Susan Hougelman: Simple Life & Strong Faith

Susan Hougelman is one the world’s foremost authorities on the inspirational simplicity of the Amish.

As the owner of the Western Pennsylvania Amish Hospitality Company, Susan provides Simple Life Amish Tours. She introduces people from around the world to the Amish way of life. She takes celebrities, ambassadors, leaders and regular folks who are drawn to the simplicity of the Amish life through the New Wilmington, PA community. During her 12 years in business, she has given over 9,000 tours.

In true Susan fashion, she shares the call of the simple life. “In Amish Country, there are no traffic lights to race through, no phones glued to hands, no rush to the next ‘urgent’ thing. Here horses know the way home. Neighbors still stop to talk in the driveway. Dinner is made from scratch, not from a box. And Sunday is a day of rest, not a catch-up day.”

She continues, “I’ve watched the world hurry past, but I’ve also watched an Amish buggy clip-clop down a country road. And I can tell you … peace is a different kind of wealth.  Sometimes I wonder if the rest of us have been chasing the wrong kind of riches.”

As she introduces people to this pure-of-heart life, she encourages them to slow down and focus on what’s important. “I believe that’s how God intended us to enjoy this life – with nature, breathing in the fresh air and being among the flowers, plants and animals.  And to live in a community of love and kindness with others.”

The Simple Life Amish tours have received rave online reviews. A couple from Cologne, Germany said, “We learned an incredible amount in a short space of time. Sensitive and appreciative, Susan introduced Amish people to us and gave us an insight into their lives. It motivated us to engage more intensely with the topic of Amish and to develop an understanding of a quite idiosyncratic way of life. These two hours had it all!”

Susan says, “I’ve helped to build a bridge between the two worlds. And it’s been life changing for people. I’ve done this on my own, without anyone else. I’ve turned down offers to expand. It’s not about the money, but about the godly inspiration. I have people of all faiths on the tours – Buddhists, Hindis, Mormons, atheists – and from all walks of life.”

And she doesn’t stop at just giving tours. She wanted to share the beauty of the Amish way of life with even more people, so she wrote a book.

She is the author of "Inside the Simple Life: Finding Inspiration Among the Amish." Through this book, Susan brings readers into a tight-knit community where peace and tranquility abound. She shares what she, an “Englisher,” has learned from her friends in the private and fascinating world of the Old Order Amish. And she presents heartwarming stories and stunning photos that bring these simple ways to life.  

In the ever-increasing busyness of technology and life in the 21^st century, the Amish provide a refreshing humility, steadiness and simplicity that is inspiring. And people are discovering that truth through Susan’s book. She wrote it four years ago and sales have far surpassed the expectations either she or the publishers had.

One reader said, “Again and again, through this book I found myself feeling challenged and motivated to slow down and smell the roses, live a simpler life, and make my family and community a much higher priority.” That’s Susan’s hope for each person who reads the book.

Susan also built a strong social media presence, most notably her Facebook page that has more than 70,000 followers. As she is the heart of what’s become a simple life movement, Susan says, “What started as a deep appreciation for the Amish way of life has grown into a journey of sharing their wisdom, craftsmanship, and beautiful traditions with the world.”

For more than a decade, Susan has witnessed the splendor and quality of the products that the Amish painstakingly make, from handmade quilts to goat’s milk soap and homemade jams. But most people don’t have easy access to the Amish stores and homes that Susan visits. And since the Amish don’t use computers and websites, it’s hard for them to share their products with people who may want them.

So Susan started an online company, Simple Life Amish Store, to help the Amish sell a plethora of their hand made goods.

Through the Simple Life Amish Store, Susan enables people near and far to purchase handcrafted treasures from Amish artisans.

She loves what she does – especially her interactions with the Amish community and the impact she has on a complex world in search of the simple life.

Susan has taken a long journey to get to this part of her life. She shares that she had a rough childhood, being overweight and feeling like a misfit. She was so shy that she couldn’t look people in the eye. College was even more difficult. Susan was tremendously insecure, drank too much and had a breakdown. Her sister helped her find a nanny job in another state.

There Susan befriended a woman who helped her to style her hair, apply make up and wear nice clothes. “She was a sweet woman and was so kind to me. I lost 50 pounds and gained a lot of confidence while I was there.”

Susan laughingly says she left home an ugly duckling and returned a swan.

“For the first time in my life, boys were attracted to me.  Joe Hougelman was the first man I dated and I fell head-over-heals in love with him. God brought us together.” Susan and Joe have been married for 35 years.

When they married, they moved the North Side of Pittsburgh for Joe’s engineering job. She had loved her small, friendly town of New Wilmington and the city was much different. The week the newlyweds moved in, there was a home invasion in the neighborhood, and a doctor was killed.

Susan became obsessed with the thought that someone was going to break into their house. Every time she heard a noise, she imagined awful things happening. So at night they locked their bedroom and kept a bat by the bed. She was a mess, unable to sleep at night and increasingly sick by the day.

Desperate for peace, one night she laid in bed and prayed, “Jesus, I don’t know if you’re real but if you are, I need you to help me.” And that night, Jesus came to her in a dream. It was very real, she says. He spoke to her and said, “Close your eyes. Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”

She woke up her husband and told him that Jesus talked to her. He said that’s nice, go back to sleep! And she did. For the first time in weeks the fear was gone and she instantly went to sleep.

It was around Christmas time and she asked Joe to get her a Bible. She wanted to know more about this Jesus who had given her such a sense of peace.

Joe bought her a Bible and she started reading Romans. “I realized I was a sinner and in need of salvation So I prayed to God and have loved Jesus ever since. My life didn’t change radically, but I was like a sponge. I wanted to know God better and read His word.”

As soon as she was pregnant with her first daughter, Ally, she prayed there would be a way to return home to New Wilmington. She didn’t want to raise her child in the city. Within a week her husband lost his job.

She says with a smile, “Answer to prayer? Maybe not the way I’d want it, but yes!”

Susan’s parents owned a little restaurant in New Wilmington and pointed them to a cafe in the nearby town of Volant. They thought that Joe could run the restaurant – and that’s how the couple found their way home.

Through the years, Susan and her family, now four with the addition of their second daughter Lauren, grew in their faith. Their family business wasn’t always easy. She remembers, “My husband and I were working really hard but we weren’t making very much money. I knew we had to change something.”

So she started praying and looking online at real estate. She found that a once-fancy restaurant, The Tavern, had been closed and vacant for three years.  She instantly felt a nudge she knew was from the Lord to look at the property.

She told Joe about her feelings and that she wanted to look at the property. So they did – and instantly knew they should buy the restaurant.

One problem was the timing – it was during the housing bubble, when it was hard to get a loan. Their banking contact couldn’t get bank approval for the loan, so he personally gave it to them.  “I’m giving you this loan because I know you and trust you.”

Another challenge was selling their café. They hadn’t known it, but an employee from the café had saved her money for 10 years and wanted to buy it. The employee happily bought the café, becoming its new owner.

With the challenges cleared, the Hougelmans put every penny they had into buying The Tavern. There was a one-room apartment attached to the restaurant, so they moved into it with their two teenage daughters while they worked on getting it ready. Suppliers would give them food to sample their products – which often became their family’s dinner.

They needed The Tavern to pass inspection two weeks before it was scheduled to open. The inspector told them that the fire suppression system was bad and needed to be replaced. They didn’t know what to do, with no money for the project, but kept working.

The next part of the story may be hard to believe, but is true, Susan affirms. A couple of days later, they were cleaning when there was a knock at the back door. A man introduced himself and said that God told them to bring them money. He gave them a check for $7,000 – the exact amount they needed for the fire suppression system. He didn’t want repaid, he said he was following God’s will.

Susan says, “You hear about those things happening, but you almost don’t believe them. It happened. The man, Dick Whitaker, would meet me for lunch and became my mentor. He’s an amazing man of God.”

Life was good for Susan and Joe.

Once they opened the door of The Tavern, it became successful beyond their wildest dreams.

Susan explains the next events. “We’d been faithful to God and what He’d called us to do. And we were thrilled that our restaurant was doing so well. But my husband got bladder cancer and was physically wiped out. While The Tavern was my dream, my creation and my heart, Joe was the workhorse. He made it happen. And he couldn’t do it anymore.”

They made a decision to sell the restaurant, and Susan says that God again supported them. They received a generous offer to sell The Tavern.

It had been through her experience at The Tavern that Susan found a new vocation. She was the hostess at the restaurant and loved talking to people. (She still does!) Every day someone would ask where they could see the Amish. While Amish country was all around New Wilmington, there was no tourism centered around the it. Susan would tell the guests to drive around and look for the Amish, but one day she decided to show some guests around the Amish community herself. The informal tour went well, and inspired Susan to learn and share more about the Amish people.

Although Susan had grown up in New Wilmington, the English and Amish people didn’t mix much. The Amish were just a part of life, seen in their horse and buggies and wearing blue bonnets and hats. Susan started reading all she could find about the Amish.

She remembers, “God began to draw my heart toward this fascinating group of people, and I wanted to get to know them in person, not just by reading about them. A friend who knew many of the Amish took Susan to Amish businesses and made introductions.

When she entered one Amish store, Susan couldn’t believe her eyes – seeing intricate quilts, homemade jams and jellies, local honey and fresh baked goods. She asked the owner if she could bring other people to her store and the answer was yes. So Susan became immersed in the Amish way of life and started sharing that knowledge and familiarity with others.

Simple Life Amish Tours was born, followed by her book, social media and then her online Amish goods business. Twelve years passed, and all was very good.

Everything changed overnight when Joe was again diagnosed with cancer. This time it was a rare medullary thyroid cancer.

The diagnosis made Susan listen to that still, quiet voice that was speaking to her soul. She knew she needed to stop the busyness of her life. She says, “I was drawn to the idea of making a huge change - selling all the ‘stuff’ we have, getting an RV and traveling around the country. We could spend more time with God and each other, our children and grandchildren.”  She’d been sharing the beauty of the simple life for years, but now was time to live it herself.

While Joe responded well to treatments and no traces of the cancer remain, the impact on the couple was deep. Susan and Joe talked about her deep-seated desire for a respite from their busy lives, and he agreed. “Yes, I think that’s the right thing to do,” he told her. They'd both been working 12 hours a day for years.

Susan says, “I’m an overachiever. I’ve worked hard my whole life, and I don’t know what it’s like to just be, not do. I know that my identity is not in the Simple Life. My identity is in Christ. He loves me whether I’m working or being still.”

So Susan is taking a sabbatical – a pause for now. The tour business will go on, with the help of tour guides she will train. Her daughter will run the online Amish store. Susan will share her new version of the simple life to her Facebook followers. This will be the in-between that will get her to her next chapter, whatever that is.

On her way to share her story for this People Living Well blog, she was contemplating her situation. “It’s like God is saying, ‘Susan, you spend your whole life talking about me. But you’re not being with me. Trust me, be with Me and take this next adventure.”

So after becoming one of the world’s foremost authorities on the inspirational simplicity of the Amish, Susan is leaving it all behind - at least for a little while - to find simplicity herself.

And this we know: Susan Hougelman’s story is not over yet.

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Continue to follow Susan’s Simple Life Journey on social media:  Facebook page

Read her book at: Inside the Simple Life: Finding Inspiration Among the Amish."

Book an Amish tour at: Simple Life Amish Tours

Check out the online store: Simple Life Amish Store