The Courage to Love: An Amish Homecoming Story

By Shelley Shepard Gray

An Amish Homecoming story from bestselling author Shelley Shepard Grey.

After the death of her Englisch husband, Irene Keim seeks a fresh start by staying with her new friends Mary Ruth and Henry Wengerd in exchange for helping them around the house. But when Mary Ruth and Henry’s son Marcus comes around, he isn’t pleased with the woman they’ve taken in and is determined to push her out. Misunderstandings abound, but both Irene and Marcus learn that people aren’t always what they seem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9780785218340

Shelley Shepard Gray

Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town's bike trail.  Find Shelley on her website: ShelleyShepardGray.com; on Facebook: ShelleyShepardGray; Twitter: @ShelleySGray.

Book preview

COPYRIGHT

ZONDERVAN

The Courage to Love

Copyright © 2018 by Shelley Sabga

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN: 978-0-7852-1834-0 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

CIP data is available upon request.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America

18 19 20 21 22 / LSC / 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Copyright

Glossary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Discussion Questions

Acknowledgments

About the Author

To Annie Sturt. Thank you for all of your

kindness and support. Irene’s story is for you!

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

—JOSHUA 1:9 NLT

Experience is a different teacher, giving you the test first and the lesson later.

—AMISH PROVERB

GLOSSARY

ach (also ack): oh

aenti: aunt

appeditlich: delicious

bedauerlich: sad

boppli: baby

brot: bread

bruder, bruders: brother, brothers

bruderskinner: nieces and nephews

bu, buwe: boy, boys

Budget, The: a weekly newspaper serving Amish and Mennonite communities everywhere

daadi: grandfather

daadihaus (also daadi haus, dawdi haus): grandparents’ house, usually a smaller dwelling on the same property

danki: thank you

daed (also dat): dad

Die Botschaft: a weekly correspondent newspaper that includes reports from scribes in many Amish settlements across the nation

dochder: daughter

English, Englisher (also Englisch, Englischer): non-Amish

familye, familyes: family, families

fraa (also frau): wife

freind, freinden: friend, friends

froh: happy

gegisch: silly

geh: go

gern gschehne: you’re welcome

Gott: God

grossmutter: grandmother

Gude mariye: Good morning

gut: good

Gut nacht (also Gute nacht): Good night

haus: house

Ich liebe dich: I love you

jah: yes

kaffi (also kaffee): coffee

kapp: prayer covering or cap

kichli, kichlin: cookie, cookies

kind, kinner: child, children

lieb: love

liewe: love, a term of endearment

maedel, maed: young woman or girl, young women or girls

mamm: mom

mammi: grandmother

mann: husband or man

mei: my

mudder: mother

naut: night

nee: no

nix: nothing

nohma: name

onkel: uncle

Ordnung: the written and unwritten rules of the Amish; the understood behavior by which the Amish are expected to live, passed down from generation to generation. Most Amish know the rules by heart.

Pennsylvania Deutsch: the language most commonly used by the Amish. Although widely known as Pennsylvania Dutch, the language is actually a form of German (Deutsch).

Plain: the Amish way of life

rumschpringe (also rumspringa): running-around period when a teenager turns sixteen years old

schee: pretty

schmaert: smart

schtupp: family room

schwester: sister

sohn: son

vatter: father

Was iss letz?: What’s wrong?

wunderbaar: wonderful

ya: yes

yer, yerself: your, yourself

CHAPTER 1

When was the last time she’d laughed so much? Irene Keim couldn’t remember.

But maybe it didn’t matter anyway. Not really. All that mattered was that she was sitting at Mary Ruth and Henry Wengerd’s kitchen table playing Clue by candlelight. She was sipping hot spiced cider, listening to a roaring fire in the stone hearth, and enjoying a large platter of Rice Krispies treats she’d made herself. She made them even more special by adding creamy peanut butter to the marshmallow mixture and a layer of chocolate coating on top.

So far, Henry had eaten four.

He was also grinning from ear to ear. Irene, you really don’t think that shady Mr. Green did it with the rope?

"Nee, Henry, she said around another giggle. Mary Ruth already told us she had Mr. Green’s card."

Huh.

Mary Ruth, Henry’s wife of forty years, leaned back with a sigh. No matter how much I try to get him to think like a detective, he doesn’t seem to make any progress.

Henry didn’t look fazed by the criticism one bit. "It’s gut that murder and mayhem ain’t in your life, then. Ain’t so?"

Mary Ruth’s expression softened, and her pale skin turned a pretty peach color in the flickering glow of the fire. Indeed.

When she rolled the dice again, then took her sweet time trying to decide which room to investigate next, Irene sipped her cider and took a moment to give thanks that murder and mayhem weren’t in her life either.

However, the fact that they once had been still made her insides raw. Less than a year ago she was involved in a terrible situation with her best friend Alice. The father of one of Alice’s preschool students had threatened to shoot both Alice and Irene while they stood on a frozen pond. She’d never been so scared in her life.

But even though that moment had been terrible, what kept Irene up at night was what had happened next. Her unexpected hero, West, an Englisher and most unsavory, had run onto the ice to save them. And he did indeed save them. But he lost his own life in the process.

Irene didn’t think she’d ever be able to erase the image of him falling through the ice. She still woke up at least once a night gasping from the horror of it.

After she recovered from the traumatic experience,