Andrew S. Kinsinger - Picture for his Daughter

We love to do things for our Amish friends in Pennsylvania. The last fun project was to send them a Peacock in the dead of winter. You can read that story here: Trip to East Coast, Amish Friends & Pigs.

That trip was in 2009. While we were talking to Susann, Andrew S. Kinsinger's Daughter, she told us that she did not have a picture of her Father. The Amish do not believe in having their pictures taken. It has something to do with the "false images" from the Bible.

For the last 2 1/2 years I have been looking for a picture of her dad. I've looked at the archives of hundreds of newspapers as I knew that one time, when he spoke to the US Congress over the Amish not paying into the Social Security system, a newspaper photographer took his picture with a long lens and put it in the newspaper.

We’ll after that exhausting search I found a black and white picture a little larger than a postage stamp in a newspaper from Titusville, PA newspaper dated August 8, 1978. We also found a story that my mother was quoted in. It has a date of June 13, 1995 with the same picture. Here is that story:

A. S. Kinsinger: Amish Leader

A brief obituary for Andrew S. Kinsinger appeared in the New Era last month. It did not say Kinsinger was one of the most influential men in the Old Order Amish community. It did not say he served as spokesman for the church on education, Social Security and other topics.

Jean Ellen Chinea now of Huntington Beach, Calif., was Kinsinger's driver for many years. She lived in Lancaster County at the time and drive Kinsinger from his Gordonville farm and print shop all over the United States.

She remembers Kinsinger as a "humble" man who talked comfortable with church leaders and educators and representatives of the government. Because of his humble and intelligent approach to various issues, Chinea says, Kinsinger often got his way.

 As "superintendent" of the Amish schools in Pennsylvania for many years, Kinsinger argued for the Amish belief that children, should attend school only through the eight grade. Chinea recalls state education officials' initial reluctance to go along with that.

They told Kinsinger that surely he would agree that an exception could not be made to the state's educational rules.

"It is not up to me to agree." Kinsinger said, according to Chinea. "It is up to the church and the bishops."

He eventually got the educators to see the church's point of view.

Kinsinger at one time served as the chairman of a three-man national steering committee for the Old Order Amish. He was a primary church spokesman against paying into Social Security and for establishing a special alert system for Amish in case of another TMI-like disaster at a nuclear facility.

“He spoke from the mouth, from the mind, from the heart," says Chinea, "and with the knowledge of the Amish Church that people had to respect.

Kinsinger would have been 75 in July. Mrs. Chinea will be 75 in July. Prior to Kinsinger's death she had planned to come to Lancaster to celebrate their birthdays.

We took the newspaper clippings to Thailand with us this spring and in Pattaya we had Mr. Yut at his oil painting and frame making gallery put this small picture on canvas. He did a great job by asking me the color of his hair and then working to a place that I said: "Yes, that is him!"

After a few days of drying he removed it for the wooden frame that the canvas was stretched onto and packed it in a round tube so we could fit it in our suitcase.

When we return we tried to reach the framer I had been using for years but he had gone out of business. Our economy has wiped out a lot of good small man businesses.

My sister told me about the frame shop that had done a lot of framing for her recently and we took the canvas to George at Best Frames in Costa Mesa.
He re-stretched the canvas and framed the picture for us. When he was complete I noticed that the frame was not the exact framing wood we had picked out. He looked at it and apologized asking if we could wait a few more days so he could get the exact match of framing material. We said: "Of course, as this was a special gift for a special friend." He was very understanding.

We picked up the framed picture this morning and it is beautiful. He even bubble wrapped it and made a paste board box to ship it in. Thank you, George.

We did remove it from the box so we could take some pictures of Andrew S. Kinsinger as it is the only color picture of him in the world, until now.

We will send it to Susann Kinsinger tomorrow with a letter and this story. We are sure she will be surprised.

We hope she does not get into trouble with the Amish Church. We hope she will not as she did not ask for it. We did it on our own and sent it to her with our love and best wishes.

Andrew S. Kinsinger was a wonderful man.  I am grateful that I had met him and his wonderful family.

Please remember: "The plain and simple life is the best! God bless us all!”
Love always,
Terry and Daeng

 

Trip to East Coast, Amish Friends & Pigs

The Red Eye to New York, renting a car at JFK and the drive to our friends, Don and Lorrie Kane in Pennsylvania, was good.

My mind still thinks I am a youngster of maybe 25 but my body say "No, no, no, you are older and must rest more!"

So, Lorrie suggested nap time until Don got back home from a trade show that he was working in Maryland.

We had a great dinner and turned in early as we had made a date to visit Susann, Sam and Nancy Kinsinger in Gordenville, PA the next morning. It is about a 45 minute drive to Susann's home from the Kane's home.

We slept well, got up around 7:00 PM and had a nice breakfast with Don and Lorrie, then off to Amish country.

We feel privileged to visit the Kinsingers as they always welcome us into their home even though we're not Amish. The reason we're welcomed is my Mother provided transportation for Andrew Kinsinger, their Father, for about nine years.

Before he passed, Andrew was the spokesman for the Old Order of the Amish to the rest of the world.

We met Susann at the print shop. This print shop prints many of the books that are used in the Amish schools. The printing presses run without electricity. They are power by hydraulics.

We spent some time at Susann's home bringing each other up to date as we had not seen each other in several years.

We then went over to Sam and Nancy's home to pick them up. We took a little tour of the deer raising property and finally found the peacock that we had sent them last winter.

Sending them a peacock was a fun event last winter. After reading Susann's Christmas News letter, that came in her hand made Christmas card, telling us that Sam's peacock was run over in the road I got an idea.

I went on the Internet and found a peacock breeder in Pennsylvania that had a male India Peacock. We shipped it by mail and they were very surprised.

Sam's hog farm has about 4,000 pigs. That is a lot of bacon! When I ask him how many pigs does he have he always jokes by saying he has 400 sows and pigs. When it is spoken it sounds like four hundred thousand pigs. We always laugh together about it.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and talked about the price of pork and what the swine flu, along with the economy, had done to the pork farmers and the price of pork.

We also talked about the new law in California regarding how the pigs are penned. They must be able to stand up and turn around. Sam said that is a good thing as the pigs do better that way except right before and after they give birth. During that time they need to be held stationary so the piglets are not crushed by the sow.

The swine flu did not come from pigs but a few people that worked at hog farms came down with this flu. Then a few more of the workers got sick and everyone started talking about how the pigs caused it.

If you would like more information regarding the swine flu just CLICK HERE.

We said good-bye and hoped to see them again soon.

Every time I visit the Amish I realize the the simpler way is the best way.

We drove back to our friends and had nice evening together.

Tomorrow we are on our way to visit my sister and family on top of the mountain in upstate New York.