Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of My Amish Childhood: A True Story of Faith, Family, and the Simple Life

My Amish Childhood: A True Story of Faith, Family, and the Simple Life
reviewed on + 350 more book reviews


Mr. Eicher recalls the days of his youth of the time when his Amish family moved to Honduras together. He lived there for nine years during his pre-teen and teen years. He shared several stories, both serious and humorous about the people he interacted with on a daily basis and the community that he shared as well as how God took hold of his own life while he lived there. It wasn't bad, it just seemed to me that his writing style at times functioned poorly. I loved learnig about his bouts with chickens, his stuttering issues, learning about his family (though I feel like a lot of that was vague other than when recalling his grandfather), and his own testimony of faith. I don't think I have ever heard of mission work done by the Amish, so this intrigued me most about his family! My biggest qualms with the Amish is the lack of going out on the mission field, so this story shut me up a bit (in a good sense).

His family were honestly a bit more Old-Order Mennonite to me even though he was Old-Order Amish, but his family got away with various things that the Ordnung seemed to be against, so that was definitely different. His family used electricity and tools that normally aren't used by the Amish. However, the Anabaptist roots are what stuck the most and being a New-Order Mennonite, I appreciated hearing how those in the Amish community where he lived put out those non-resistance teachings to practice.

I hoped to have read this a little faster, but it was a bit slow in the beginning and in some other parts too at times.