When Elam Stoltzfus was growing up in Chester County as part of an Old Order Amish family, he was charged with setting out the Ausbund hymn books for Sunday service, writes Elam Stoltzfus for the Anabaptist World. 

Stoltzfus was enthralled with the songs once the whole congregation began singing them, especially the Lob Lied, or Love Song, which they always sang. 

He was 16 when his family left the Old Order Amish and joined the Amish Mennonite church. 

“We no longer sang from the Ausbund on Sunday mornings,” he wrote. 

Years later, he traveled to Germany to research his family genealogy. There, his love for the Ausbund was reignited and he spent time learning more about the origins of the hymns there. 

His journey culminated in a public performance of Ausbund hymns in St. George Chapel at Oberhaus Castle last year. 

Another thread tying him to these hymns is his father. A day before he died of bone cancer, Stoltzfus called him and asked if he wanted him to sing a verse from the Lob Lied. His father said yes and he sang to him in German. 

Read more about Elam Stoltzfus and the importance of Lob Lied in the Anabaptist World. 

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