The Shepherds’ Story

The Shepherds’ Story

After seeing [the baby], the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished.

Luke 2:17-18

Have you shared any good news lately? I’m thankful that I’m able to share the Good News of Jesus through the written word and in that way touch the lives of people I’ll never be able to meet. What an honor to tell others what Jesus has done in my life!

The Amish community does this, too, through their own publishing company. A distributor of their books states “Many Amish and Mennonite church schools, as well as homeschool families, use Pathway’s popular Pathway Readers series. . . . Pathway also publishes numerous juvenile and adult fiction titles, as well as books on marriage, family life, and Amish beliefs and way of life.” And it all started on an ordinary day in 1964:

The planning for this enterprise began in a wheatfield, as sheaves were being loaded for threshing, when two Amish farmers, David Wagler and Joseph Stoll, discussed the possibility of starting an Amish publishing company. Both men knew of old books that they believed should be reprinted. At the same time, an Amish minister had written a manuscript, “Worth Dying For,” and was seeking a publisher. Wagler decided to open a bookstore and mail-order service in his farm home. The following year a third Amish farmer, Jacob Eicher, an experienced operator of threshing machines and sawmills, volunteered to operate a printing press. . . .

The offices of Pathway Publishers are housed in a single building on Rural Route 4, Aylmer, Ontario. There are no electric wires running from the community’s power line to the building, for the presses and “electric” typewriters are operated with hydraulic fluid from a diesel motor.

All of us have been asked to proclaim the work of Jesus. Some do it with their voices, others through the written word. Sometimes God calls people who are well-schooled and well-funded to spread His Good News, but all He really needs—as Pathway Publishers proves—is a few humble servants with willing hearts.

Dear heavenly Father, I am astonished by how amazing You are. Use me in whatever manner You wish, for I know You’ll go with me.