A Different Kind of Amish by Mark Miller

A Different Kind of Amish

I’ll be the first to admit “Promise of Tomorrow” is not a traditional Amish story. Come on, what’s the last Amish story you read with a spaceship in it?

That’s the whole point. I wanted to do something different. I like to think I am progressive in my beliefs and willing to take a chance on my writing. Does it always work? No. However, if I don’t try, I’ll never know. In the end, I think I accomplished my goal – to tell a story of faith.

“Promise of Tomorrow” is not about space travel or aliens. It’s not even set in the far future.  It’s about a family and their faith. It’s about real life, like raising children and meeting people with different beliefs. The story takes place about fifty years from now. The Earth is in trouble. Spoiler Alert: the Earth is already in trouble (overpopulating, pollution, resource depletion, global warming, war). My premise is that a forward-thinking company, Adam Corp, sees the problem and builds a fleet of ships to evacuate the dying planet. This is an “Englische” corporation that tries to accommodate as many as possible. They go so far as to dedicate one ship almost exclusively to the Amish. Oh, that was another idea – over the next fifty years, I purport that the Amish lifestyle will be the fastest growing religion. That is why they get their own ship and are not lumped in with other Christians. The ship is piloted by “Englische” and an interesting crew with a secret of its own.

Here is where the family comes into the story. A 40-ish father, Luke Umble is trying to do what he thinks is best for his family. He does not realize it, but his faith is not as strong as he believes. He worries about the safety of his children. Then he is faced with the literal possibility of their death. He sees his only choice is escaping on one of the “Englische” ships, like Noah’s Ark.

As soon as the story takes off into the science fiction universe, enter the real life issues: the love is fading from his marriage; his father is resistant to change; his oldest son wants to leave the faith; his oldest daughter “falls for” someone outside of the faith; his daughter with Muscular Dystrophy is being bullied. On top of all that, the ship is plagued with problems. They deal with food shortages and technology limitations. Luke and his family go from totally avoiding technology to being completely dependent on it.

Then things really get bad. Luke asks himself, “How far will you go to keep your faith?”

The complete story is available from Helping Hands Press in a six volume series for ONLY 99 Cents each. As a thank you to my blog host today, I invite you to read Volume One: Salvation for FREE. Simply leave a comment on this blog to get your FREE story. The complete edition will be coming soon in eBook and paperback.

You can find more from me at:

My Blog: www.EmpyricalTales.com

My Site: www.MillerWords.com

My Facebook: www.FB.com/MarkMillerAuthor

My Twitter: @AuthorMark

Mark Miller currently resides in Florida with his wife and four children. Mark has written numerous novels, screenplays, short stories and digital series. He has geared his fantasy series, The Empyrical Tales, for the classroom and explored his spirituality, writing both with his father and daughter. Inspirational stories with positive messages are his goal with everything he writes.