The Black Forest Project 421: Einfache Leben: The McCallums and their growing community

The family that works together, eats together, and prays together, stays together. – Amish Proverb

The McCallums head into town, Scottsdale in their buggy, pulled by one of their horses, Terry. Credit: Meredith O'Shea

Meet the McCallums, one of Australia's few Amish families

Ever wanted to not just slow down, but jump off the grid? A family leaves behind the trappings of the 21st century to lead a simple, pious life in rural Tasmania.

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-mccallum-family-musical-group.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/08/springfield-farm-fresh-produce-mccallum.html

The McCallum Family in Springfield, Northeast Tasmania, are one of Australia’s few Amish-Mennonites families. They are actually Para-Amish, meaning newer, similar Christian groups that adopt Old Order Amish lifestyle elements like horse-and-buggy travel and plain dress but are often founded by seekers from outside the traditional Amish faith, aiming for a simpler, communal life with more English language and openness to new members, exemplified by groups like the Christian Communities founded by Elmo Stoll. They mimic Amish ways for spiritual renewal but aren't official Amish affiliations, focusing on community and avoiding modern materialism while sometimes differing in doctrine or technology use.

McCallum children Caleb, Esther, Mary, John, Hannah and Elizabeth. Credit: Meredith O'Shea

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-mccallum-family-musical-group.html

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/08/springfield-farm-fresh-produce-mccallum.html

They follow the 4 core values of the Anabaptist Trio: faith, family, community and simple life. This family have inspired me to learn from them. The first blog post I did on them was an introduction, the second blog post was about their community life where they bought the St Paul’s Sunday School and the third blog post was about them as a Family Musical Group. The fourth blog was about their family business – Spring Farm Fresh Produce, a roadside stall.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. - Charles Spurgeon

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/280416]

In this blog post, I will blog about my phone call with the McCallum family where I learn about their simplicity and also my suggestions on repopulating Scottsdale and the outskirts. I will post a sermon by Edsel Burdge Jr on Plainness.

The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food. —Dean Ornish

Mount Roland from the lookout at Sheffield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Roland_Conservation_Area

MY PHONE CALL WITH THE MCCALLUMS:

With the help of my Conservative Mennonite friend, I wrote letters via email to the McCallum Amish-Mennonite family, where she read it to them, when she went to live with the family for a month. The father, Gregory McCallum phoned me and I was excited to have a conversation with him, I phoned him again before October as from that month to early April, it is a very busy season for farmers.

I told him that whenever he and his family wake up in the morning to see the sunrise, they should view Mount Scott and recite Psalm 121 to Praise to God, as you marvel at his creation. I also added that I rather see the beautiful scenery than concrete forest like those in city, they agree with me.

I will write the answers on the questions I asked him. Due to respecting his privacy, I will not want to disclose everything he told me.

1. Are you all Amish or Plain Anabaptist? I do not think you are the Old Order Amish type but more towards the New Order Amish or Amish-Mennonite?

Answer: We prefer that you call us Christians. We feel being called Christians are more important than our denomination. Please see I Corinthians 1 verse 10 to 17. We kind of agree that we are closer to the New Order Amish or Amish-Mennonite type, we do live off grid but we do use certain electricity like phone and the power generator. We are just having the Amish lifestyle, like the Para-Amish.

2. How many people worship at your church?

Answer: 4 to 5 family

3. Is Northern Tasmania very cold like the South?

Answer: Yes and No. Here at Springfield, it can get to 35 degrees during the summer.

4. The Amish (including the Mennonites and Hutterites) population are growing due to high fertility rate and high retention rate, they are reclaiming more lands. Do you hope that Springfield and Scottsdale area will be occupied by the Anabaptist Trio (Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites), in the future?

Answer: Yes. I hope so and pray for it.

5. Are you the only Anabaptist family with the horse and buggy in Tasmania?

Answer: Yes. but another family will be joining us soon. They are looking for a horse and buggy, so we no longer will be the only one.

The Return of the Village: Why Collapse Might Mean More Community Not Less

Most people imagine collapse as a world of chaos.
Empty streets. Violence. Everyone for themselves.

But history tells a different story.
When big systems fail, people do not scatter.
They form tighter communities.

Not because they want to.
Because that is how humans survive.

And in a strange way, if our modern world ever cracks, America might rediscover something we lost a long time ago.

The village.

Not the nostalgic fantasy version.
The real one.

The kind built on cooperation, responsibility, and shared capability.
The kind where every person matters because every person has a role.
The kind that runs without corporate supply chains, political games, or fragile global systems.

If the national grid struggled, or supply chains collapsed, or digital services failed, people would not suddenly become lone wolves. Most could not even if they tried.

Instead communities would reorganize into local survival networks, tight circles built on trust, land, skills, and daily contribution.

Here is what that would look like.

⸻

Shared Food

Multiple families producing different essentials.
Eggs here.
Milk there.
Vegetables next door.
Meat down the road.
Everyone trades and everyone eats.

⸻

Shared Water

Off grid wells, rain catchment, purification, shared storage.
No one survives long without water, so villages always protect it first.

⸻

Shared Defense

Not fantasy militias.
Real neighbors watching each other’s property, rotating security, communication systems that do not rely on cell towers, and a level of trust modern cities do not have anymore.

⸻

Shared Tools and Skills

One person good with engines.
Another with livestock.
Another with carpentry.
Another with medical care.
Everyone becomes valuable.

In a world where the tech dependent struggle, the capable thrive.

⸻

Shared Education

Kids learning from parents, grandparents, and skilled neighbors.
Real knowledge.
Real work.
Real competence.
Not screens.

⸻

Shared Purpose

People need meaning, and modern life is starving them of it.
Crisis does not always destroy meaning.
Sometimes it restores it.

You can feel it now.
People want connection.
People want land.
People want independence.
People want the strength of a community that actually knows each other.

If the big systems shake, the next America might not be scattered.
It might become a nation of villages.
Small. Capable. Local.
Stronger than the country we have right now.

And if you are building skills, storing food, raising animals, learning the land, and teaching your family how to be useful, you are not preparing for the end.
You are preparing to be one of the people who rebuilds what comes next.

Do you think America would fall apart or reconnect if the big systems failed?

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1155361013409757&set=a.403380858607780]

REPOPULATING SCOTTSDALE & THE OUTSKIRTS:

I was happy to hear that another ‘Para-Amish’ family will be joining the McCallums. I learn that an Amish community is formed when there are at least three households. A new Amish settlement is formed in North America every few weeks.

Just like the Amish are repopulating Nebraska’s Sandhills, the Pennsylvanian Amish are doing the same thing, by moving west of Pennsylvania to for example, Littlestown, Adams County. This increase is part of a larger trend where Amish families from the denser Lancaster County settlement move west to find available farmland.

²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)

Bruderhof members in outdoor gathering.

https://www.eberhardarnold.com/about

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/07/140th-birthday-for-eberhard-arnold-july.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/eberhard-arnold-on-simple-living.html

The Hutterites are another good example of a growing community. They are actively expanding their land base in North America, driven by high birth rates and communal needs, often purchasing farmland in the Dakotas, Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, though facing some provincial restrictions and local tensions due to their rapid growth and efficient farming practices. This expansion is not just agricultural; some colonies are also diversifying into manufacturing, but land remains crucial for their self-sufficient lifestyle, leading to both economic success and community growth.

Einfach Leben - Einblicke in die Welt der Amish im Stil alter Gemälde

A happy home is more than a roof over your head, it’s a foundation under your feet. – Amish proverb

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://share.google/images/vXBhPf6hXQjSk4FxC & https://www.calvendo.de/galerie/einfach-leben-einblicke-in-die-welt-der-amish-im-stil-alter-gemaelde/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/einfache-leben-mccallums-and-their.html

I will present this bible verses from I Corinthians 1 verse 10-17 (ESV), before I write a role play of an imaginary Para-Amish community in Springfield, Tasmania.

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. ¹²What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” ¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. – I Corinthians 1:10-17 (ESV)

ROLE PLAY:

I would like to imagine these Amish-Mennonites families or singles moving to Springfield, Tasmania to join the McCallums in their community. They all use horses and buggies, they also would have made good community members, with their skills and talents.

17 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

18 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
and that spreadeth out her roots by the river,
and shall not see when heat cometh,
but her leaf shall be green;
and shall not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit. – Jeremiah 17 verse 7 to 8 (KJV)

Gloria Yoder and her family

https://amishamerica.com/amish-cook-gloria-yoder-husband-daniel-dies-accident/

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/03/meet-gloria-yoder-new-order-amish-cook.html

1. Gloria Yoder, the New Order Amish cook.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/03/meet-gloria-yoder-new-order-amish-cook.html

“Make it easier for churches and religious communities to run schools, succor families, and aid the needs of human life. Religion is the best family policy.” ― Catherine Pakaluk, Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth

PHOTO CAPTION: In this week's column Lovina shared about her daughter Susan, who has begun dating Ervin. Lovina was kind enough to share this photo with us—what a sweet group! (July 2022)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=437253091742658&set=pb.100063739112308.-2207520000&type=3]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/10/introducing-lovina-eichers-amish-kitchen.html

2. Lovina Eicher is an Old Order Amish cook, mother, and author of The Essential Amish Cookbook and several other cookbooks. She writes the popular syndicated column Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, which appears in 36 newspapers around the United States along with a Facebook page with nearly 5,000 followers. Lovina and her husband, Joe, have eight children and 15 grandchildren (as of October 12, 2025). They live in rural Michigan.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/10/introducing-lovina-eichers-amish-kitchen.html

I have a motto: it's never too late to give up. It's never too late to give up what you are doing, and start doing what you realise you love. - Hans Rosling

Matt Secich hangs sausages on a bar to dry at his Charcuterie shop in Unity on Wednesday. David Leaming/Morning Sentinel

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.pressherald.com/2016/01/13/peripatetic-chef-pursues-his-calling-among-unity-amish/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/05/joining-amish-chef-amish-convert.html

3. Matthew Secich, a convert to Amish, who was a former chef. He is a Para-Amish.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/05/joining-amish-chef-amish-convert.html

I have a motto: it's never too late to give up. It's never too late to give up what you are doing, and start doing what you realise you love. - Hans Rosling

Titus Morris and his home

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://sergeydmitriev.medium.com/the-simple-good-life-as-titus-morris-lives-it-ddbd770e2a66]

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-1-meet-titus.html

4. Titus Morris, another Para-Amish of the Henson Creek House of Prayer in Kentucky.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-1-meet-titus.html

A happy home is more than a roof over your head, it’s a foundation under your feet. – Amish proverb

[QUOTE SOURCE: https://www.pinecraft.com/blog/a-happy-home-is-more-than-a-roof-over-your-head-its-a-foundation-under-your-feet/]

https://yahwehssong.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/amish-proverbs/

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/05/family-value-quotes.html

Retired Ohio science teacher reveals why he joined the Amish at age 51 - but could YOU give it all up for the simple life?

· Mark Curtis, now 71, was baptized into an Amish church in Belle Center, Ohio, in 2003, after their care for his cancer-stricken mother convinced him to join

· Other converts, including a former top chef in Chicago, have cited spiritual awakenings as reasons for joining the Amish, while some have joined for love

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-2-mark-curtis.html

5. Mark Curtis, a retired teacher who joined the Old Order Amish.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-2-mark-curtis.html

Paul Yoder from Old Order Amish in Mio Michigan

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://images.app.goo.gl/8paPZm6tjtc4hPHd6]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/04/interview-with-paul-yoder-old-order.html

6. Paul Yoder, an old order Amish who owns a lumber mill in Mio, Michigan. I believe that he belongs to the Michigan Amish Fellowship (AKA Michigan Circle) which was influenced by Elmo Stoll, founder of Christian Communities.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/04/interview-with-paul-yoder-old-order.html

New Song From Amish Couple Ben & Rose: “The Little Mountain Church House”

[SOURCE: https://amishamerica.com/amish-couple-ben-rose-perform-little-mountain-church-house/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/03/ben-and-rose-amish-singing-couple.html

7. Ben & Rose are an Old Order Amish couple from Lancaster County, PA, known for their viral YouTube country-gospel music, gaining fame for their beautiful harmonies on traditional and modern tunes, despite the surprise for some that their plain lifestyle allows for such public, non-instrumental music, showcasing a unique blend of faith and accessible artistry.

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/03/ben-and-rose-amish-singing-couple.html

I hope and pray that the McCallums and their community will grow more like those in Maryland AKA Gortner Amish, where it is a mixture of both Old and New Order Amish combined community. As Sun Tzu said:

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death." – Sun Tzu

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.audible.com/blog/quotes-art-of-war]

Plainness: A Biblically Grounded Lifestyle

Edsel Burdge, November 23, 2025
Part of the Miscellaneous series, preached at a Sunday Evening service

https://shippensburgchristianfellowship.org/wp/sermons/?sermon_id=1230

VIDEO SOURCE: https://youtu.be/Gz-UibJMwQY?si=VHqa_yHjK39iLd9D

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth." - Psalm 121:1-2 (ESV)

Mount Roland from the lookout at Sheffield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Roland_Conservation_Area

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-20/mount-roland-tourism-cable-car-tasmania/100386682]

THE MCCALLUM AMISH-MENNONITE FAMILY LINKS:

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien

The McCallums – One of Australia’s few Amish families

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html

The Church At Springfield

https://thechurchatspringfield.com.au/

True community arises out of transformation, and only transformation can make real community. – Eberhard Arnold

The McCallums and their community

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html

“I make music to touch the souls of people as it’s a language we all can speak.” — Andre Rieu

The McCallum Family Musical Group

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-mccallum-family-musical-group.html

Love Is Work Working together with others is the best way to test our faith, to find out whether or not we are ready to live a life of Christian fellowship. Work is the crucial test of faith because such a life can come into being only where people work for love. Love demands action, and the only really valid action is work. Christian fellowship means fellowship in work. – Eberhard Arnold

Springfield Farm Fresh Produce - McCallum Family

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/08/springfield-farm-fresh-produce-mccallum.html

“I wish you music to help with the burdens of life, and to help you release your happiness to others.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Tuner Compass

From an Amish family in Tasmania, to a Chinese Australian widow in Darwin, piano tuner Martin Tucker encounters people across Australia. Through his craft the audience is introduced to a network of community, soul connection and listening, bound together by the vanishing skill of a piano tuner committed to his calling.

(ABC, Compass, 2021)

https://www.tuckertune.com/

See 4:22 to 8:25 of video for the McCallum Amish Mennonite Family

BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html
BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html
BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-mccallum-family-musical-group.html
BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/08/springfield-farm-fresh-produce-mccallum.html

VIMEO SOURCE: https://vimeo.com/539429269/5a910346a1

RUMBLE VIDEO: https://rumble.com/v705yag-piano-tuner-compass.html

BITCHUTE VIDEO: https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuvkk7OjQpWM

Mount Roland is a locality, a mountain, and a conservation area in the north west coast region of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is near the town of Sheffield. The peak rises to 1,234 metres (4,049 ft) above sea level^[1] and there are a number of well-marked bushwalks suitable for a day of pleasant exercise. There are long established walking tracks from both Claude Road and Gowrie Park to the summit.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10161558259721167&set=pcb.1444637450300605]

[ALBUM SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sheffieldtasmanianoticeboard/permalink/1444637450300605]

RELATED LINKS:

" Community is like an old coat, you aren't aware of it until it is taken away." – Amish Proverb

JOHN TROYER MEMORIAL REPORT 2025

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/10/john-troyer-memorial-report-2025.html

https://amishamerica.com/amish-population-ranking-by-state/

https://amishamerica.com/10-oldest-amish-settlements/

https://amishamerica.com/5-amish-population-facts/

PA Amish families moving farther west as their populations hit record high

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/pa-amish-families-moving-farther-west.html

A farmhouse in front of Mount Roland

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.ourtasmania.com.au/mobile/mt-roland.html]

¹⁹The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; ²⁰by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew. - Proverbs 3:19-20 (ESV)

Scottsdale, Northeast Tasmania

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/scottsdale-northeast-tasmania.html

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/alberta-hutterite-colony-buys-tisdale-area-farm-for-26-5-million

The Amish, a strange community

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1,151,321 views Oct 13, 2024 ÉTATS-UNIS

Welcome to Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the Amish in the United States. They are a Christian ethno-religious group of Germanic origin and are known for leading a simple, peaceful and austere life, keeping themselves aloof from progress and influences from the outside world. After several months of attempts, we finally succeeded in filming the daily life of this community from another age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzWWkH0VxNU

Minnesota Amish Community

https://amishamerica.com/minnesota-amish/

https://worldcrunch.com/eyes-on-the-us/amish-america-minnesota/

“Let every nation know... whether it wishes us well or ill... that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address (20 January 1961).

AMISH REPOPULATING NEBRASKA’S SANDHILLS

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/04/amish-repopulating-nebraskas-sandhills.html

https://amishamerica.com/visiting-the-amish-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-10-photos/

Gortner Amish Community

https://amishamerica.com/5-old-but-surprisingly-small-amish-communities/

http://www.mountaindiscoveries.com/images/ss2013/amish.pdf

http://www.mountaindiscoveries.com/stories/ss2003/gortneramish_plain.html