The Bontrager Family Singers

[WonderingInWA]

Well, Rebecca Eleventy went to a Bontrager Family Singers concert at her church and took about a million photos of nothing.

BUT, it prompted me to check these people out. Their website reads pretty much like the Maxwells, but they have 10 kids instead of 8. They travel the country in a big bus.

Anyone know anything about this family?

bontragerfamilysingers.com/

[Edited by hoipolloi to remove direct link]

[PurpleSheepleEater]

They attend a church with a pastor who graduated from Hyles Anderson so it's safe to say they are definitely fundie.

[WonderingInWA]

They look eerily similar to the Maxwells, just younger and with a couple extra kids. I noticed they are traveling through Kansas this month so wonder if the Maxwells will attend their concert. Or maybe they are the competition.

[Miggy]

They appeared on 19KaC along time ago. Duggars claimed they were good friends but the howlers spent the episode trying to pronounce their name correctly. (Making fun of their name?) This led to some snark about whether these "great friends" had ever met before.

[boxedin]

They are "friends" of the Bateses too. Somewhere on the Bates Blog it tells about going to visit them. Some type of festival and the Bates sang I think. Too late for me to go look it up. Are the Bontragers from Iowa? I don't know about their family except they are musical.

[bionicmlle]

i think in one of my drunken stupors I found a bunch of their videos on youtube months ago....

[WonderingInWA]

They are "friends" of the Bateses too. Somewhere on the Bates Blog it tells about going to visit them. Some type of festival and the Bates sang I think. Too late for me to go look it up. Are the Bontragers from Iowa? I don't know about their family except they are musical.

Their website says they are from the midwest. Own a farm where they raise pigs and some plant food, I guess. But that they have two lives and the other one is traveling in their bus and singing. I keep wanting to call them the Von Trapp Family Singers.

[Lillybee]

They appeared on 19KaC along time ago. Duggars claimed they were good friends but the howlers spent the episode trying to pronounce their name correctly. (Making fun of their name?) This led to some snark about whether these "great friends" had ever met before.

It wasn't just the howlers who couldn't pronounce their name. I believe Boob had a lot of trouble with it, too.

[Miggy]

That's right - I'd forgotten JB stuffing it up too! I remember the howlers because if kids were behaving like that at my school and making fun of someone's name it would be considered bullying. We'd sit them down and having a long conversation about respect and the cultural background of names. The older Duggars just seemed to think the little boys were funny.

[fullmetalheart]

Looking at their website and the videos on youtube, Duggarness aside, yep, seem to be in fundieland.

[lilith]

Lots of videos on YouTube.

Both the parents are from very large Mennonite families, and their siblings range from mainstream to modern modest ATI/VF types to head covering Mennonites.

They attend ATI and VF events and are connected to all the usual fundie families, especially the Weismans.

The Bates and Duggars have both performed at the yearly "hearts and minds" conference they hold on their farm.

Some of their videos are pretty cool - they do a thing called "sibling cooperation" where the kids play each others instruments simultaneously - hard to describe but fun to see.

The younger kids are heavily involved in the Bible Bee and the boys sometimes wear Alert Cadet shirts. I think the older girls have been on Journeys to the Heart.

Mama Bontrager miscarried what was probably her last blessing late last year.

[lilith]

Oh, and to the person who was reminded of the Maxwells - definitely a different breed of fundie. They are very socially active in fundie circles and Chelsea and Alison do all the usual stay at home daughter frivolous activities with decorating and fashion and elaborate hairstyles. They even go and visit other families (together of course) without the whole family coming along. The whole family also attends big family gatherings that include family members who are obviously not fundie as well as the Mennonite relatives who are clearly another brand of fundie, which Steve would never tolerate.

[boxedin]

That's interesting... Coming out of old school Mennonite into ATI/VH. I will have to check them out.

[Lillybee]

Does anyone remember our poster, RaineyMott. I believe that she is from one of the fundie musical families but I can't remember which one.

[BullyJBG]

There were some posts on Chelsey's blog that made me realize she's NOT a Sarah Maxwell. She's gone over ALL the flack that fundie adult unmarried daughters have gotten and been discussed here. She said how college isn't necessarily bad, if you know what you're studying and approximately what you plan to do with it. She gives caution to the SAHDs who do nothing but laundry/housework, cooking lunch or supper, and surfing the web. She said that while those are all important, but should be learned in the early teen years, and after graduating, one needs to build marketable skills and be out in the community. That her parents encourage her and her of-age sister Allison, to use their passions to do just that. So, not as much to snark on. My goodness; there's enough "fun" in their lives that "Steve-hovah" couldn't handle it. But it seems to be balanced. Chelsey's turning 23 this month, and while there's no courtship stuff at this point, there's time.

[BullyJBG]

chelsyrenee.com/2013_10_01_archive.html

Here, if you scroll down enough, you should find it.

[edited by hoipolloi to remove direct link]

[docmom]

Definitely fundie but definitely not Maxwellian. Their Christmas Eve dinner looked great- and it was cooked by the boys!

I did find the graphic violence in their living nativity play a little off-putting but you can't have it all.

[thoughtful]

Some former discussions of this family, if anyone wants to check them out:

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11114

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17822

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14481

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9268

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14710

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11064

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18495

Have fun!

[lilith]

There were some posts on Chelsey's blog that made me realize she's NOT a Sarah Maxwell. She's gone over ALL the flack that fundie adult unmarried daughters have gotten and been discussed here. She said how college isn't necessarily bad, if you know what you're studying and approximately what you plan to do with it. She gives caution to the SAHDs who do nothing but laundry/housework, cooking lunch or supper, and surfing the web. She said that while those are all important, but should be learned in the early teen years, and after graduating, one needs to build marketable skills and be out in the community. That her parents encourage her and her of-age sister Allison, to use their passions to do just that. So, not as much to snark on. My goodness; there's enough "fun" in their lives that "Steve-hovah" couldn't handle it. But it seems to be balanced. Chelsey's turning 23 this month, and while there's no courtship stuff at this point, there's time.

Bullshit (Chelsey, not you). I challenge her to identify one marketable skill that she and Alison are seriously cultivating.

And I bet her younger sisters just happen to turn out to be the sort that college isn't right for either. None of the boys are attending college, let alone the girls.

They are classic stay at home daughters, waiting for Prince Charming. Don't be taken in by their propaganda.

Oh, and Christmas dinner was cooked by the whole family. The girls and the mother do the vast majority of the cooking in that house.

[WonderingInWA]

Some former discussions of this family, if anyone wants to check them out:

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11114

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17822

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14481

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9268

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14710

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11064

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18495

Have fun!

Thanks, thoughtful! Hmm, do I go down that rabbit hole today or do I save it for the weekend? That shall be the question...

[Black Aliss]

Definitely fundie but definitely not Maxwellian. Their Christmas Eve dinner looked great- and it was cooked by the boys!

Such a pity. I saw four potential Maxwell/Bontrager pairings: Chelsy and Joe, Mitchell and Anna, Allison and John, and Carson and Mary.

[WonderingInWA]

Such a pity. I saw four potential Maxwell/Bontrager pairings: Chelsy and Joe, Mitchell and Anna, Allison and John, and Carson and Mary.

Maybe we can fantasize just a squidge that Steve will bend a little on a potential match with one of them. The Von Trapps Bontragers are going through Kansas this month, and since Steve and Teri just got done with inventory (another riveting blog post), they'll be ready to sell more chorepacks to large families who might need them!

[artdecades]

Were any of the VF interns? Or did they learn the homoerotic, manly push-ups on their own.

bontragersingers.blogspot.com/2014/01/live-animal-christmas-play-2013behind.html <- last two pictures

[WonderingInWA]

Were any of the VF interns? Or did they learn the homoerotic, manly push-ups on their own.

bontragersingers.blogspot.com/2014/01/live-animal-christmas-play-2013behind.html <- last two pictures

That last photo where they are stacked in the pushup position -- I think there was a photo once of the Maxwell boys doing that, too. It looks like it hurts.

[BirdgirlH]

*digging out thread*

well, they're still doing it (stacked push-ups), and they've infected their new BFFs (Bowers) with it too. It seems unbalanced - the younger and lighter you are, the more likely you are to have someone heavier than you bearing down on you! (That sounds weird so I hope everyone has seen the pics and knows what I'm talking about)