When I mention my past, many people are confused as to what the Amish faith really is. Many confuse it with the Mennonite sect, or the Legalists, but there are some very clear differences. The Amish faith is more structured and rigid, its member speak Pennsylvania Dutch as their primary language and use no electricity. Their primary method of transportation is in a horse or mule drawn buggy, they are very sheltered from the outside world, and once a young adult is baptized as a member of the church they leave all things of the world behind, including any forms of insurance, social security benefits, any military attachments or any government assistance. A strict dress code, with no ornamentation (including buttons) is followed by both male and female, with both sexes covering their heads in deference to a higher power. There are some newer Amish sects such as "Beachy Amish" that allow the use of electricity in the homes and a loser dress code, but in both sects religious services are very somber, and Jesus as a savior is not readily represented.
The Mennonite faith is of a more pacifist belief, supporting non violence (thus, non-military) and a quieter life. They allow electricity in their homes, and the women are allowed to wear more colors than Amish women’s strict grey, navy and dark purple. Prayer caps are worn by both sects’ females, and the men in both orders wear symbolic beards, another form of covering. The beard is grown after baptism as another sign of being set apart, before that the young men are recognized by their smooth faces.
These two sects are very similar, and share a significant amount of history, but the major differences are in the root belief. The Amish sequester themselves from the world because they believe "Englisher" are corrupt and distracted by their lifestyles (which to some extent might be true) whereas the Mennonites sequester themselves in the name of peace. Small differences, but there are about 1.5 million Mennonites in the world, mostly in Africa.
The number of Amish is harder to pin down, mainly because until a member is baptized into the order (even if the child grew up in that order) they are not considered a part of the order. In between joining the order through baptism is a time called Rumspringa (jumping/running around) when the child/adult has leeway to explore certain freedoms and parents are expected to turn a blind eye as their childer experiment with alcohol, their sexuality, and even drugs. In this period the unbaptized youths are allowed more communication with the Englisher world, and access to non Amish or Mennonite technologies, and sometimes even a longer period of education, but this time traditionally ends, first marked by baptism, and then a spring wedding. However, in recent generations with the lure of technology, electricity, freedom and even continued education (school for the Amish child ends at 8th Grade) many Amish youths and even some Mennonites leave the fold under cover of Rumspringa, to be shunned by the community and never allowed to return.

The Amish base their faith and seclusion on the following verses:

"Be not yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (II Corinthians 6:14)
"Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord." (II Corinthians 6:17)
“And be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

Instances of outsiders converting to the Amish faith are very few, because they are not evangelical, but in my own life there are some familiar examples.
My parents grew up in traditional all-American households, my father here in TN my mother in New England. My father played his guitar in a band, worked in the local drug store and learned to drive the family tractor by the time he was twelve. My mother was in the girls scouts, participated in several beauty pageants and worked at Burger King her senior year. They met when my mother came to TN for college, she dropped out, married my father and they had my two older siblings. Then I came along and my parents made a sudden radical change.
Though not traditionally Amish, because my parents don't live in the right area my parents blended Amish and Mennonite with ever increasing legalism, discovered a like-minded sect in my home town, with the title of "Independent Fundamentalists" that blends the strictest portions of both Amish and Mennonite faiths with a concentrated brand of legalism. The main goal is to shut out the sinful outside world, and bring as many others into their belief as possible. By home-schooling, a strict dress code, and segregated, structured worship dictated by one leader they hope to become more holy and sanctified (set apart)
They see the Rumspringa as a distraction and undue corruption to the committed follower, and hoped by eliminating that period to keep more of the next generation in the “fold”. However, after eighteen years of growing up in that environment my desire for a continued education and a broader mindset prompted me to leave home, and pursue my dream. My older two siblings also left the family fold, my oldest brother is in the Air Force, and my older sister works locally in an insurance firm. Though I was shunned by my family, and their religion I have the freedom to build on the foundations of my early life. I am currently in my junior year of College, I can vote, drive, hold a job, form an opinion uniquely my own and in some small way contribute to society at large. One day I plan to teach, and hopefully pass my thirst for learning on to many others.

“Who so would be a man, must be a nonconformist.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life is something that everyone should try at least once.”
Henry J. Tillman