Guest Author - Diana Pederson

Brides of Lancaster County

The Brides of Lancaster County series written by Wanda Brunstetter shares the stories of Amish women and how they meet their husbands. Reading about their old fashioned lifestyles is a welcome relief from the typical romance novel. These women aren’t out sleeping with every man they date! These books were published in 2006 by Barbour Publishing.

Plain and Fancy
Brunstetter’s understanding of the Amish and her skillful story weaving reveals how these two people manage to come to accept each other and become husband and wife. You’re sure to enjoy the story. It also gives us glimpses into the Amish and their ways. In fact, I sometimes wish we did things more like the Amish. I am sure the resulting marriages and families would be God centered and less likely to end in divorce.

The Amish women don’t have perfect lives. Even they have boyfriends decide to marry someone else! A Merry Heart is the story of Miriam’s disappointment when the boy she had loved since childhood marries someone else. It appears that she is destined to be an “old maid” in the community until Amos’s first wife dies leaving him with a daughter to raise by himself. This story takes us through Miriam’s decision to accept his courting as being genuine and not just a desperate man that needs a convenient wife as a mother to his daughter. It is wonderful to see how carefully each party considers this decision. They serve as an example for second marriages for all groups in America today.

My favorite book in this series is Looking for a Miracle. This is the story of Rebekah, a young woman that became wheelchair-bound after a childhood accident. Daniel, a young man near her age, struggles to prove to her that he is genuinely in love with her instead of just feeling sorry for her. I believe this book has a strong message for disabled women everywhere: it is possible to have your own business, become self-supporting, and find the love of your life. Being disabled in a wheelchair doesn’t have to be the end of your dreams.

Recommendation

You can purchase these books online at amazon.com or at your local Christian bookstore. I strongly believe they would help challenge Christian teenage girls to be a bit more choosy and less willing to compromise their faith as they seek a life partner. You can give them these books with the confidence that they are not romances filled with sex scenes and other un-Christian behavior.