"Ever since the 1890’s, long before they were urged to be "missional," rural American Mennonites took along their witness as they toured, preached, wintered, farmed celery or carpentered in Florida and adjacent states. Bringing the 'all things' of their plain heritage, by mid-century they accrued a presence of 1000 members, blending at least four main northern 'conference' backgrounds (not to speak of Amish and German Baptist Brethren neighbors). 

"Access to this colorful unfolding comes now via the unique consciousness of a bishop whose role, while he himself unfolded spiritually, led him from the center of Pennsylvania Mennonite identity into the hesitant emerging of a conference of the whole. The story is told with humor (a spider as broad as a fifty-cent piece, spared because it ate roaches); pathos (migrants’ children selling a coon to raise money for a Sunday School offering); scruples (the young bishop’s wife required to wear an apron with her dress); variety (tourists, converts, leaders, Hispanics, African Americans); and courage (crossing racial and cultural thresholds while satisfying bishops from home).

"Key moments and personalities, insightfully recalled, will help new members gain important understandings of Southeast Mennonite Conference as well as its neighbor churches, and historians of the larger Mennonite scene will need this book for their own interpretive work."  —John. L. Ruth, Author, The Earth Is the Lord’s: A Narrative History of Lancaster Mennonite Conference

"With the art of a storyteller, the heart of a pastor, and the acumen of a leader, Lehman narrates the Amish and Mennonite presence in the Southeast in this first of two volumes." —John E. Sharp, Instructor in History, Hesston College; Author, A School on the Prairie: A Centennial History of Hesston College, 1909-2009

"The evident working of the Holy Spirit, the foibles and faith of leaders and laypeople, and the struggles of cultural and regional differences in the founding and metamorphosis of the Mennonite church in the Southeast make Roots and Branches an interesting read and a valuable history resource." —Irene Bechler, former urban church planter; teacher and counselor; Member, Outreach Commission, College Mennonite Church

"This is grassroots history at its best, telling the story of the men and women who nurtured an Anabaptist presence in Florida and Georgia." —Richard K. Macmaster, Author, Land, Piety, Peoplehood: The Establishment of Mennonite Communities in America, 1683-1790