The only thing farther from the quiet, peaceful life Elam Stoltzfus always thought he’d lead as an Amish man in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was the country he ended up calling home with his wife and children in 1972.
Settling in northern Guatemala, Elam began a great adventure with his family, living on a houseboat on the Passion River. His children awoke every morning and swam with the crocodiles. His wife cooked bananas, and canned iguana meat. In a dozen villages along the river, the family planted churches. And on the four-hundred-acre property they settled, complete with buried Mayan temples, they opened a medical clinic where Elam became a self-taught jungle doctor.
Nineteen years later, communist guerrillas swept into the mission compound, looted and burned the family's home, the medical clinic, canning center, and the mission's airplanes. Elam had thought the hardest thing he ever had to do was to leave his Amish life behind—until he had to stand with his wife and children amidst the burnt ruins of their life’s work, and watch as his 23-year-old son was taken hostage, off into the night.
It’s a life Elam Stoltzfus never could have dreamed of, and a life readers will never forget.
Settling in northern Guatemala, Elam began a great adventure with his family, living on a houseboat on the Passion River. His children awoke every morning and swam with the crocodiles. His wife cooked bananas, and canned iguana meat. In a dozen villages along the river, the family planted churches. And on the four-hundred-acre property they settled, complete with buried Mayan temples, they opened a medical clinic where Elam became a self-taught jungle doctor.
Nineteen years later, communist guerrillas swept into the mission compound, looted and burned the family's home, the medical clinic, canning center, and the mission's airplanes. Elam had thought the hardest thing he ever had to do was to leave his Amish life behind—until he had to stand with his wife and children amidst the burnt ruins of their life’s work, and watch as his 23-year-old son was taken hostage, off into the night.
It’s a life Elam Stoltzfus never could have dreamed of, and a life readers will never forget.
