As I write this, last night I went to a performance put on
by the Rock Run Amish Youth Program music group. When I say “youth,” this means single Amish
young people between the ages of sixteen and marriage, which can often be mid-
or late twenties. There are several
Amish youth centers in the area—the Cove in Shipshewana, and Rock Run near
Millersburg are two of them. They
sponsor all kinds of activities and sports leagues for the local Amish youth,
and are a place for them to “hang out” and meet people.
Anyway, last night was the first performance—“family night.” There will be four more performances open to
the public, on upcoming Friday and Saturday evenings. So there I was, with perhaps 300-400 family
members of the performers—one of only a handful of “English” people in the large pole barn at
the youth center. My good friend Joni
was one of the youth involved in the program, and I was sitting with a dozen of
his family members, ages infant to eighty.
I’ve been to a few of these youth concerts before, but this
one was special.
Backtracking:
Last May, there was a terrible accident in Amish
Indiana. A young man named Rudy (names
changed) was riding his bike home from an evening with his friends when he was
killed by a drunk driver. The driver was
his childhood friend, an Amish kid gone wild.
(Perhaps I’ll write about that another time—that story is still
evolving.) The visitation and funeral
lasted two full days and brought together many, many hundreds of Rudy’s friends
and family.
Rudy’s best friend was Joni, the young man I know so well. It’s been a hard summer for all of Rudy’s
friends. They have spent nearly every
Saturday night at Rudy’s parents’ home.
In Amish Indiana, friends become like family. And Rudy had been one of
the youth participating in the Rock Run music program.
So, back to last night:
I found myself at the concert, and it was a nice one—plays
and songs, lasting almost 2½ hours—some humorous, some serious. The theme on the cover doesn’t seem so ‘depressing’
when you consider what was in the kids’ minds and hearts—Rudy, their absent
friend.
Each performer’s name was also listed in the program, along with
the names of their parents—typical of the close family ties in this
community. First on the list was Rudy. His parents and a dozen other relatives sat
together, women in their black dresses of mourning, two rows in front of us. A side table held a beautiful bouquet of red
roses—one for each youth in the program, and one white rose, for Rudy.
At one point late in the concert, the kids sang a song that
was particularly meaningful to Rudy. As
they sang it, each one held a lit candle.
After the song, they silently filed down the side stairs of the stage
and placed their lit candles on the table in front of the roses.
There were tears in a lot of eyes, including mine. But it was a wonderful way for his friends to
honor Rudy, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!