Leaving The Amish with Eli Yoder

He grew up Old Order Amish with rules so tight they reached all the way down to orange triangles, borrowed phones, and even which animals you were allowed to own. Then Eli Yoder left at 18 believing he was headed for hell, not because he had a perfect plan, but because staying felt like it might destroy him. That tension between fear, freedom, and faith drives one of the most honest conversations we’ve had around Amish culture and what it really means to start over.

We talk through Eli’s background as the grandson of a bishop, the pressure of legalism and shunning, and the strange loopholes outsiders notice, like hiring someone else to drive a vehicle you can legally own. He shares what came after he left: years of partying, drugs, and trying to outrun the weight of what he’d been taught, followed by a hard-won shift toward a relationship-based faith that later became the heart of his online content. If you’ve ever tried to untangle religion from God, or rebuild after a high-control environment, you’ll recognize the questions this raises.

Because this is Harness Up, we also go deep on the horse side: Belgian work horses, plowing, horse and buggy life, Mount Hope auctions, and the secret horse training that brought church consequences down on his family. We even get into mules, harnessing, and the wild explanations some communities use to justify bans. Listen, share this with a friend who loves draft horses, mules, or real-life testimony, and please subscribe and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules, where we talk all things related to these magnificent animals. From their history and uses to training and care, we cover it all. Join us as we chat with experts and enthusiasts in the field, share stories and tips, and explore the world of draft horses and mules. Whether you're a steamed donor or just curious about these dental diets, this podcast is for you. So harness up and join haste draft horses and mules for some lively discussions about these God-given creatures.

Eli’s Viral Social Media Start

SPEAKER_00 1:15

How's everybody doing tonight? Boy, it's been a good day here in Kentucky, and we had a wonderful day here. And the guest in front of me is up north of us here, a few hundred mile in the great state of Ohio, and I'm super excited to sit down and talk with this guy tonight. Guys, as always, thank you all for joining. God bless each and every one of you, and we look forward to y'all listening to the podcast. And leave a comment, let us know what you think, give us your thoughts, and also if you're watching on YouTube, click that subscribe button. We'd sure appreciate it. But guys, right here on the other side of the screen with me, I'd love to meet him in person, but we're going to do it this way tonight. Mr. Eli Yoder, how are you doing, Eli? Doing great. Thank you very much for having me on. That's good, man. Eli's got a long background. He's got a story and a bunch of stuff. And a lot of you may have seen Eli across TikTok and YouTube. He's he's on it, man, all the time, every day. He puts something on, and that's how I found him. Just run across him on TikTok. Or actually YouTube it was here on YouTube. But how long have you been kind of doing the social media deal, Eli? That started in 2018.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

I just did a couple of videos and I remember getting up the next day and I told my wife, I said, Man, you should have never talked talked to me into using that TikTok said. Uh it's glitching. She says, What do you mean it's glitching? I said, Well, it shows it's got 200,000 views. She goes, honey, it ain't glitching. That's literally how many views you got, and from there on it just blew up.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

That's wild. You don't never know. I mean, when you put on a video like our mule and horse videos, I put one short on of loading a team into the trailer. We drove the team in and pulled the wagon in right behind them into the stock trailer. 12 million views. You just never know until you put it on what's going to happen. Sounds to me like that's what's happened, what happened to you too. You really didn't know what was going on.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah, I had no idea. I just started sharing, you know, how I left the Amish and it was maybe a two-minute clip, just a sh, you know, short and sweet, just right to the point, and it just blew up. I I never knew that was possible, but it did, and here we are now between seven platforms. I got over four and a half million followers. It's just crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Wow. That's took you this has took you a long way, though, and it's not just the views and the people and stuff. You're really helping a lot of people, bringing them to the Lord and working through what you do. You're the you was the truck drive in Amish, I guess you or ex-Amish truck driver. I guess you still are in a way, but recently you got you don't drive a truck no more, do you?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Nope. I got laid off. Company called and said, we're done because Warner bought us and they closed all these little companies they bought, got the freight, and then they just laid us off. No more home daily position, offered over the road position. But I said, nah, nah, I I did that eight years ago. I can't do that. If you don't have what if you don't have a position for what I'm doing currently, then I guess it's time to it's the Lord telling me that we're gonna do full-time ministry now. So that's what we're doing. This is the second week full-time ministry, and it's going great so far.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Well, this is just your second week. You was down in southern Kentucky last weekend, wasn't you? The week before. Two weeks ago. The week before. Yeah. I wanted to come down there and meet you. That was down in was you in Barberville or close to that?

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah, we went we actually stayed in a motel right there in Barberville, but I would Hinkle, Kentucky, that little village just east of this where I preached at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Good deal. So you're doing full-time ministry, and hey guys, reach out. He can we'll give his contact info after this, his email. If you feel the Lord leading you to let him come preach at your church, maybe they'll reach out to you, Eli.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

That'd be great. That's what I love doing. Every single weekend. We're booked right now. We're the rest of the year full every weekend, but we're going into 2027 already. So you can see right there, when you're in God's will and God's plan, he shows it to you. And I had no idea pastors from across the country were going to be reaching out. And now we are literally booked all year and half, almost half of year next year already.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Well, that's a huge blessing. The Lord took your truck driving job away and give you another one automatically, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Exactly, yes. Now, the preaching truck driver, you know, everybody started telling because that's where my journey started. I started I did my first videos, you know, sharing my faith in the truck. So I kind of earned that preaching truck driver, but it's okay. I don't have to be in a semi-truck to preach it. Now, now I get to preach more to other people in many other areas because I'm out of the truck. It gives me more time to focus on other locations.

Inside A Strict Old Order Upbringing

SPEAKER_00 5:18

That's right. Let's tell the folks about your background a little bit, how you got started in life and how you was raised a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, I came from now, now I can confirm that my group that I was born and raised in, Old Order Amish, is only about a 1%. When I left the Amish, I'd say probably in uppers of 25 to 30 percent of Old Order conservative Amish still existed. They're diminishing pretty fast, and I didn't see that coming at all. But we would be considered kind of the original Ortno. Now, when I say Ortnum, I'm talking about when Jacob Amen started the Amish. He shunned his own Anabaptist family and forefathers and disagreed with them and started his own group, and that's where the Amish are birthed from, is Jacob Alman. So he wrote an ordinance. Terry picked some scripture, obviously, and he had a lot of rules in there that you should follow. And the church members agreed, and they got baptized and made an oath to follow those rules. Now, my group still they believe the original rules is the only way to please God, and that's what they teach. My grandfather was the main bishop, so we had to have a fine line because you know that's mom's dad. And being in the bishop's family, we have to log a fine line. So that's the group I'm from. We were very conservative when it came time to dating. We also could not date into other Amish communities considered new order or allowing rumspringer, a season of running around. So we we were very restricted on how much dealings we have with even other Amish communities, because a lot of Amish communities allow batteries in their buggies and bright lights and orange triangles on the back. We couldn't even have an orange triangle on the back of the buggy. That's just kind of describes you the group I'm from. Very rare to find a group that conservative, but I'd say we were very prideful. You know, grandpa taught us that as much as we separate ourselves from the rest of the world and even the New Order Amish, surely God will favor us on judgment day because we are different and we have more rules. So as you can see, that's very legalistic and very works-based. Putting your faith in the system and the rules, and well, quite frankly, that's kind of prideful. You know, we were kind of prideful saying, well, we're even special than other Amish. And we kind of put ourselves up there as the elite that we would be more favored in God's eyes because of who we were. So that's the group I come from. It was a lot of do's and don'ts, obviously growing up, but I believed it for the longest time growing up. I believed that was the only way to please God. But in the midst of all this, I'm going, me and my siblings are going through heavy, heavy physical abuse. We had a depressed dad, he was an alcoholic, he was shunned half the time I was growing up. And so I started questioning, like, wait a minute, if this God that I'm taught that's gonna only favor us as special people that are very strict with more rules and other Amish, if this God is real, why why does he allow this to happen to me where we get beaten by an alcoholic depressed dad, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, man, that's yeah, that don't make sense at all. You go back to talking about no triangles and stuff. I'm used to that. You know, I live right here. We're in Liberty, Kentucky. And I kind of tell people sometimes here in Liberty, Kentucky, we're kind of like a miniature Holmes County, Ohio. You know where Holmes County is. Yes. We've got so many groups here. Like I live right here where I'm at in amongst a many Schwarzen Trooper Amish. And we have no triangles here, no nothing. It's well, you know, you've heard of the Schwarzen Troubers. Oh, yeah, yeah. We were almost identical to the Schwartzes. Well, we've got like 50-something families right here amongst us, right here where I live. They moved in here in 2011. Okay. From Wayne County, Ohio, from Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi. We got them here from all over the country here now. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

So you definitely know what old order looks like.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

I know exactly. I deal with them every day. We got one guy who lives across the field from the barn over there. He comes over all the time. Can I borrow a team of horses from you? And of course, what do we say? Yeah, go right ahead. Borrow the team. And uh you know why he likes to borrow our team though? He can use our fork carts, rubber tire, wagons. Because he don't own it, he can use it. And I I never understood that either. Like they they can use it, but they can't own it. Did you know that a Swartz and Truber Amish is not allowed to own a mule?

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Oh, yeah, yeah. Our community actually, we were not considered swartzies, but we couldn't have a mule either. They for some reason the church didn't even give us a reason. We could not have a mule, we could not have a white horse because my dad got shunned for training a white horse for an English person, and we had it at our farm, and then the church came after my dad and said, I saw your boys out there trying to train it and then took it to school. So I still to this day do not have an explanation for why my group did not allow a donkey, a mule, a white horse. I mean, we wanted answers for this stuff, but we never got answers. Do it, just do as you're told. Don't question the church.

Amish Exceptions And Contradictions

SPEAKER_00 10:04

It's crazy coming from, you know, I've been around Amish and Mennonites my whole life. Like I've lived beside them my whole life. It's kind of second nature to me. I don't think about it because I'm just with it every day. You know, I see it every day. My partner Henry, he's an old order Mennonite from the Joe Wenger Church. Have you heard of them? Oh, yeah. I heard of the Joe Wenger Church. Yeah, that's what my partner Henry is. And I'm with him, and he's they're told they're not like Amish. You know, Henry's got electric in his house and central heat and air and a phone and you know, they got everything. Wow. Well, that would be considered the worldly Amish. They just they still drive horse and buggy. Gotcha. Which is that's what they do. They still drive a horse and buggy, but um, it's second nature to me. But my wife, you know, she moved here from Montana. And when she first came here, it was like really shocking to her. Like, why do they do this? And still till this day, this morning, we was on the way to the barn. I rode with her in my truck. She drove this morning. We met an Amish van with a bunch of Amish in it. She looked at me and said, Stephen, what is the point driving with somebody and hiring somebody? You're still using a vehicle. Why not just buy a vehicle?

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Well, I can tell you that we we couldn't own a phone in my community, but we could go borrow somebody else's. We couldn't ride in a or we couldn't drive a vehicle or own a vehicle, but we could ride in it. We could hire you, non-Amish people, to commit the sin for us, and then we just ride in it. So that's the hypocrisy. And it just doesn't add up. They can't point to any scripture on that. I had a uh community that has been communicating with me. They got smartphones for business use. They watch my videos, I communicate with them, and they recently told me that, hey, we we drive tractors all week long. We only use the horse and buggy on Sunday on the holy day. I said, Really? Well, this is mind-blowing to mean. And I said, Well, what about vehicles, trucks for construction? He goes, Yeah, we can buy them, but then we have to hire somebody to drive. I'm like, oh, so you got the title, the deed, you know, all that. You you got insurance on it and you own this Dodge dually, and you just have to hire somebody to drive it. He goes, Yep, that's exactly. So you can see the variety of Amish, and it's just a lot of different groups that do it, do their own thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I go around all kinds of Amish communities all the time. We I buy a lot of horses. Some of my main people I buy horses from are Amish people that I've bought from for 15, 20 years, you know. And I've noticed the change over the last 10, 15 years of how they're doing. Like in Indiana now, it's not common, it's very common to see an Amish family at home and three or four kids driving cars during rum spring or living there with mom and dad with their cars parked there and smartphones and everything.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, yeah. That's not shocking. So I saw that up on Route 20 in northern Indiana, Middlebury area, they did that. They were all at the the teenagers were parking their lift kit trucks at the end of the driveway because they have church services in their own homes, and there was a whole row of them. And I'm like, okay, this is really confusing. And I told my ex-Amish buddy, I said, Can you please explain this? He goes, Oh yeah, the Amish up here, if you're on room spring and you're driving getting wild and partying and and and and you know, drinking and driving a truck, they still want you to come to church. I said, Wow, that is a huge difference in my community. Because if we did that in my community, you're an outcast, you're shunt. You better not drive that big old onto the property.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

It's so different. A lot of people don't understand that. It's so different community to community and district to district. I didn't know this until just about a year ago. Did you know the Schwarzen Troubers? The Schwarzen Trooper church as a whole are Schwarzen Troopers, but there's different types of Schwarzen Troopers. There's a Moe's church, there's a Joe church. And did you know a Joe can a Joe can only marry a Joe?

SPEAKER_02 13:47

That's right. Yep. There's an Abe church, a Abe community, they call it, and they have to stay within that district. And they actually told that group that you better stay within that church to get married, even if it's your first cousin rather than marrying into a different Amish community.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Some of that stuff I don't understand. I've I'm now, you know, I'm not Amish, so but uh I hear it every day, you know. I hear all the time we're not allowed to do that. We're not allowed to do that, you know. But I just go on with it. I have to because I live right here with them and I just I just respect them and go on and mind my own business. But um, that's the only way I know to do it. But uh I do try to help them out. You know, we help them out a lot, you know, any chance we get, but it is very confusing to me because I just think to myself, I could not live like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Well, I appreciate you doing business with the with the Amish folks. I mean, I highly disagree with them doctrinally, biblically, but they do have a very unique lifestyle. I wish them nothing but the best. I think they they have the best lifestyle as far as self-sufficiency, living off the land, not depending on the government, the healthier foods. So there's a lot of the lifestyle I agree with. So I I mean I appreciate anybody and everybody that does business with them. I mean, we're we're blessed to learn from how they they live.

Leaving At 18 And Hitting Bottom

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Oh, yeah. One thing I think though, I think a lot of them want to leave it. They're just scared to. They're scared they don't know what to do for the next step. What finally made you leave and do what you're doing? Like what was going through your mind that night? Did you leave at night or day or whatever? But what was going through your mind and what finally pushed you over to do it? Well, when I left, I I thought I was going to hell.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

I couldn't shake that off what I was taught. I I thought that if I left, I would if I died, I would be in hell. I mean, because that's what I was taught that it had to be Amish. So the reason I still left is because of the abuse that I was going through, the rejection. I hated life so bad that I thought that if I didn't leave, I would probably end it on alive myself. I I actually, this is gonna sound bad, but I actually believe that, you know, I'm gonna have freedom, leave the Amish, as long as I can until I die. So I'm gonna have a good time, find peace and purpose for my life, and be happy until I do go to hell. That was kind of my mindset at age 18. And so I I had a very great determination to leave. I didn't leave to try to pursue God or read the Bible. I left to be free. So I went into partying for 19 years, drugs, going to clubs, bars, drinking. I mean, I was off the rails for a long time, but I had such great motivation to leave. Nothing, nothing was gonna stop me. That's that's how desperate I was to live and explore a different lifestyle outside the Amish community at age 18. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah. So where did you when you left, you had people help you, I'm sure you had to have.

Horses As Freedom And Identity

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Yes. Yeah, I had some people that worked at the local pallet shop right next to our Amish farm. So it was very convenient to communicate with some of them, which I actually communicate with when I was 16. They said, Hey, I can't help you when you're 16. That's gonna get me in trouble. So they promised me that they would help me when I turn 18. So that's the individual I asked again as I was approaching 18. And at that time, I had just disqualified for Amish baptism because I broke too many rules anyway. And so it was easy to just to reach out to him and say, hey, look, I broke some rules. I rode a bicycle because our group was very legalistic, could have bicycles. And I said, Hey, I just disqualified. I rode a bicycle, I'm turning 18 in a couple of weeks. Let's get out of here. You know, are you still serious? They give me a home. He goes, Yeah, but but they you turn 18, I can pick you up. So I waited until that following Sunday after I turned 18 and early Sunday morning, picked me up, and we never looked back. Do you miss horses a lot? Yeah, I mean, I was more the farm boy. I I wasn't that into construction. So I was the I was the young seven-year-old, as early as seven. I could sit back there with a team of seven, four and three, and just with a two-bottom plow and just plow, plow all day long. Just me and the horses. I I was very content. We had a a pair of uh buckskin, like Belgiums, and they were like almost like yellowish skin color. They were very, very tough, man. And I remember those were my favorite team because they were very uh strong, they were tough. We had a guy come in, a horse jockey, we called him. He knew there's something special about this, these buckskin horses, and he said, uh, you know, he he kept making offers to dad, and dad said, No, no, no, no, I can't do that. That's the best team we have. For the boys, they're very tame. And uh, one day he had another guy come in that made such a large amount, a large offer that he said, uh, and you got me thinking about it, us boys froze. Oh, we're like, oh no, no, dad, please, this is our favorite team of horses. And he's my dad said, Okay, I'll take your offer, which was like$10,000 per horse. And if they can pull that, the the the guy said, I'll do a deal for$10,000 a horse. If they can pull my trailer, which is like a 35-foot trailer, full of horses, by the way, with my brakes set. If they can pull that, it's a deal. My dad said, Okay. And that horse joggy just about had a heart attack because he put their bucks again Belgiums up on the front of that thing, and they pulled that entire rig full of horses, 10 feet. And my dad's holding it. I'm still devastated to this day because that was the best horses we had.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

That's a story right there. Golly. I read your book, okay? I know I read it. It was great. Guys, if you want to read a good book, Eli, do you have your book close? I see it up on the shelf, I think.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yes. Yep. It's right up here on the side.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Grab that and show them the cover. This is Eli's story, guys. It's a super interesting book. If you like to read it, you know, you can purchase it right from Eli. Eli, tell them how they purchase your book.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Yeah, my name that you see on the front, Eli Yoder, you just put that in a Google search bar, Eli Yoder.com, takes you right to my website and also on Amazon. It's available on Amazon as well. You just type in undeceived, you know, Elideoder.com, it just pops right up.

Secret Horse Training And Church Pressure

SPEAKER_00 19:25

I followed you for a long time, and you know, I pre-ordered that book and waited and waited and waited to get it. And I think I read it in two days when I got it. But you remember you was training horses in that book, and you all got in trouble for training horses. Let's tell the folks a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

All right. So we I was a big horse guy, loved horses. My oldest brother did as well. Now, I will say this first because we love sneaking back to the English neighbors and watching some good old Western movies. We wanted to be cowboys, we wanted to be gunslingers, you know. So we really had this vision of being like them. Okay, so let's get that out of the way first for why we were so passionate about this. And so we we started getting, you know, a lot of different people that had horses out in the non-Amish world, and they were really fascinated about our love for horses. And they knew that we wanted to train them because we made that very well known. So here we go. You know, the word of mouth spreads pretty fast. And before we know it, my twin, me and my twin brother, my oldest brother, that's it's just we kind of kept it secret because we knew the church would have a problem with it, because we were just like the smartsies and everything was considered prideful, and you can't be like a western. We couldn't even ride a horse. In our community, it was against their religion to even ride a horse bareback or saddle. So here we are behind the barn, between the woods and the barn to make sure nobody sees us. And we start training and we got by with this for quite some time to train these horses, and they start paying us pretty good. I mean, people love that we trained their horses. They were just wild. This one guy brought this Mustang in from out western Colorado, completely from the wild, never been written, never been touched. We broke that horse, and by the time he picked that horse up, that horse was so tame a kid could hop on it. That's how good we were at training horses. Did we go airborne flying off that thing many a times? Oh yeah. But we giggled and laughed it off and got right back on that horse. That's just who we were. We wanted to be like a western. And so we got so good at it, and one Sunday, we're coming home from church and it was silence. I'm like, uh no, this ain't good. Because when when dad is quiet, mom's quiet, nobody's really talking, we're like, they had a meeting, the bishop said something, and we're about to be confronted. And sure enough, once dad opened his mouth, he said, Well, boys, we're gonna have to put a stop to the horse training. I'm like, oh no. He said somebody saw it and it leaked out. And uh now the church is gonna shun me and mom if we don't make our children stop training horses. You guys are not old enough to get baptized yet, so it's gonna be us getting shunned. So you have to stop training horses. That was probably one of the most devastating blows, smack in the face for me and my brothers, because that was kind of our escape zone. If, you know, I told you earlier, you know, we went through an abusive, you know, household. Dad was abusive and depressed, alcoholic. And so training horses was kind of our escape route. That was something that comforted us. It's something we love doing. So now to have that ripped away from us, I'll be honest with you, man, that that's what made me angry and kind of bitter at the Amish church for why they would take that away from me. So that at that time, I'd say one of the biggest urge I had of wanting to leave the Amish so I can be free to do what I want to do. That's what resulted in me feeling that way because that was just ripped away for no reason. And there's no explanation except for my dad said that they they said that we were very prideful, trying to be like the world, the English people, Westerns, to ride a horse and try to break a horse. You know, it's it's just made no sense. We've got no true answers on it.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Does that community still not ride horses till this day? Still today.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah. Still today, they do not allow riding horses. No way.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Well, they got good Belgians there because we bought a few teams out of that community. And those boys, the Belgians you buy from them, I'm telling you, they're right when we get them. They work horses and they do a good job. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they they're very good. That's that's what about everybody uses Aaron Kitten in my community is Belgians. Oh, yeah, for sure. Definitely. That's like they bring a lot of teams to different sales and uh yeah, they do a good job with them. They sure do. What was your earliest age you remember of getting out on the road driving a horse and buggy?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Age seven is when mom and dad said, Hey, if you can if you're strong enough to milk a cow by yourself, that's the day you're considered strong enough to guide. His name is Mark. He was a teamless horse we had. You can drive Mark to school and within the community for events. If you can milk a cow by yourself and fill the whole bucket up, and let me tell you, I wanted to do that so bad. I made sure I can milk a cow and I beat my twin brother and ever all of my other brothers as early as age seven, and I milked that cow, filled the bucket up, and that day I remember how proud I was to show all my brothers Eli's driving that horse and buggy school age seven. How far was school from home? It was about five miles.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

So you felt real big that day.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

I felt real big, and I was guiding that horse, showing them that I got the big muscles and I got the job done.

Horse Auctions And Amish Horse Economy

SPEAKER_00 24:02

That's right. Horse sales are huge in the Amish community. Like all the kids, everybody, they going to the horse sale is huge. Did you go to a lot of them whenever you were growing up?

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Yeah, that was one thing my brothers and I uh between us siblings, it was competition. We got jealous because dad made us take turns. We couldn't all go at one time. So when dad hired a taxi driver to go to the Mount Hope, Ohio auction, we were angry at one another when it wasn't our turn when we didn't get selected, because that was one of the most fun Saturdays in all of the history of me being Amish is go to the Mount Hope auctions to buy and sell uh horses because you saw all the other see, that's one event where all of the different Amish, all the way from New Order, the most liberal, the Mennonite, the Swartzes, the every level of Amish are all mingling together because it's about the mighty dollar and getting the best horse in the auction.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

And it it really is. And it's a huge thing for an Amish family. You know, you see it when they buy that horse, it it's just it's like us going and getting a new car or a new truck, really, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Absolutely it is. It's our way of life. Horses were our for travel and for work. It was our way of life the way people would make sure they buy a car to have a job out here in the non-Amish world. It was our life. People don't understand, you know, why Amish would pay such money, you know, more money than a car. You know, my twin brother now has Southern Star stables in Tennessee, and he does Frisian horse, especially trains them, and he's getting$100,000 a horse out of some of these Frisian horses. And people are like, what? On a horse? What if he dies? I said, it doesn't matter. I mean, they take care of these horses, they get the paperwork for them, they give them their shots, they make sure these horses are healthy and taken care of. And then they take them to these auctions at these sale barns and they get top dollar out of them. People are stunned by that because they don't realize that the Amish are that into horses because, well, that's it's their way of life. That's what, that's what their culture is based on is horses.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Yeah, I remember you going down there and a few times and videoing on your channel a few shorts of you in the buggy with them and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Oh, yeah, we we love doing that. My son and my wife, they absolutely love going down there and just, you know, they're they're trained already, and we do bareback and we do saddle and we get hitch them up to the buggy, and we just basically go Amish for the weekend.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

What part of Tennessee is he in now?

SPEAKER_02 26:16

He's in Huntingdon, D-O-N at the Huntingdon, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

No exactly where it's what group is he with now?

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Well, they say old order there. You know, they got the running water and the solar power and the phone shacks, you know. So I kind of consider him new order, especially compared to where we come from. He always says, Eli, we're old order here. We're old order Amish. I'm like, okay, you can say that, but you guys got a lot more than what us old order back home did. He goes, Yeah, I know.

Making Peace And Visiting Mom

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Are you still going to see your mama pretty regular?

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah, now. Now it's been it's been beautiful. After I kind of honor her wishes and remove some flowers and decorations on my dad's grave in the Amish cemetery, which I did for a long time, wanted to send it for my dad. But I realized that mom's still alive. I can make peace with her, so I did. And uh after that, she said, you can come out and visit as much as you want. So I go uh about it once a month now, I'll go out and visit her.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

It's been beautiful. She still cooked for you a good meal?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Uh she can send it home with me. She doesn't agree with sitting at the same table and stuff like that, but she'll she'll make stuff and send it home with us.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

What's your main thing you miss about eating in her kitchen?

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Well, she makes the best fried pies. I did order, I said, Hey, mom, you remember before I left that tapayoka pudding that you've put chocolate and even candy bars from the gas stations that you'd have our taxi driver pick up and you chopped them up in the tapa yoga. I said, that was my favorite. And you know, she actually got a stainless steel bowl out of her kitchen, made me an entire bowl, wrapped it in plastic, and sent it home with my wife. Made me cry, made a grown man cry right there. Mama, that's when I was like, you know what? It doesn't matter our differences. You know, she believes I I'm going to hell for leaving the Amish. There's a mama's love that'll never be taken away.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

That's huge, man. I'm glad you're getting to go see her and talk to her. And she accepts your wife too. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Oh, yeah. Yeah. She uh she always says, hey, look, if you're born and raised Amish, you should remain Amish. Anybody like my wife that was not born and raised Amish, she's completely okay with her. You know, she loves smiling and chatting with my son and my wife. They don't have to wear Amish clothes, you know, because they were never born at raised. I'm the only one that has to because, well, I was born and raised Amish.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

So you still put them on when you go.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Oh, I have to. Yeah. If I don't have Amish clothes on and my hat on to cover up my worldly haircut, I actually can't even walk onto her property. I also can't park my car on her property. I have to park at the pallet shop and walk up to my mom's house. That's the only way I can visit her. So, you know, she's the daughter of the main bishop, which has passed away, but she she still holds true to his teachings. And so she has that rule still today. Yeah, I can't park that vehicle on her property and I have to wear Amish clothes, and then I can visit as much as I want.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

How many brothers and sisters do you have?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

There's ten of us: seven boys, three girls, two sets of twins in that ten. There's two sets. Do you still talk to all your brothers and sisters? Not all of them. The ones that relocate it are usually the ones more open, not like my twin brother in Huntington, Tennessee. I can spend the whole weekend eat with them. I even plowed his garden a couple of years ago. Now the ones back home, yeah. My youngest sister, unfortunately, she married a another preacher's son. And she made her, she went more extreme than my mom. She said, if you're not living the Amish lifestyle, my my kids will never see your face. So don't never come here. So not all of them. It just depends on on where they're at. And the reason my sister did that is because she wants kudos from her father-in-law, the preacher. You know, it's all about being people pleasers and making sure that she's in good standing with the church. So that's why she went to the extreme and shunned us like that. Me and my youngest brother that left were both both held to that standard.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Well, yeah, I wouldn't know what to do. You know, I've never never lived that. And I would I wouldn't know what to do if my mom or my sister was like that. But, you know, that's the difference. It it would be hard to deal with, though, that's for sure. It would be. But I'm glad you and your mom made ins and everything's good now and you can go anytime you want.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Yeah, yeah. It's it's I just had to learn to, well, on my, you know, I wanted to be a voice for my dad, stand up for him. He was buried separately because of how he died and all that. So I kind of had this mentality of I'm gonna stand up to that church and I'm gonna show that church you're not gonna, I don't fear you. You're not gonna control me. You did control my dad until his death. You're not gonna control me. So that was kind of my, you know, and that's being in the Bible and just letting the Lord lead me and convict me. And I just had to humble myself and say, look, God's gonna judge them. It's not up to me. I don't have to stand up to them. Uh God will deal with them on a proper time, you know, on judgment day. So I I chose to just lay it all down, take the flowers off, honor my mom's wishes because she's still alive and I can make peace with her. I can't bring my dad back from the grave. My mom is still alive. So since I've done that, I I felt kind of healed. You know, forgiveness and reconciliation really kind of is for you, not for the other party. So it really set me free free and healed me, and it's been very, very blessed by that. I I don't think I'm ever going to regret that, and especially if the day comes where she passes away, I can then go to the viewing and stand there and at peace, knowing that I made peace with her while she was alive.

Full-Time Ministry Plans And Travel

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Now that you're in the full-time ministry and you're moving forward with that, is your wife still doing is she gonna do full-time ministry with you too?

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Yeah, yeah. The Lord actually opened the doors for her to put her job more than a year and a half ago before I quit my job. So she's been full-time secretary doing all the booking events every single weekend. So she's been busy doing all of that work. That's great. Where's your where are you gonna be at this weekend? This weekend, because of Easter. That's a special one we left open to come to our home church. So we're gonna be at our home church where I started going when I first got saved in 2017. Uh so that's exciting because when I haven't seen them in a long time since we're every weekend always preaching somewhere. And then after that, it's it's on the road. Well, I got 4th of July, I left off just to have family time and cook out and all of that. But other than that, we're gonna be rolling. So I'm gonna be excited this Sunday to see Church Family, the home church. And then after that, we're I'm preaching in two different churches the following Sunday in Mount Victory, Ohio. They're about 15 minutes apart. They asked me to come do both services, so it's gonna be a 9:30 service and an 11 o'clock service. So that's the first time for that where I'm preaching at two different churches on the same Sunday. What's the furthest away you're going this year? This year we got Georgia in the books, we got Arizona, we got Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, the South. We're hitting the South pretty hard. And then for the first time, we're going out west because, you know, in the semi-truck, I couldn't do that. I had to be back in the semi-truck by Monday. So now this opens the door to go out to Montana, Arizona, Kansas. So we we got some pretty long trips booked. Are you gonna fly this year a lot then? Uh if the Lord provides, we will. Right now, we're just kind of in survival mode. We got uh some ministries that support us financially, but we got I have no problem. And I'm a truck driver that was used to driving, so we're probably gonna drive most of it. I had a just an awesome sister in Christ out of Pittsburgh that saw my video of full-time ministry and decided to donate her camper. So we have a camper that we can pull behind our vehicle so that we can sleep in it rather than getting motel rooms. So that'll that'll make it the world we can afford to do it a lot easier. That's great, man. That's awesome. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

God's people, they pitched right in, ready to go. That's right. Now, do you think you could still harness a team and plow?

SPEAKER_02 33:03

Well, I will tell you, I'll be honest, when I was at my twin brothers' farm, I did plow his entire field. He was impressed. He was like, dude, that never left you. It's been 27 years. You never stopped. But I had one problem. When it came time to harness those Belgiums, I just could not figure out how the horn, I had everything messed up. He was kind of giggling and laughing. I'm like, whatever. I felt humiliated, you know, because I didn't remember how to harness everything up the way as he showed me, it all came back to me. So that was the only hiccup I had. But once we, I was very proud once we got in that garden. Once I hooked that whole team, that team up to the to the plow, two bottom plow and took off, man, it was like it came right back. I just lifted the lever up to swing back around. And as soon as he came to the edge of the garden, I let that lever back down and it dug in. And he goes, It looks like you never even quit. I'm like, heck yeah. I was the plow boy growing up. I was good at that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Well, if you're ever through Liberty, Kentucky, you got to stop and see me. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

If you need your plow a garden plowed, I'll plow yours. Come buy and plow a garden for. Well, I would I would I would like to uh you know operate a mule sometime since it was against our religion to have a mule when I was growing up.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Well, I got a team here right now that's 18 hands, big blonde John mules. That would be interesting. I I would love to experience that. They're actually sold, they're going out to Idaho Falls here in the next couple weeks, but uh we have them here still right now. But mules are neat, they're awesome. A lot of people love them and a lot of people hate them.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

So yeah, you definitely brought something up today that I don't think I've ever had anybody else bring up is about knowing that the Amish, certain Amish roots don't allow mules. I mean, that I've never had anybody else bring that up, but as you brought that up, I remember that that was a restriction for us in my community.

Mules, Harnessing, And Final Prayer

SPEAKER_00 34:44

I know more than I probably should know.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Well, you're among the Amish everywhere you live, so you definitely get to know them on a personal level.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

You know what a guy told me though? He said that the reason they can't own a mule is because it's not an animal made by God, it's an animal made by man. Really? Yeah, because the mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse, and God didn't make that animal when he made the world. He made the horse and he made the donkey. He didn't make the mule. So they won't let them own a mule because it's not an animal made by God.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Well, how do who do they think makes it grow in the womb? I mean, come on now. It's just like a human when they're cross-freeding themselves.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

That's what a very high source in the Swatsendorval Amish told me.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Wow. Well, they'll just come up with any kind of excuse they can come up with, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:29

I guess, but hey, that's what they say. But you know what? I'm gonna own mules. I love them. I'm gonna have as many as I want. Hey, they're a blessing from God and they can be used for God's glory. They are for sure. Guys, we're gonna end this here. I want Eli to give his final words here. If he's got anything you want to say to the folks out there, Eli, you go ahead and tell them what you want to tell them.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Well, I always leave people with this. You are exactly who God made you. Don't change for people. God doesn't make mistakes. You are where you're at. You've been through what you've been through. Don't allow the past to destroy your future. Today's a day of salvation. If you surrender your heart and seek him, you will find him. I found him in a semi-truck, and if an ex-Amish like me that went through alcoholism and drugs and tattoos, and I mean the way I lived, if I can seek him the where he manifested and gave me peace, knowing I can have a relationship with him, then you can too. Anybody can do it. It's a relationship over religion. It's not about being religious. He's already finished it for you on the cross. And if you come to him just as you are, he will meet you right where you are.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

That's good, Eli. I appreciate that. We've never done this on this podcast, but I'm going to have you in this podcast in a prayer for us, if you would.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Absolutely. Well, Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you, Lord, for this opportunity on this podcast. Everybody listening to this show, Lord, we just lift them all up to you, Lord. Those that are seeking you, may they find. Lord, may you just bless them with understanding and wisdom and knowledge in who you are. May your grace be sufficient for them, and may your grace draw them near to you, Lord. I thank you, Lord, for this podcast, for Stephen, Lord, and the business he has, Lord. We just thank you for how you're using him for your glory. We ask for your hedge and protection around him, his podcast, his family, his horse business. And Lord, may you use him to let his light shine among the Amish culture, Lord. May you use him to save souls. So we just ask you, Lord, to continue to add on to everyone everything you have for us as we seek you and your righteousness first in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Amen. Thank you, Eli. Go ahead and tell them one more time your website and how they find you on YouTube and TikTok and all the socials.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yep. The website is just my name, just like it is on the book, Eliyoder.com. That's the website. That's the easiest way to do it. It's just punch it in the Google search bar, Eli Yoder.com, and it pops right up. If you're a mainly an Amazon person, you can get on Amazon, type it in Eli Yoder. If you just start typing my name, it usually just pops right up. So if you have that option, you can do it, especially if you're outside the US. That's the easiest way to do it to go on Amazon and just type in Eli Yoder. Yes. Yeah, I got two different TikToks. I got two different Facebooks and I got the YouTube under my name Eli Yoder. The TikTok where I got 1.8 million followers. That's the biggest one. That one I go under YoderToter40. I was age 40 when I started that one. So YoderToder40 on that one. And then all the other, like Instagram and Facebook, you just type in my name, Eli Yoder, and it pops right up.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Good deal. All right, guys. Thank you all for listening. We appreciate you. Check out Eli on his socials, watch his stuff. Guys, it's fun. You'll really enjoy it. Thank you all and God bless you. Guys, check us out on the World Wide Web at www.drafthorses and mulesforsale.com. Also, we're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all the way across the board at Haste Draft Horses and Mules. Guys, thank you for coming on. We appreciate you. God bless you, and we'll see you soon on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

As another captivating episode of Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules draws to a close, we extend our sincere gratitude to our listeners for joining us on this enlightening journey. We hope today's discussions have deepened your appreciation and understanding of these magnificent creatures. Remember, the adventure continues beyond this podcast. Stay connected with us on social media and share your stories. For more information and to explore further, visit Draft Horses and Mulesfor Sale dot com. Thank you for being part of our community. Until next time, keep harnessing your curiosity and passion for these God given creatures. Farewell for now.