Focus on Faith: The story of an Amish woman

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Updated: 11:59 AM Jul 21, 2009 Focus on Faith: The story of an Amish woman An Elkhart woman left the Amish culture years ago and says she wants to share both the beautiful and ugly sides of the culture. Posted: 9:30 AM Jan 11, 2009	Lucinda Streiker-Schmidt

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Lucinda Streiker-Schmidt grew up on an Amish farm in Indiana and has nothing but fond, loving memories of her childhood. Yet, throughout her early life, Lucinda never stopped questioning the differences between her life and the "outside society." When she got a little older, Lucinda experienced the horrors of abuse, incest, neglect and emotional torment after being forced to marry into another Amish family.

Lucinda left the Amish community and is now a nurse living in Elkhart with two grown children. She wants to share both the beauty and ugly side of the closed culture she grew up in. Lucinda says women and children don't have a voice, and she hopes to offer them one.

Lucinda writes about her experiences in a book called, "A Separate God: Journal of an Amish Girl."

The book explains how far Lucinda has come in her life, but as she says, "The pain of breaking away never completely dissipated. To this day I am haunted by the loss."

If you'd like to hear Lucinda's thoughts from our Focus on Faith segment, click on the video icon above.

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