Land of the Limberlost and Loblolly Marsh

Sounds like a made up story right from the start. But I promise that the story heretofore contained in the aft metioned post is 100% unaltered and entirely true based solely on my recollection from todays events that began at 5 a.m.. If you agree to read further in this post, you must subscribe to the terms and conditions as set forth by the people of the Land of the Limberlost. Just kidding the terms and conditions thingy sounded official though. But, the story is true. So today my father in law and I had to make a trip over into Indiana to pick up something. As we were driving we began seeing signs saying Land of the Limberlost and Loblolly Marsh. We left at 5:30 a.m. so at first I thought I must still be alseep and for some unknown reason to me, I was dreaming that I was playing the board game Candy Land and my character was lost in the Limberlost Forest. But then I realized that I couldn't be asleep because I was driving. Anyway as we got closer I had one of the most surreal moments I have experienced in quite a while. As we were driving along, we realized that we were in the heart of Amish country. There were buggies going down the road everywhere. These were the Amish of Geneva,Indiana. It was amazing to see. It was about 35 degrees out and everyone of them were travelling in their buggies. Then I saw something that I haven't ever seen in all my years of youth ministry. I saw about 15 or so teenage boys and girls awake at 7 a.m.. And not only were they awake but they were all going into the chicken house to work. Imagine that, teenagers in our country working at 7 a.m.. I know right now that some of you parents are wanting directions so that you can send your kids there for camp so that they can learn to do chores and not expect $100. It was probably one of the coolest experiences that I have had lately. I couldn't help but think that these people seemed so at peace with life. They were in no big hurry but yet they seemed purposeful with everything they did. Just going to town required them to get up, go to the barn and ready their buggy and then hitch up the horse and then head off to town.
One of the last things that I saw reminded me that in many ways the Amish are like us also. As we were heading out of town, I saw an Amish man teaching his daughter to drive. Many of you remember when your parents taught you to drive and all of the headaches with them screaming at you and telling you to watch out. Well just imagine if they had taught to drive when you were 8. That's right, as we were heading out of town there was a man teaching his 8 -10 year old daughter how to drive a buggy. It was awesome. And so ends my day in the Land of the Limberlost and Loblolly Marsh.