Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order by Marlene C. Miller

About the Book

★★★★★

Fewer than one hundred outsiders have joined the Old-Order Amish – and stayed – since 1950. Marlene C. Miller is one of them. 

In this rare memoir, Marlene recounts her unhappy and abusive childhood, how she throws herself into cheerleading and marching band, and how she falls in love with Johnny, the gentle young Amish man who helps her lace her ice skates.

Against the wishes of both sets of parents, Marlene and Johnny get married and begin a family. Follow the author on this unusual journey to find out how God's love called her out of bitterness and depression and into the warm embrace of her new Amish community.

Accompany her as she dons an Amish dress and prayer covering and gets baptized. Learn how she endures the strain of ten children, a hundred-acre farm, and accidents and tragedy, and find out how she comes close to walking away from it all. Turning Amish has proven to be anything but plain and simple for this former majorette. But nearly fifty years later, Marlene is still living out God's call as an Old Order Amish woman.

With her memoir, Called to Be Amish: My Journey from Head Majorette to the Old Order, Marlene C. Miller gives her readers an intriguing look into her life as a woman who felt called to join the Old-Order Amish. Her choice to join the Amish is one that very few people actually make. so discovering her motivations behind this choice, as well as how it completely changed her life, fascinated me. Her testimony powerfully speaks the life-changing nature of faithfully following God, and her explanations of adapting to the Amish day-to-day life taught me quite a bit about Amish culture. Called to Be Amish is a worthwhile read that is wholly inspirational and encouraging, and I think readers who enjoy memoirs and Amish culture will not want to miss it.

Thanks to LitFuse Publicity Group, I received a copy of Called to Be Amish and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. To read other opinions, be sure to check out what other reviewers think here and purchase a copy here.

About the Author

Marlene C. Miller joined the Amish as an adult and has been a member of the Old Order Amish for almost 50 years. She and her husband of 48 years live on a farm in Ohio surrounded by their nine children, more than 40 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.