For three years, Jerry went to Grace Emmanuel School each morning knowing that when the school day ended, he still wouldn’t be going home.

This year, when 17-year-old Jerry leaves school, he goes home.

Home to Source Matelas.

Jerry, an 11th grader, is one of about 10 Grace Emmanuel School students whose families have returned to live in Source Matelas after being forced to leave in 2023.

Three years away

Like many of his classmates, the last day Jerry had been home in Source Matelas was April 19, 2023—three days after his 14th birthday.

He left home that morning thinking about his 7th grade exams at school, completely unaware that he wouldn’t return home for three years.

Four days after the attack that day, he found his family safe in Cabaret. Eventually, they settled in Casale, in the mountains north of Cabaret.

“Everything had changed,” Jerry said. “We were not at all comfortable. I was always closed up in my house because I didn’t know anyone, and that made me really sad.”

Jerry missed his friends and neighbors and the simple things he had taken for granted.

“My cousin and I would always talk about how much we missed our neighborhood, especially how we used to play soccer,” Jerry said.

For three years, Jerry lived away from the place where he had grown up.

Then, sometime around last April, returning to Source Matelas became more than a dream.

Families began talking about going back to see their homes. For Jerry’s family, the decision became more urgent when the rent on their house in Casale came due and they didn’t have the money to pay it. Finding water there had also become increasingly difficult.

Jerry’s mom decided it was time to go home.

Going home

Jerry was relieved.

“I knew I would be more comfortable because that was where I grew up,” he said. “I thought too that our lives could be easier.”

When they arrived, the yard was overgrown with weeds. Inside, they discovered that everything had been taken—even the doors.

“It was just very difficult for us,” Jerry said.

So they got to work.

Jerry cleaned up the yard and the house. His family bought new doors. Slowly, they began making their old house home again.

And so far, life has been more comfortable.

“What makes me happiest is because all my family is together,” Jerry said. “Before we were all in different places. But now we’re all reunited.”

After school, he comes home, studies, spends time with his family and sometimes sees friends.

He goes for walks around his neighborhood. Cools off in the public water source. And plays soccer.

For Jerry, those ordinary things are part of what makes being home feel like a relief.

Home, but not quite the same

But returning home hasn’t meant returning to the same Source Matelas Jerry left in 2023.

“The saddest part is that there aren’t yet many people who have returned,” he said.

Many of the families who once filled the neighborhood are not yet ready to return.

From Jerry’s perspective, he would encourage them to reconsider. “There are just some people with guns,” he said, “but they don’t do anything to us.”

For Jerry and his family, the decision to return has brought a fragile sense of normalcy after three years of displacement.

For JiHM, however, the decision is more complicated.

Can JiHM go home?

Over the summer, JiHM’s local leadership had extensive conversations about whether it was safe for the ministry to return to its property in Source Matelas.

Families like Jerry’s who have returned are doing so despite the continued presence of armed men in the area. The decision to return is an economic one for them, as the cost of living away from home becomes increasingly difficult to bear.

As a ministry with known ties to the United States, JiHM faces additional security concerns.

None of our leadership feels safe returning.

And the majority of families at our school have not returned either, despite the continued economic burden of living away from home.

For now, JiHM will remain in Arcahaie while our leadership continues to pray for wisdom and discernment about when it may be safe to return home.

Let’s pray for a peace-filled year in Source Matelas, Cabaret and Arcahaie—for those like Jerry who have returned home, and for those who still long to.