The Story of David Mast

Hope for Wondering Amish hosted its monthly talk, featuring David Mast from North Carolina sharing his testimony. The ministry’s vision is to encourage Amish believers to faithfully follow Jesus and walk in living hope. David grew up in an Old Order Amish home in a large family. Although there were Christian values and Bible reading, he did not clearly understand being born again. As a teenager, after struggling with pain, guilt over sin, and inner turmoil, he surrendered his life to Jesus. That night he experienced deep peace and noticeable change—joy, desire for Scripture, and victory over certain sins. Later, reading about the fruit of the Spirit, he recognized this as genuine conversion. Without strong discipleship, he struggled at times, but continued seeking truth. After marriage, he began questioning Amish church practices—especially fellowship boundaries, hierarchy, and whether traditions aligned with Scripture. Reading the Bible in English clarified many things for him. Eventually, he and his wife moved to join a small fellowship, which led to conflict and ultimately excommunication over issues like vehicles and church authority. Through hardship and isolation, he continued seeking biblical brotherhood. Influential books such as The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down and Awake O Church helped him understand the difference between God’s kingdom and the world, emphasizing obedience to Jesus and active gospel living. He and his wife were later re-baptized with conviction that baptism is into Christ—not loyalty to a particular church structure. He described wrestling with assurance of salvation, concluding from Scripture that believers can know they are saved, while continuing to walk in faith and obedience. He was never tempted to join mainstream churches that did not practice Jesus’ teachings (such as on divorce, head covering, and nonresistance), though he admitted moments of discouragement. Today, David and his family fellowship in North Carolina in a small brotherhood focused on unity in the Spirit and living out the teachings of Christ. He closed by encouraging believers to seek Scripture with the right lens—centered on Jesus and His kingdom—and to remain faithful.

Good morning, and welcome to everybody to Hope for Wandering Amish. On this platform, we have a talk the first Saturday of each month at 6 o’clock, and we welcome you all to join us at that time. This morning, we have David Mast from Hickory, North Carolina, joining us. We’re excited to hear another testimony of God’s grace and how he worked in David’s life. Our vision here at Hope for Wondering Amish is to encourage Amish believers in particular to faithfully serve and walk with the Lord Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus. If we can encourage anybody else along the way, that’s all the better. In thinking about the word hope, and in Hope for Wandering Amish, hope in a believer’s life is a very powerful thing. It puts spring in our steps, a gleam in our eyes, and makes us look forward to tomorrow. So let’s walk in hope. Before we get started here, I’d like to have a word of prayer. Our gracious Redeemer, thank you for this opportunity this morning again to hear the testimony of how you have worked in my brother’s life. Be with David as he shares. Give him the words to speak. Give him courage to say all that you would have him to say and use this talk to the furthering of your kingdom. Thank you for the blessed reality of a living hope. May that be real in all of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen. All right, David, the time is yours. Good morning, everyone. My name is David. I grew up in an older order Amish home, and currently, we live in North Carolina. I live here with my wife and five children. Like how you said earlier, Ephraim, about hope putting a spring in our step and a gleam in our eye or something along that line, and I think that’s very true. That’s something that is a great blessing. I think of Paul, when he was writing in his letters, he describes the peace of God as the peace that passes all understanding. I believe that’s what it actually is, and it’s something we all long for. When we discover that, it’s something that passes all understanding. Or maybe I should say, when the peace of God comes into our life, especially for the first time. So I want to be sharing my testimony this morning of how I grew up older Amish. I’m going to say I grew up in a Christian home. Our home setting included Bible reading and Christian values, but it wasn’t particularly a Christian home. I’m number six in a family of 16 children, with sisters on both sides of me. The oldest brother is five years older; the next brother is, I believe, five years younger, and then there are younger brothers. Growing up, I tended to be a very independent type of person. I had the support of my siblings, like going to school—just things that happened. My personality growing up was very determined or very self-willed, you might say. An instance I can recall is that I didn’t have the greatest relationship with my dad at all. I could say that for all my siblings. I was trying to navigate being independent, while my dad had a lot of depression problems. Which I would say we probably all have some depression problem, but some of us seem to be able to deal with it better than others. I guess I’ll just jump to what led me to surrender my life to the Lord Jesus. I worked on a sawmill where we had pretty hard labor, and we weren’t afraid to work with our hands and get things done. One day, I jumped across a carriage of the sawmill, where the carriage is where the logs are put on, and I landed on a small piece of wood that twisted my ankle. I heard something distinctly pop. I went lame for a couple of days, and it bothered me, but it seemed to kind of heal up. Later on, when I was 16, it really flared up badly for me. I could work during the day, but that night, when I got off work and just after supper time and would sit down, my foot would start hurting. It would hurt so bad; it was really bad pain. There was no way I could find relief for the pain. I always think that’s probably what drove me to seek the Lord, along with things that happened during my growing up, mostly my school years. I had a tendency to lie, not on a regular basis, but I would say I was a liar. I stole some stuff, and I had a rebellion towards my parents. I don’t even remember exactly how old I was. I believe I was turning 17. One night, I went up to my room, and I felt it was a time where things were just pressing in on me. I felt very ornery, not happy, and depressed. I had a problem with swearing, and I felt that night I really felt convicted that I’m not where I need to be with God. I read my Bible, which was always in German. I had some understanding of it, but it certainly wasn’t like I understood what being born again was. I’d heard that phrase, but it was never expressed what that looks like or that that’s something that needs to happen. There was no expounding on that point about being born again or what happens when we become born again. So that night in my room, I was crying out to God. My foot was hurting me badly, and I felt terrible. I didn’t know what I needed, but I felt I needed something. I cried out to God for help. There was an empty spot, and it needed to be filled. It very distinctly came to me that I needed to make a choice: Am I going to serve God, or am I going to go into the world, live a party life, just like some people say when we’re witnessing at the bar, have a good time for a short time? It was very distinct: either I choose to serve God or I choose to go into the world—one or the other. So, by God’s grace, I chose that night. I said, “Lord, I’ll surrender my life to you. I’ll live for you forever and my life is yours.” From that time, I remember falling asleep that night, and I had peace. I felt very at peace with God. I felt like I made the right decision. I was just at rest, and I felt love toward people that I didn’t appreciate the most. What happened after that in my life was really amazing. I remember going to work, and I felt like such a different person. I was happy; I was at peace. I felt like singing; I felt like reading the Bible. I couldn’t wait to get home at night to go up to my bedroom and read my Bible, even though I was reading in German and didn’t understand everything. I could understand German, but I didn’t understand the context at all. Mostly, I understood German from what I heard preached on Sundays. At work, there was one other person I could share with, and we could talk about the Word of God and the Bible. That was about the only person I felt comfortable to share with at that time. I would have liked to share with more people, but nobody had ever shared with me, and I had never heard anybody else share with someone else, especially not during the week. On Sundays, you might talk about it some, but not during the week. I remember driving home one night, and I remember exactly where I was. I think I was singing a song. I just got off work and was driving my horse and buggy home. I stopped my song and was like, “Wow. I am a different person.” There was a sin in my life—masturbation. I had a real problem with that. Nobody had ever taught me anything about the facts of life and that masturbation was wrong, but I felt convicted that it was wrong. We were kind of left to discover those things by ourselves, which is not a good thing. I would highly say that it’s very important we teach our children these things because they will figure it out one way or another. We can either teach them and have them know it the way they ought to know it, or we can have them figure it out themselves in ways that are detrimental. Not knowing for sure if masturbation was wrong, I felt very convicted about it. I certainly didn’t want to tell anybody about it, and that completely disappeared from my life. I didn’t even realize it had disappeared until about a month later. I thought, “Wow, this is like disappeared!” I didn’t realize at the time that I had, I believe, become born again. But later, like a year and a half, two years later, when I read in Galatians about the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance—those things, I was like, “That is what happened.” After I interacted with people who talked about being born again, they explained what that looks like. I thought, “I think that happened to me back when I gave my life to the Lord and surrendered my life.” But not having discipleship and not having someone there to teach me and help me stay victorious, I was back in my sin before too long. I met my wife soon after I turned 17; we started courtship. That was the first time that it dawned on me: here’s someone that really cares about me. It was overwhelming to feel that way, having never experienced that in my home, where someone cared in a very deep way. Meeting my wife was a big blessing for me. We got married, and a couple of years later, my life hadn’t completely gone back to its old habits, but I still had one sin that had come back, and I couldn’t seem to gain victory over it. Soon after we got married, we bought a farm. I started questioning the Amish way of doing church—if it’s biblical. The main thing that brought it up was their, they call it “dina,” which would be fellowship—who they fellowship with. Some churches won’t fellowship with another church based on their material possessions or what they allow in their order’s letter. I really started questioning that. Should that be dividing us? I was trying to figure out if that was from God. If that’s not of God, then what else are we practicing that is not correct? I started reading the Bible. I started reading it in English. I remember when I first started reading it in English; we were warned about reading the Bible in English. It was said that it’s not the best or ideal; you should read in German. That was good enough for our forefathers; it’s probably good enough for us. But I started reading in English because it seemed plain and understandable. I thought, “This is probably not correct,” but then I believed it had to be because so many people use it. So I took my German dictionary and, when reading through English, I would check to make sure it was the same as the German and the meaning was the same. Finally, after doing that through maybe one of the Gospels, I thought it was just safe to read in English instead of checking all the time. Once I read it in English, the context became clearer. I felt very much like we didn’t have brotherhood. We didn’t have the “one another” teachings. There was a hierarchy in the church that wasn’t supposed to be there according to Scripture. That was not the church model you find in Scripture. We lived in Wisconsin at that time. There was a church in Buffalo, Wyoming, that my wife’s oldest sister was a part of. It was a fairly new church. Talking to my brother-in-law about their goals and what they practiced, I felt led to be a part of it. Through prayer, we prayed a lot about it. We knew this would disrupt our families, especially on both sides. All my siblings lived in the same community. My older brother talked a lot about moving to a different community, but he never did it. I felt a heavy weight on the decision. We cannot just stay where we were at. So one morning, I decided we were going to move. I brought this up to my family, and like I expected, it didn’t go down well. There were visits from my married siblings and my dad, trying to convince us that this is not the right thing to do, that the church where we would join was too liberal. We ended up moving, and I definitely feel like that was God’s leading. We had to learn how it is not to have family, a big community. This was a small community. Things didn’t turn out as we had hoped. Within that community, it felt like saying one thing, but there was no real leadership making that happen. There was a lot of discord and disagreements and gossip going on at that church. Trying to work through those things and make it where we were could accomplish our goals, I would say looking back, they were very inward-focused. Their focus was on what we want as a church instead of expressing and wanting to express the kingdom of God. We didn’t bring up the kingdom of God. We didn’t have an understanding of the kingdom of God. Or at least I didn’t. I heard a lot in church about the gospel and the kingdom of God, but they felt like the same as being born again. There was never an expounding on what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. We met a family out there attending that church, Moses Miller. He presented a book to me called *The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down*. We read that book, and wow! I started to find that I could connect the dots. It was liberating and exciting reading that book. It made sense of Scripture, putting it all together. It’s just two different kingdoms, and if we are in the kingdom of God, then our outward expression is going to show we are part of the kingdom of God. We cannot be part of the kingdom of this world and also be part of the kingdom of God. Discovering that, we had some issues where we got excommunicated. How that came about involved some young people in the community. Some of the older people felt like we were indoctrinating them in a way that was not good. We were questioned about how we felt about driving vehicles, flying planes, and things that marked the separation line between being Amish or not. We expressed that we wouldn’t excommunicate someone who drives a vehicle. That didn’t seem biblical to us. They used that as an avenue for excommunication. The hardest thing for me was when we got excommunicated; they dragged in two other families. I didn’t know them from the past. We had just met them for about a year and a half, maybe two years. I feel like they wanted to excommunicate these other families, too, because we were together. This was a difficult thing for me because they didn’t particularly want to be excommunicated. Not that I wanted to be excommunicated, but it didn’t matter too much to me. My biggest concern was being excommunicated for Jesus, because of the Word, and not because of my own desires or for reasons that aren’t biblical. I remember the day we got excommunicated; my wife wasn’t there, which was a blessing. I remember coming home and thinking, “Now what?” I was excommunicated, and I felt like my moral compass had been shaken. How do I know if I should do this or not? I felt like a fish out of water, but I knew I needed to trust in God. He had directed our path so far, and if we kept ourselves humble before Him, He would show us the way, and He did. About three months later, I started driving. We tried to work out things to be taken out of excommunication. I remember one time wanting the ministry to come and speak to us, thinking that was the biblical process. I thought that if the Amish way of living is correct, the focus was on getting to heaven instead of serving the Lord Jesus. The focus was on getting to heaven, instead of the side effects of serving Jesus. That’s where we’ll be—spending eternity with Him. There was no focus on that; it was all about getting to heaven. I don’t remember where I was going with this, but we need to focus on serving the Lord Jesus, and then we will be with Him. I read another book I wanted to mention. It was written by Barry Grant, called *Awake O Church*. That book awakened me to the need to share the gospel; it kindled a fire in me. We need to be sharing the gospel with people and be active in that area. I actually got in contact with Barry, and he was a great blessing and an encouraging brother for me. I guess I’ll continue where we started driving a vehicle. They weren’t going to accept us back into the church other than on their terms, and we felt those terms were unbiblical. I went to the extent of saying we would be denying Jesus if we came back and accepted what they required. We moved to a different place in Wyoming, which was out in the middle of nowhere. We lived there for nine or eleven months, and through that time, it was probably one of the most trying times in our lives. We were all alone, with only each other. Our oldest child was five, and we had three children at that time. It was a time of growth, a time of blessing, but it was also very difficult, and we were seeking fellowship. We wanted to find where to go. I know people can say one thing, but if they practice another, I didn’t want to be a part of it. I wanted to be sure that what they were saying aligned with what they were practicing. I cried out to God to lead us in the right direction. I felt very much we needed brotherhood. We can’t fulfill all the Scriptures just by ourselves. I call them the “one another” teachings in the Bible—the things we should do to each other. Like Galatians 6, where it says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” I think that’s a powerful Scripture; we fulfill the law of Christ by bearing one another’s burdens. We ended up, God led us to North Carolina, where we joined a koinonia Christian fellowship, and that’s where we are fellowshipping at this time. We find it a great blessing to be here with Brother Mark and his family, having brothers and sisters—and having the unity of the Spirit. Instead of having a spirit of unity, as I feel like the Amish strive for a spirit of unity, they want unity, but the method they use to obtain that unity isn’t correct according to Scripture. I would be open to correction on that; I do question it. There’s one thing I skipped over; I think I started talking about the ministry. I was wishing the ministry would come to us and speak to us. I thought that was their obligation to bring us back to the church. But they never came. I can recall only one time—it was my dad, my brother, and one of my brother-in-law’s—that it came up regarding knowing if we were saved. I quoted the verse, “By this you know you have eternal life.” What does that mean? If we’re not loving the brethren, then it would stand to reason we don’t know if we’re going to be saved. The focus for many in the Amish community is on getting to heaven. If we’re doing this by faith, then we know we’re saved. It’s a continual thing—not a once-and-done type of condition. Salvation is an instantaneous thing; sanctification is a process. I would say that assurance was definitely something we had to work through. I was questioned about that when we were excommunicated. One thing that distinctly comes to mind is when they said, “David, you can’t leave because of what you promised when you were baptized.” When you get baptized, you promise to stay with that church, may it lead to life or death. I remember distinctly when I got baptized—my wife and I got baptized at the same time when I was 17. When they asked if I promised to stay with this church, I felt uncomfortable about it, but I answered, “Yes.” I believed they referred to the church as the Amish church, the Amish kingdom. Three different times, three different people spoke to me and said we need to return because of what we promised at our baptism. I said, “I promised to serve the Lord Jesus and not a church. I was baptized into the Lord Jesus.” It turns out that we were not baptized into the Lord Jesus to be His disciple. They used the Scriptures, and they brought an end to baptizing us into their church. We did get re-baptized. I struggled with that for quite some time, but I felt at peace when I decided to go ahead and get re-baptized, and I do not regret that we did that. I think that’s where I’ll stop, and if somebody has questions, comments, or rebukes, I’d be very happy to share. All right, thank you, David, for sharing all of that. That was very interesting and edifying—how you went from reading the Scriptures and solid literature and searching to finding your way to a small brotherhood in North Carolina. The question I have for you is, were you ever tempted to just go mainstream? Just find some church in town that says they love Jesus but doesn’t really put a lot of Jesus’ teachings into practice? Were you ever tempted to go that route, and why didn’t you? That’s a very good question, a very important question we all need to ask ourselves. No, I would say I never was tempted to do that, but I would say I was tempted to throw it all out. I would have either thrown it all out or felt that the easy-grace, rock band, smoke-and-lights type of churches—that’s not what the Bible teaches. I was tempted to throw it all out during hard times, but that passed quickly. The discouraging part was seeing many people profess to know the Lord, but not doing what He says—seeing their lives not match what Scripture plainly teaches. One of the main reasons I told people that we couldn’t find a church in Wyoming, despite the many churches around, is that there was not one church I could be comfortable becoming a part of. They weren’t willing to accept what the Bible teaches about divorce and remarriage. They don’t practice head covering, which is very clear in 1 Corinthians 11. They don’t act on the ideal resistance that Jesus teaches. I never felt tempted to join one of those churches, and I’ve attended those types of churches. I think people who have a temptation to do that need to read their Bibles. If they see these three points I brought up and how they do not practice what the Bible teaches, it should be reason enough not to join. If they are willing to practice what the Bible teaches, great, but if not, don’t be a part of it. We likely tell ourselves we’re not influenced by who we surround ourselves with or what content we take in, but that’s one of the biggest things that helped me navigate. When we discovered technology and started using it, we didn’t have anyone else to consult. We had to make convictions, and we needed to rid ourselves of false senses of guilt regarding that which was not wrong. Living there in Wyoming was a very growing time for me, where I navigated through three years. People don’t practice head covering; they don’t follow the biblical reasons for divorce and remarriage; they don’t follow the ideal resistance to violence. Also, we see many people who leave the Amish and go to mainstream, smoke-and-lights type of churches. It may be a lack of information. If you seek the information, it’s available. We aren’t lacking in information, but rather, we need to be intentional about navigating what is good information to believe—and discarding what’s bad. This is a blessing, for we can be intentional about it. Thank you for that. So thirsting after the living word is what will keep us going the right way. I appreciate that. Is there anyone else that has any comments or questions for David? Good morning, Brother David. I really appreciate what you shared here this morning. You brought up the book you read, *The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down*. That book has been revolutionary for a lot of people. The thing is, we all read the Bible with a certain lens. When we read the Bible, it should be through the lens of what Jesus taught, how Jesus lived, and all of that, then it will make a lot more sense. *The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down* really explains the contrast between the kingdom of God and this world, clarifying what our marching orders are in the kingdom of God based on what Jesus taught. There are so many churches that seem to divert so much from the truth. It makes it hard to make the connection to Christ and His teachings. Thank you for sharing, and I’m encouraged that we can make a difference moving forward. Thank you, brother Elam. We want to be faithful. The Bible states that even if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful. That’s a blessing. God is faithful. It’s not that God fails; it is that we may lack honest hearts or are not searching. God gives us a hunger and thirst for the Word if we pursue it, and He will not refuse us if we humble ourselves before Him and ask. I wanted to mention the book. I don’t know if you can see it, but that’s the book, *The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down*, in case someone wants to find it. I would highly recommend that book, especially for those from an Amish background. It has good points, and it was a great blessing for me. If we claim to be Christians, and if we are truly followers of Christ, His teachings must be at the center of our lives. There’s a lot of confusion, and it keeps us from being fruitful. If Christ is at the core of our lives, following Him should align with following His teachings. I feel like *The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down* has assisted me in seeing some of these things more clearly. I appreciate that. Is there anyone else who has any thoughts before we close? I guess I should also mention, it’s not that the Bible isn’t enough. We also have the Holy Spirit. The problem has been the lenses we use to read the Bible. We need the proper lenses, and Christ Jesus gives us those lenses in reading Scriptures in light of His teachings—this also applies to us today. Yeah, that’s well said. Thank you, Elam. Okay, is there anyone else? I am very encouraged by you, David, from this morning and your sharing. I had a parallel experience. My question is, I don’t recall if you mentioned it, but what about assurance of salvation? In the denomination from which I was excommunicated, assurance of salvation was a significant issue for me. I’m wondering if that came up for you as well. As to assurance, growing up Amish, you often didn’t know if you were saved or not. I think that’s pretty scary. If you don’t know you’re saved, you better acknowledge that you need to repent if you recognize you’re a sinner. I need to understand that sinners do not go to heaven—only saints do. Former sinners will be with the Lord Jesus, not sinners. So if I say I’m a sinner, I better repent and give my life to Him. No, that was something we navigated through as well—how we can know we are saved without being accused of heresy, especially against those who left the Amish and claimed assurance of salvation. The Bible doesn’t teach that; it teaches we can know we’re saved. We need to live according to Scripture. If any man falls, we have an advocate with the Father. It doesn’t say, “when you fall,” it says, “if.” There’s a possibility of walking upright and being—yeah, I would say that was definitely something we worked through, just navigating what it looks like to walk in faith and do right things out of faith—not out of fear of losing salvation. Does that answer your question? If not, please redirect me more specifically. I appreciate that. All right, very good. It’s been a good morning here; we’re almost at seven o’clock. I’ll give one more chance for someone to say something before we close. All right, well, thank you, David, for coming on and sharing your life story. May God be glorified, and may you continue to walk with Him. May we all grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and be faithful witnesses until He returns. David, would you close us in prayer, please? Yes, thank you for having me. I appreciate the vision for Hope for Wandering Amish. I think it’s a good vision, and I encourage you to continue. Let’s have a word of prayer. Father, we come before you, thankful that we’re called your children through your Son, Jesus. Thank you for redemption. Thank you for what you did on that cross for us. Thank you for the resurrection, Lord, and that we can have life and have it abundantly through your Son. Lord, I pray that you would bless each of these brothers as they go out today. Work with us; guide and direct us. I pray that your kingdom would be built up, that your name would be glorified, and help us to be your hands and feet, bringing good news to those wandering in darkness and sin. Thank you for all the many blessings. We love you, and we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.