LV and I both enjoyed fishing and when we got an invitation to join his brother for a day of fishing on Lake Erie we were happy to accept. My parents were happy to have Sailor stay with them all day while we were gone.
After spending all day on the lake we returned home with plenty of huge fish. We saved the biggest one for my parents as an extra thank you for making that LV and I got to enjoy a day together. We had enjoyed it so much that we hoped to make having a fishing trip on Lake Erie an annual thing.
Several months later LV's parents were coming to visit and stay with us for several weeks. His Dad wanted to go fishing after hearing how much we had enjoyed it. His Dad had hired a captain and a big boat and seemed to really want LV to be there. LV didn't think he needed to go and leave me at home with another baby on the way and having all the chores to tend to.
I assured him I would be fine if one of my brothers came to help me with the chores and that I wanted him to go have a good time.
He decided to go, and though fishing wasn't nearly as good as it had been earlier that summer he still enjoyed the trip. A week later we noticed a small mention of the fishing trip in the Budget from the scribe in his parents community. We didn't think too much about it until the next Sunday all the members had to stay in after church again and the bishop announced that they had seen in the Budget that a young married man had gone on a fishing trip and that no more fishing trips would be tolerated and any offenders would be dealt with accordingly.
We couldn't help but stew about that for a while. Fishing trips had been an accepted thing for as long as we could remember and now since we had started enjoying them they would no longer be allowed. It didn't seem quite fair but there was nothing we could do except accept it.
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I'm wondering why fishing would be banned? It was providing food for your table in an enjoyable way. Was it something that was looked upon as a 'lazy pastime'? I'd like to understand the thinking behind this.
ReplyDeleteDid it ever feel like your family was being used to make an example of? Because it seems every time it was heard that you did or had something that had always been okay and it was discovered by someone else in that community, it became an issue. This was just wrong on so many levels. It reminds me of a church I had once been a part of where you never quite knew what was okay and what was not until it was suddenly not okay anymore. ~Monica
ReplyDeleteWhere or what was the root of the preachers' issue? Was it something against your parents, or LV's parents of you two? In thinking back over some of my Amish experiences, it is that once a family is marked for whatever reason, they can never do anything right again. Everything they do is frowned upon.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Sounds like you and LV had targets on your backs.
ReplyDeleteUm, weren't most of the apostles fishermen? What am I missing here? First they tell you not to pray, and now they tell you not to fish. No wonder you left!
ReplyDeleteHow sad that you should have been made to feel so blamed.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised by how dogmatic the Amish bishops seem to be. They seem to invade every aspect of the members' lives.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh... I can't really add anything that hasn't been said. How discouraging and disappointing. Yet, these were the steps that led you to saving Grace...
ReplyDeleteI'm with the popular opinion expressed here... It sounds like your family was being made an example of o something, because every time your family was found to be doing something that had been OK before, suddenly it wasn't. I mean, what's wrong with fishing? Plenty of people use that as a means of providing food for the family while at the same time having an enjoyable outing. I don't fish myself - and don't eat fish - but I don't see how it could be wrong to go on a fishing trip.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world is wrong with fishing? It's not like he was out drinking and playing poker or anything like that! (Nothing against those either if done in moderation)
ReplyDeleteI knew some Amish folks that would go every year to canada to fish. They would rent cabins for the family to stay in. They live in Ohio. Richard http://Amishstorys.com
ReplyDeleteWhy was fishing banned? Were you given a reason?
ReplyDeleteFishing?
ReplyDeleteBanned???
Wow, that is amazing,people have fished for generations, in fact, even Jesus hung out with Fisherman, and in Fishing Boats:)
P.S.
ReplyDeleteI am having a Giveaway on blog, stop on in:)
Wow, that takes the cake, but I'm sure the Lord used this, too, in leading you out.. I'm on the edge of my seat wondering what happened next. *chuckles*
ReplyDeleteI'd left right then and joined AA (Amish Anonymous)....but, seriously, there is such a thing as spiritual/religious abuse.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with most of the comments here. I grew up in a very strict church...so strict that I now call it a cult (and won't change my mind about it). They would say one thing was okay, but that another form of it wasn't. And if you didn't look and act just like us then you can't be saved.f it is truly sin, then all of should be sin. Hypocrisy if you ask me! So glad God brought me out it and I can worship freely in Him. If He convicts me one way or another that's one thing. But when men try to take the place of God, that is totally another! Any-who, I couldn't believe they banned your recliner. And now fishing!?!?! Sometimes I thought the ministers in my church, as a youth, were bad...but these bishops seem to take it a little farther. As crazy as it all was and is...God has to take us to certain places to get us out of bondage. Galatians 1:10 is one of my favorites since God delivered me from such a church. "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
ReplyDeleteWow. Was this because something was published about the trip? Can't wait to hear more of your story!! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI am the kind of person who follows the rules, but I do not think I could live with wondering when and how they might change from day to day........
ReplyDelete