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    By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)
    By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)
    By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)
    Ebook141 pages2 hours

    By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)

    By Helen Keating

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    About this ebook

    With God’s Love And Faith: Western Mail Order Bride Glory Arrives On The Prairie, is an emotionally rich story about a lonely older man who lives almost hermit-like in his old cabin in the middle of the prairie. Native Americans pass by, then soldiers, then settlers in their various shapes and sizes of covered wagons. One day, an old man named Jonah shows up and Benjamin becomes his friend -- the only true one he’s had in a very long time. When Jonah gets it into his head to ‘order up’ a mail order bride, Ben helps him build a wondrous cabin filled with intricate carvings and carefully chosen decorations. Almost complete, something happens that makes Ben’s entire world collapse and he doesn’t know if he’ll survive. This is a beautiful story, and one full of Christian values and love.

    The Power Of Grace, is a beautiful love story about one young Amish couple who had planned to get married when they were permitted to do so. One horrible lie told by a young woman throws the entire community into chaos and splits Jacob and Grace Ella apart. It’s only when the woman confesses that things may start to be pulled together once again. The only problem is, unable to stand all of the changes in her life now that she cannot be with Jacob, Grace Ella runs off and the brothers of both families set out to find her. This is a story about love, faith, sin and joy, and ultimately--the power of grace and forgiveness.

    A Raggedy Ann For Georgi Anna, is the story of one young woman and her family who decide to leave their Amish community in Pennsylvania and move to Illinois and to a much smaller farm. The entire family enjoys meeting others in the community but Naomi also makes friends with a non-Amish woman and her little daughter, who has bright golden curls. She doesn’t know why she becomes strongly attached to the pair, but then she also meets a young man who will also be a major part of her own future. How all four people interlink with one another is amazing and the theme throughout this emotional story is one of love and understanding God’s will.

    Jacob’s Dream, is a story about when Jacob saw Mary, a new member of their congregation, for the first time and he knew immediately that marriage would be a possibility for his future. He wanted desperately to have a family and when Mary helped him in the kitchen, he realized that he'd have to tell her his dark secret before much more time elapsed, and he lost all chances of having a son.

    Amish Anna Finds Love: Dark Family Secrets Revealed, is the story of a young woman who has always, since they were little, had trouble interacting with her sister who remains aloof, spiteful and vindictive. Anna doesn’t know why she’s like this and it all seems to come to a head when Katie returns from her rumspringa and Anna reveals her new love for the boy on the next farm over. The trouble is, he is not of the Amish faith and Katie does everything in her power to ruin her sister’s life. Anna is on the verge of being excommunicated while her love, Reeves, stands firm in his support of her. The ending is both emotional and revealing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSusan Hart
    Release dateFeb 21, 2015
    ISBN9781311804150
    By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)

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      Book preview

      By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories) - Helen Keating

      By The Grace Of God (Five Contemporary & Historical Amish & Christian Stories)

      By

      Helen Keating

      Copyright 2015 Quietly Blessed & Loved Press

      Smashwords Edition

      With God’s Love And Faith: Western Mail Order Bride Glory Arrives On The Prairie

      The Power Of Grace

      A Raggedy Ann For Georgi Anna

      Jacob’s Dream

      Amish Anna Finds Love: Dark Family Secrets Revealed

      With God’s Love And Faith: Western Mail Order Bride Glory Arrives On The Prairie

      Synopsis: With God’s Love And Faith: Western Mail Order Bride Glory Arrives On The Prairie, is an emotionally rich story about a lonely older man who lives almost hermit-like in his old cabin in the middle of the prairie. Native Americans pass by, then soldiers, then settlers in their various shapes and sizes of covered wagons. One day, an old man named Jonah shows up and Benjamin becomes his friend -- the only true one he’s had in a very long time. When Jonah gets it into his head to ‘order up’ a mail order bride, Ben helps him build a wondrous cabin filled with intricate carvings and carefully chosen decorations. Almost complete, something happens that makes Ben’s entire world collapse and he doesn’t know if he’ll survive. This is a beautiful story, and one full of Christian values and love.

      Benjamin was almost forty but he was feeling much older. He’d been alone and secluded for so long that he felt like an old hermit; like one of those fur trapping coots that lived all alone up in the mountains. Benjamin didn’t live in the mountains, though. He couldn’t even see a mountain if he rode for three days in any direction from the modest cabin he had built for himself out on the prairie.

      For a long time, Ben’s place was the only permanent settlement anywhere near. The only other people he ever saw were the Indians who only came through after the herds, maybe setting up camps for a few days but always moving along soon after. That was their way of life and Ben certainly wasn’t going to try to interfere with it in any way.

      The Indians considered Benjamin a sort of primitive heathen. Benjamin had long since given up on looking down on anybody, but he knew that there were plenty of other white men who looked upon the Indians like they were far less than primitive heathens. Ben just never got the taste for hate like some of the people he’d known had.

      Over the years, he’d even been able to establish some semblance of a relationship with a couple of the tribes. A few braves had picked up a little bit of English and were eager to find a bargain when they thought they could. They’d come to Ben and trade a little tobacco or whatever else there was.

      There was a respectful peace between them and Benjamin, of course he kept his hair cut short just to be careful. He sure didn’t want to see any of them trading his own beloved scalp away. There’d been a couple of times when a young squaw had caught Benjamin’s eye. Every now and then some pretty, young Indian girl might shoot a little smile his way and his old heart would go to thumping in his chest and his tongue would swell up in his mouth.

      Ben’s bald head would start to bead up with sweat and his mind would start running a lot faster than the rest of him could keep up with. Those Indian girls wouldn’t have understood him anyway, but even if he could speak every language the world had ever known, the nervousness that welled up inside him would have rendered him mute the second he got started.

      The braves and even some of the chiefs laughed about Ben’s jitteriness whenever a squaw caught his eye. The young braves would rather dare the girls to go and bat their eyelashes at Benjamin just so they could watch him unravel. It was good-natured ribbing of course, a practical joke that spanned the barrier of their differing languages and Ben never let himself get steamed about it.

      As a kind of personal policy, Benjamin kept his temper good and subdued. He hadn’t drawn his gun, raised his fist or even raised his voice to anyone in almost twenty years. Of course living on his own, far from the hustlers and the agitators of a life in town made it easy to avoid such confrontation.

      Out on the prairie there wasn’t anyone trying to prove himself or herself to anybody and for it there was little worry. Benjamin enjoyed the solitude. It gave his mind the space to spread out and unravel itself a bit so that every thought and each experience could be thoroughly explored and analyzed. There had been times that he found himself feeling just a little too comfortable with the solitude.

      Ben would sometimes catch himself talking aloud to nobody at all, sometimes even cracking himself up with laughter. More than once he’d only realized he was even doing it when he’d turn and suddenly see some Indians watching him curiously from the tall grasses. He’d become instantly aware of how foolish he must seem.

      Surely the natives thought that he was crazy, but that didn’t bother Ben much either. Benjamin might clam up with embarrassment for a day after but soon he’d be talking to himself again or acting foolish out on the plain someplace.

      After a while though, the Indians didn’t come around so much anymore. The buffalo herds weren’t coming by much more either and when they did, the herd was smaller and smaller every time. Soon, the few bands of Indians that came through were getting smaller as well.

      They weren’t the natives that Benjamin had befriended any longer. They kept to themselves and they eyed Ben with cold suspicion from afar. The beautiful Indian girls didn’t come by.

      Soon, the soldiers came. They were a nuisance upon the land; an ugly, blue scar that cut across the prairie with ever increasing frequency. It wasn’t long before the soldiers were coming by far more regularly than the Indians. They looked upon Benjamin with self-righteous indignation as they’d go riding through, trampling his work and spooking his horses.

      They’d hunt down or scare away all the game for miles, leaving Benjamin hungry unless he wanted to trek long distances into the woods upon strange territory to see if he could kill himself some food. The soldiers left the ripped and messy pelts and carcasses of any animals they’d taken behind them.

      Sometimes they’d shoot a deer or some rabbits just for the sport of it and not even take the meat. They left a trail of rot and stink everywhere they went and Ben quickly became real sick of them.

      Eventually, a troop of young men in stiff, clean uniforms rode up to Benjamin’s home directly. The first of them, a young buck with a puffed out chest came trampling his fancy horse right over some of the seedlings Ben was planting in a little plot near the house.

      Ben looked up at the pompous young man and he wasn’t even graced with a nod. The young blowhard started calling out a grocery list to Benjamin like he was putting in his order at the general store. Ben just looked up at him, one eye closed against the high sun, scratching his baldhead as he let the darned fool run through his whole list.

      Finally, he finished.

      Benjamin looked down at his trampled plot and laughed. It had been so long since he’d laughed to anyone else that the sound of it was near unsettling. Even the horse seemed to shift his weight nervously as the soldier was clearly taken aback.

      I haven’t seen any of those things in a long time soldier. Benjamin smiled up at the man.

      The rest of the troops were already dismounting and milling around the outside of Ben’s house, turning their noses at everything they laid their eyes on. The soldier before Benjamin leaned over the side of his horse towards Ben, with a nasty grimace.

      You mean to tell me that you have not a single one of these provisions old man, he demanded of Benjamin.

      Ben felt the warmth of a spark he had not known in a very long time lighting up in the pit of his stomach at the soldier’s insult. It felt strangely welcome in the current situation. He still grinned at the ridiculousness of the blowhard. Benjamin took a step towards him, backing him up in the saddle.

      What I mean to tell you son is that you boys are probably gonna want to just keep on ridin’. Ben assured the young man quietly.

      The soldier was taken aback by what he deemed a brazen show of disrespect. He scoffed and was speechless for maybe the first time in his life. Benjamin had been away a long time but he’d done his duty as a soldier when he was young too. He’d never been such a pompous ass as the puffed up mudsill before him though.

      Ben had an understanding of people that this kid would never know. He could tell by the look in the soldier’s eyes that he was letting a fury run away with him on the inside and he was about to do something stupid. Ben wasn’t angry but he was no dummy. He put his hands on his hips. He might have looked calm and relaxed but he was plenty poised.

      We’re going to take a look for ourselves and we’ll just take what we want then, the soldier growled threateningly.

      You can take a look from a mile or two down the trail and you can take your stink with you.

      Benjamin nodded to him, speaking steadily as he brought his gracious offer to the negotiation.

      Again, the young soldier huffed. He reared back, his face a bright red mask of anger as he raised his clenched fist to the air. Benjamin’s movement was fluid and quick. He stepped towards the man and was pressing the barrel of his gun into the soldier’s ribs before he could even finish his wind up for the punch.

      The soldier’s jaw fell open and his eyes bulged as he realized the ‘old man’ had gotten the drop on him. Benjamin grinned up at him casually. The soldier’s mouth moved slightly, warming up to call to the others.

      Oh, let’s just keep this between us son. Benjamin interrupted him before he could muster a holler.

      The soldier stared down at the revolver angrily.

      You think you can kill a fifteen man troop with five shots. We’re going to gut you and…. His anger was getting away with him. He was used to punishing even the slightest threats with quick and fierce brutality. The soldier’s voice shook with fury as he threatened Benjamin in a hush.

      Ben chuckled, interrupting the gore that was sure to fill the young man’s fancy speech.

      Ha ,ha, no sir…I like you best. He winked up at the furious soldier as he pulled the hammer back on his pistol. I’m gonna give you all five shots and your friends can do whatever they feel is right after that.

      Ben nodded his guarantee to the man with a smile.

      The redness drained from the soldier’s face at the sound of the hammer clicking into place and he became sickly pale. The sweat broke across his brow in tiny, glistening beads. He took another look at the gun. Benjamin’s hand didn’t waver in the slightest.

      He lifted his head up to meet Ben’s and was terrified to see the old man’s smile hadn’t wavered either. He seemed perfectly content with the prospect of losing his life and he was sure to take the soldier along.

      The young man gulped hard and straightened himself out.

      Well… He said lowering his hand and smoothing his blue jacket as Benjamin eased the gun back an inch, "I suppose since you don’t have any of the provisions we seek,

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