

The rest is history. By reading my previous deer story in the archives, you will see that I got the 3rd largest buck recorded in Calloway County since 1920. Against all odds, truely at the right place at the right time.

The 2nd of these was this. I had been out of the Amish for over 8 years. Ever since I had left the Amish, I had been in construction. I owned my own business and was pretty successful. We had a nice, big, new house that I had built all by myself with a large mortgage payment. We had a decent sized family, with my wife and I, 9 year old step son Cole, and 2 year old Ella. Yes, the bills were often hard to pay, but we managed somehow. However, I had never done well in the Missouri heat, and in the spring and summer of 2010 I began to have serious problems. After my 3rd and most serious heat stroke, of which I was unresponsive for several days, my doctor told me if I have one more of these, I probably won’t recover. In other words, I had to find something else to do. I was devastated! I only had my GED that I had taken after leaving the Amish, but without any college degree, what could I do, and where could I go? What was even more, we were pregnant again, and as hard as it often was paying the bills before, now with one more mouth to feed, and with no work, I was at my wits end!

I looked at becoming a banker, which is what my wife does, but starting wages were not good. I Looked at many different options, but finally one day I was speaking with my cousin in Columbia, Mo. who sold cars, and he said, “why don’t you come up here and I’ll arrange an interview”? I smiled at the thought of being in sales. I was sure I was gonna fall flat on my face. Several days later, on August 15th, 2010 I was hired. My first 2 months were a blur, and the finances were so tight we were about to lose the house, and I was thinking of selling all my construction tools just to make mortgage payments, daycare, etc. I was worried of losing my job going into the winter of 2010, and knew if I did, it would mean going back to first base, and selling all we had worked so hard for, and moving into an apartment.

In November, 2010, I sold 20 vehicles, and out of 18 salesman, I was the salesman of the month, and the money paid some bills to keep us afloat. For the first time I realized that if I just kept faith, maybe there was a future for me in Sales without taking a college education.

The 3rd and last of these was this. As I had mentioned before, we had become pregnant again. It was a complicated pregnancy. On a routine checkup at about the 2 1/2 month stage, we received the bad news and saw the xrays of the baby. I can’t remember the word for it, but the majority of it’s intestines were protruding from it’s stomach. We were told that there is nothinig you can do for this until after the baby is born and that their is a 90 to 95% chance it would be mentally challenged, would probably be handicapped for life, and that we had 2 weeks to make a decision on whether we were going to keep it or not. I remember the dark evening sitting on our back deck after we got home from the doctor visit, where my wife and I sat there and very briefly entertained this thought. I also remember that although at that time in my life I wasn’t all that strong of a religous person, I knew what God would want us to do, and that our decision became to move forward and place our trust in God, even if it meant one of us would have to quit working so as to be able to remain at home to take care of this child for the rest of it’s life.

For myself, I am an analyzing person. Trying to think my way through this scenerio was frustrating! I knew that all the plans and dreams we had for our future and the future of our kids was all of a sudden being jeoperdized.

It was a feeling of peacefulness when I finally accepted that whatever God has in store for us is good enough for me. It was a humbling moment when I had to quit trying to control every aspect of my life, and put my trust in someone I had always been taught about, but had never seen or had no serious proof even existed.

On November 1, 2010, Anna Grace Gingerich was born in Columbia, Mo. She weighed 7 lbs even, and was perfectly healthy. Not the slightest bit of a health issue. Truely a miracle that Anna, a bundle of energy and joy, was a 5 to 10% odds beater!

I have since become much stronger in my faith in God, but am still growing. However, this is my story of November 2010, and I am thinking of making it a holiday in the Gingerich household so as to remember that one month in my life where I was at several huge crossroads in my life, and I can’t be thankful enough for the direction that I was steered.

Matthew 17:20
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have FAITH as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

I have memories of as a rebellous teenager with a little battery operated radio, I would spend Sunday afternoons hiding out on the back of the 255 acre family farm where I had a clear vision for 1/2 mile around to make sure no one was sneaking up on me as I listened to my little radio. As teenagers, we were not allowed to have something this modern, but with a careful plan, and a love for what the outside world held, me and my little radio somehow managed to avoid the clutches of the Amish community.

It was here on Sunday afternoons, that I first heard a new, fast rising artist by the name of Garth Brooks. This was in the mid 90′s when he was in the process of performing his live concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I listened to “The Beaches of Cheyenne” and “Two of a Kind” over and over, and wanted with all my heart to go watch him in concert! Alas, by the time that I left the Amish in the summer of 2002, he had retired, and I have only a wisp of hope that he comes out of retirement again so I can travel to whatever corner of the earth to watch this “Idol” that I worshipped so much!

Indeed, there were 2 worldly figures that I was supposed to know nothing about, that influenced my life in very dramatic fashion back in the mid to late 90′s. The first, as before mentioned, was The Garth Man, Who had such an affect on me that I knew in my heart that someday I would leave the Amish, and I would become a country superstar just like him!

We milked around 60 dairy cows by hand when I was a teenager. This was the number 1 scource of income for our family when I was growing up. All the hay we put up loosely by hand with horse drawn wagons, all the oats we shocked and later thrashed, and all the many acres of corn we husked every fall and well into the winter even after the temperature had dropped well below zero, all these long tedious tasks revolved around our dairy farm.

The second worldly hero of mine, as a 15 and 16 yr old boy in Mid Western Wisconsin, was none other than Brett Favre. We had a milk man who came by every morning in his milk truck and took all our milk that we had collected from our dairy cows to the cheese factory to be processed into curds or any different kind of cheese. As I started yearning for some sort of life outside the Amish sheltered life that surrounded me, I craved the news the milkman would have every morning.

In late 1996, his conversations were becoming more and more about this game he watches on television called football. At 15, I had never heard of this game, but as excited as he was getting about it, and as much of a buzz as I gathered watching vehicles driving past our home place with Green Bay Packers flags and stickers on them, I knew that this was a whole new world that I had to explore.

One Monday morning this milkman came by to pick up the milk, and had even more of a stench of day-old liquar on his breath than usual! I sensed even more excitement than usual, and after prodding him he told me that the Green Bay Packers, led by Brett Favre had recaptured the trophy and were once again world champions! I distinctly remember him telling me and my brothers that it was not even close, and that this new quarterback the Packers had was going to be the best quarterback ever to play the game. I remember him telling us how the Packers had set 2 new superbowl records. The first was for the longest kickoff return for a Touchdown in superbowl history. The second was the longest passing Touchdown in superbowl history.

I knew absolutely nothing about what a kickoff was or what a touchdown was. Indeed, I spent the next 6 yrs listening to the Packers play on my radio, and became a huge fan because of this Brett Favre. I remember that as the game would get closer to the end, the announcers would get more excited and yell louder, and it seemed that every Sunday, Favre pulled out another victory somehow. I visualized that a touchdown was a point in the game when you would take the ball and someone would touch it down on the ground at the end of the field, and the team to do this the most would win. Needless to say, It was a big confusion to someone who had never seen a game and had no one there to ask questions.

I finally got to see my first football game in the fall of 2002, and my love for Brett Favre and the packers reached brand new heights, as he led them to a huge win in Dallas. I never got to see Joe Montana, Steve young, Aikman, Marino, Barry Sanders, or any of the players that made football great! But I got to watch Brett Favre. Indeed, over the next 6 yrs I went back to Lambeau Field every fall to watch at least one Game, and sometimes 2 a yr. I can truly say that I lived and died by every Favre pass. This person had a way of making me swell with pride on some days, and on many occasions, throw remote controls with wrath at the TV. There are several documented occasions where I had a remote sticking out of the wall of our house after a Green Bay loss. During these years, I became such a huge fan of Favre that I would dream on a regular basis that I met him and we talked football and he threw me a few passes, and than I would wake up sweating because we had parted ways and I had forgot to get an autograph from him.

When Green Bay traded him to the Jets, I swore I would never go to another Packer game, and swore even harder that I would despise the young unproven rookie that I felt was to blame for this trade. I truly wanted Aaron Rogers to fall flat on his rear, so Ted Thompson would get fired and Green bay would be sorry for what they did.

I have reached the portion of my story where confessions are in order. During Favres years with the Jets and the Vikings, i followed him so loyally that if both them and the Packers were on at the same time, I would watch Favre and the Packers would have to take a back seat.

Sadly, another superbowl eluded my Idol. He had several more tries after I was able to watch television, but somehow always managed to throw away the games.

I have many Ex Amish friends who are also huge packers fans, and I have over the years received harsh criticism from them for my loyalty to the Favre and my criticism of the management in Green Bay. I Finally made a promise to them. I actually did not believe that i would ever have to keep this promise.

Fast forward to 10:00 P.M. on a Sunday evening sitting in front of my laptop in my Green Bay Packer oriented basement in Holts Summit, Mo. wearing my cheesehead. It is January 23rd 2011. The Green bay Packers have gone against all odds and as the number 6 seed in the NFC, have beat the hated rival Bears in Chicago, and are Superbowl bound. 6 short weeks ago, after a loss to New England, they were all but eliminated, and nobody gave them a chance. I am sitting here, once again swelling with pride for the Green and Gold. It seems like an unrealistic dream that my beloved Packers have actually pulled off the impossible. The Superbowl? Reality has not sunk in just yet. It all happened too fast to absorb. Yes, we may lose the Superbowl, but guess what, I get to see my beloved play on the big stage!

As I come to the end of my Football related story, I sit here gazing at a fathead of Brett Favre on my one basement wall. I glance across the room and see Donald Driver katty corner across from him with arms outstretched waiting for the rifle arm to deliver the game winning touchdown. I remember the promise that I made to my Ex Amish buddies.

“I will remain a Brett Favre fan until Aaron Rogers takes the Packers to the Superbowl.”

I gaze at the Favre fathead and try to visualize a # 12 hanging there replacing the # 4. Is it too early? How long do I have to hang onto this misty dream of Favre coming back and still Leading us to another Superbowl?

I am truly elated that we are going to the big Stage in Dallas, but somewhere deep down, I am saddened by the thought that it could not be my real, true hero.

Now as a man of my word, I will try my best to put the old behind me, jump on the Aaron Rogers band wagon, and ride it into the sunset with him, but Darn, that Favre Fathead overlooking me from yonder wall, is giving me that certain look!

Maybe an Aaron Rogers led Lombardi Trophy might help push the old tremors out of my heart. Either way, Some how or another, in some wierd twisted way, I feel like from a teenage rebellious farm boy who had no clue what a Touchdown was, to now the same person in the throes of young manhood, somehow it has come “FULL CIRCLE” and I’m about to be treated to my first Green Bay Packer Superbowl experience!