Phone Call for the Amish

As I was traveling on the bus and heading to Indianapolis, there was an Amish gentlemen named Henry that sat behind me. We had a few good minutes of conversation. They have lived in the area for about 30 years. I was a little surprised because "I assumed" that they had lived in the area with family for generations. That is the great thing about having conversations and not assuming; you can learn information.

In a sense, it felt weird to have an Amish fellow on the bus. Now, it is not against the "rules" for him. He is living within the community standard. He is not allowed to operate the vehicle though.

As we were traveling; he asked me a question that perplexed me (in a sense). The question that he asked me was the following:

Do you have a cell phone ?

I told him that I did have a cell phone and I then told him the story that I just picked this one up yesterday because of the old phone being destroyed by the water. We talked more .....

He then asked me the following questions:

Can yu call my driver and tell him to pick me up in Indianapolis at 4 am ?

I looked at my watch (it was 1:15 in the morning). I tried to clarify, to make sure that I heard correctly. You want me to call your driver at 1:15 in the morning and ask him to pick you up at 4 am at the bus station.

He looked deep into my eyes and said, "yes, young man, I would appreciate it if you could do that for me" and handed me the gentleman's number.

At 1:30 in the morning, I called Gene. It (being a cell number) went straight to his voice mail - that was not activated.

I hung up the phone and told Henry that it was a no go.

We traveled down the road and made a stop in Richmond, Indiana. As I got up to stretch, Henry asked me if I could call Gene at his house and ask for the favor.

I looked at him in bewilderment and said yes.

At 3:15 am, I called Gene and woke him up. Poor Gene. He was completely foggy and tyring to grasp this perfect stranger calling and asking him to pick up Henry in 45 mins from the bus station.

Now, the funny part (to me) was that I a standing outside at 3:15 in the morning and Henry is talking to me and I am relaying the message to Gene and then I relayed Gene's words to Henry. Back and forth, we went. For you see, Henry could have someone else use the technology but he could not.

After 5 minutes, Gene could not do it, but he will come up with a solution.

At 3:40 in the morning. I get a phone call from Gene with the following instructions:

Jeff, tell Henry to switch buses in Indianapolis. He wants to head south and get off in the Louisville, Kentucky station and his driver Annette will be waiting. Henry was a sound to sleep.

A few minutes after 4 am, we arrived in Indianapolis and I gave the message to Henry. As we walked into the station, Henry and his wife headed to the ticket counter to try to grab the south bus to Louisville.

During the conversations, I picked up on a little about the Ordnung.

Ordnung are Amish rules of living. Ordnung is the German word for order, arrangement, organization, and system. Every Amish church is its own governing authority and has its own set of rules; therefore, it follows its own Ordnung. These rules are largely unwritten. Because the Amish have no central church government, each community administers its own guidelines and each local assembly is autonomous within itself. Therefore the Ordnung may vary from congregation to congregation, from church to church. The church members' lives are ordered by this code.

Anyways, this was one of the interesting experiences that happened on the trip.