A distinctive religious migration model emerged in the 1950s-70s: Plain Anabaptists attempted global evangelism by transplanting religious colonies abroad. Nearly 100 Beachy Amish-Mennonites pursued this in 1968 by moving to rural Costa Rica, starting a larger rural congregation and a smaller suburban one.

Their ambition was two-fold: communally demonstrate their centuries-old traditional lifestyle while pursuing religious conversion efforts among locals.

Difficulties arose as Beachys applied their habitus to a vastly different context. Some instincts undermined outreach, including prioritizing pre-existing in-group socio-religious debates versus pragmatic adaption aimed at proselytization effectiveness.

As peasant converts lacked full social and economic capital to achieve full inclusion, frustrating identity negotiations emerged among and within Beachy/native parties over cross-group connections.

Local class divisions emerged as Beachys applied capital and technologies inaccessible to locals, as with land acquisition, infrastructural development, and economic projects, which complicated definitions of a “successful” colonization effort.

These unstable colony experiments—lasting around a decade—reveals intriguing themes around ethnicity, global religious ambitions, leadership maneuvers, imported culture clashes, and meanings of change.

Though the two founding congregations have disbanded, a remarkable legacy endures of over 20 Costa Rican and Nicaraguan congregations.