Jerry has been on Rumspringa for six years and is the most ‘English’ of the group.
Many of his friends have already made the decision to be baptised, but for Jerry the stakes feel unbearably high and he is still wrestling with the decision. Since starting Rumspringa aged 16, Jerry's car and his phone, his parties and his TV, have all become a part of his life. Away from his family, in his Amish version of a student house, Jerry misses the closeness of the Amish home. He misses the meal times together and the sense of belonging to a community.
For Jerry, being Amish is about more than just faith in God - it's about the warmth that comes from a life that revolves around your family and the security that comes from being part of a tightly-knit community. If you choose the non-Amish 'English' way of life then you will lose all that.
A country boy through and through, Jerry has barely left his home state let alone stayed in the city, and he has rarely spent time with non-Amish families. Although he has worked in an RV factory like his father, he grew up in a home without electricity and his childhood chores included feeding the horses and tending to the vegetable garden. Britain is going to be a very different world to anything Jerry is used to, and may just help him to finally decide how he wants to spend the rest of his life.
