Amish culture and breaking free, Part 1

PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved.

That community; the Amish.

Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana.

However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery.

What you're about to see is a rare glimpse of Amish life from a family now excommunicated from the Amish order.

The Fisher family rises early every morning.

When our News 10 crew gets to the family's farm, the children are just waking up.

Minutes later, their working on the first item on the list: milking the cow.

On the way over to the barn, Uncle Levi and 11-year-old Isaac speak a language we can't understand.

It's called Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

Pennsylvania is where many of the Amish have origins.

From there, Amish families spread across the United States, some making stops right here in the Wabash Valley.

For six years, parts of the Fisher family moved to the mountains of Virginia; then came here.

In 2004, in Parke County, their life changed.

"The church would not tolerate us anymore and so they put us out and that's why we are not Amish, although to you, it'd be hard to see the difference," Levi Fisher said

The Indiana Amish ex-communicated the Fisher family because they were baptized and believe in more spirituality and religion.

"They do baptize, they do believe in baptism, but it's only in the titles. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It's not in the name of Jesus Christ," Fisher said.

Before that though, he needed a sign.

"After my sickness, the Lord told us to be baptized, and we agreed. And the sickness, why he healed us, so we'll be baptized, so about a week and a half later I guess, we were baptized," he said.

The family's future is based on signs from the Lord and the Bible.

The Fishers live off their land.

"I wouldn't want to go to public school anywhere. I like to be at home," Isaac Fisher said.

"We don't really have another business, but farming," Levi Fisher said.

Next, feed the chickens.

As we get back to the house, the sun starts coming up, and so does the topic of freedom.

"Jesus gave his life on calvary. He died on the cross so you and I could be free. And how can we be free if we decide to be a slave?" Levi Fisher said.

The family, along with other Amish families make sure they're separate from what they call the rest of the world, a deceptive corporation.

"God is going to destroy America, but it's the people that are going to do it," Fisher said.