Barn Raising: Thoughts on Going Through Change with the Help of Others

In the summer of 1983, a tornado cut its way through rolling hills of Holmes County, Ohio. It only took twenty minutes to gouge 15 acres of land, destroying a forest of magnificent, 100-year-old hard woods. Trees weren’t the only casualty that day. Four Amish barns were also leveled. As though the tornado had been given a mandate to destroy them, these four magnificent pieces of Amish craftsmanship were turned into nothing more than kindling. For the Amish farmer, or any farmer for that matter, this would have been devastating. To lose a barn means also losing the livestock, hay, grain and equipment they housed.