GILDFORD, Mont.- Some weeks, Lisa Marie Stahl writes about the most routine Hutterite happenings – a special meal at the colony or cattle branding. Other times, though, she answers questions she knows non-Hutterites, or “the English,” as she calls them, want to ask: Why do you dress the way you do? Why do Hutterites refuse to go to war? Are your marriages arranged?

For five years, the 20-year-old Stahl has shared through her newspaper column stories, traditions and even mundane duties of day-to-day life on the Gildford Colony in north-central Montana. But she is giving up her biweekly column in the Great Falls Tribune this month as she prepares to be baptized and marry a Hutterite man she met a few years ago.

Stahl is dedicating her life to her God and future family, following tradition and leaving behind such frivolous pursuits of her youth as her column. It is a decision she made alone, she says, and one that brings her much pride.

“I’m kind of sad about leaving my column but am really happy with myself. I’m taking two really important steps in my life,” she says from the kitchen of the house she shares with her parents and five of her six siblings. “I’m kind of happy to be going on in life. But, at the same time, I’m sad about leaving something this big behind.”

It is big because it is so different.

Hutterites are Anabaptists who live in communal agricultural colonies – where the men and women have traditional roles and wear traditional clothing. Technology is embraced on the colony, as long as it helps advance the common good. Men use tractors and combines. Stahl’s family has a microwave and coffee maker. She has an e-mail account through the colony school’s computer, a luxury very few have and one she uses to answer e-mails. Surfing the Internet is frowned upon.

Stahl never imagined how much interest her column would garner – or how great a burden it sometimes would become – when she first agreed five years ago to write about life within the religious communal setting.

Stahl was first asked to write a column for the local daily newspaper, the Havre Daily News, while still in high school on the colony. At the time, no one in her small farming colony of about 60 people had done anything like it. But Stahl says she saw a rare opportunity to do good, to share her culture with the English, who too often misunderstood it.

Her parents gave her their blessing, believing it would only last through the school year.

“I figured it would be a good challenge for her,” Susanna Stahl, 49, says of her eldest daughter, who had written short stories and filled the pages of a school and colony newspaper with slice-of-life articles. “All people don’t have that gift.”

Stahl’s writing, her mother and others say, began dispelling rumors about Hutterites and helped further a better understanding of their beliefs and traditions.

Stahl has been writing for the Great Falls Tribune for most of the past three years, since catching the attention of Karen Ivanova, a reporter at the newspaper who is her editor.

Stahl soon found herself stopped by total strangers – readers who recognized her from the picture that runs with her column – on her trips to town.

Once largely greeted by stares from strangers, Stahl says she now finds non-Hutterites more willing to approach her – to talk or just offer a smile. She is even occasionally asked for an autograph.

“She’s really broken down a lot of stereotypes and put a personal face on Hutterite culture for the people who maybe only see Hutterites in the store or pass them on the road,” Ivanova says.

Stahl answers questions she sometimes considers silly, but realizes many people have.

No, she says, Hutterite marriages are not arranged. Yes, Hutterites do pay taxes – “Show me what United States law says you can’t pay taxes,” she says. No, not all Hutterites dress alike; styles vary from colony to colony, she says. And, yes, Hutterites are pacifists.

Stahl’s writing, though well-received in the “outside” world, has caused some concern among other Hutterites.

She quit writing for a brief period in 2001 and wrote, in a column that coincided with her 19th birthday, that she intended it to be her last. The column, she wrote “has encountered many challenges and has, no doubt, raised eyebrows within my culture, as well as within my own community.”

But her retirement was short-lived. Her readers wouldn’t let her go quietly and sent letters – all of which she’s kept, along with her columns – encouraging her to return.

At times, her writing reads like a report, filled with facts and little fanfare. Other times, though, one can sense an almost childlike anticipation of sampling fresh-baked buns on a Saturday morning or sharing the loss of a baby niece, whose death brought the colony together in its grieving.

Sharing both the mundane and profound help readers understand that Hutterites are “just like anybody else,” Stahl says.

Ivanova, who receives Stahl’s columns by fax machines, says she’s struck by how personal Stahl’s fan mail is.

“People write about her like she’s their best friend,” she says, adding: “I think one reason she is so popular is, she reminds us all of our roots.”

Stahl’s final columns, she says, will focus on preparations for her baptism and marriage.

She is excited to move on, but nervous, too. She says she hopes someone else will step forward to continue her column, to help further the understanding between the two neighboring cultures. So far, however, no one has expressed an interest.

“I feel I’ve opened a door,” she says. “I’ve done quite enough.”

Ivanova says Stahl’s decision will leave a void.

“I don’t know if there’s anybody else out there like her,” Ivanova says. “What she does is really a necessary service for Montana.”