Welcome to the Speak Up for Hope blog! Thank you for your interest in our organization. This blog will be updated weekly and we hope you will check back often for news of what is happening as we reach out to help meet the needs of inmates and their families.

Many of you have asked for an update on our son. On October 25, 2010, Jason will mark his 11^th year of incarceration. We have exhausted all of our appeals at both the state and federal levels. Last summer Jason’s paperwork requesting a clemency hearing made it to the top of the pile (a three year process). After reviewing the case, the Florida Parole Commission recommended that Jason’s case receive a waiver hearing before the clemency aides. A waiver is needed before a case can be heard before the governor and his cabinet at a clemency hearing. Clemency does not usually mean that an inmate will immediately walk in freedom. In our case, we were asking for a review of the case, with the hope that Jason would be given an eventual end-of-sentence date, instead of life without the possibility of parole. In the State of Florida, a life sentence means the rest of your natural life will be spent in prison. Our son did a terrible thing, believing he was protecting his two stepdaughters from the potential of abuse, and we know there must be a punishment.

Gene and I were given an hour to present Jason’s case in front of the clemency aides. They asked lots of questions and requested that we gather letters from inmates who had been positively impacted by Jason’s teaching, mentorship, and encouragement, along with letters from the parents and spouses of inmates who observed his influence on the lives of their incarcerated loved ones. It took us two months to gather the materials and letters that were requested and we compiled them into eight two-inch thick notebooks and sent them to Tallahassee for distribution. Three days after they arrived we received word that the attorney to the governor of the state had denied a clemency hearing for Jason. It will be five years before J.P. is allowed to file clemency paperwork again.

It was discouraging, to say the least, and I wish I could tell you we immediately thanked God for what he was teaching us through this exhausting, expensive, and discouraging process. I sobbed and Gene comforted me through his own tears. The next day was a visitation day and Gene gave Jason the news. When I arrived at the prison a couple of hours later, I wept as I greeted my son.

J.P. was totally at peace as he said, “Mom and Dad, if God chooses to allow me to walk in freedom in this lifetime, it won’t be because I received the favor of well-connected politicians and attorneys. It will be because God moved in the hearts of decision makers in a miraculous way. I am content with that. My heart hurts for the family of the deceased and I hope that someday in the future they will be able to forgive me.”

Jason is currently taking his 8^th group of inmates through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. He is in the Gavel Club, which is a group of inmates who are working on their public speaking skills. He has reached the 4^th level of the Evangelism Explosion program, and he has a group of mighty prayer warriors who fast and pray on behalf of the needs of each other and their families.

Some of you have asked what you can do to help. The workbooks needed for the Financial Peace class are $17 each, so if you are able to donate on our website, that amount will cover one inmate’s course material. Additional gifts help us to provide DVD curriculum for chapel programs, inexpensive greeting cards for inmates to send to their families, and Boxes of Hope that are sent to wives and moms of inmates.

Most of all, we are grateful for your prayers—for us and for Jason and for inmates all over the country who are trying to be ambassadors for Christ in a dark place. Thank you for caring. For regular updates on the ministry Gene and I are involved in , please become a friend on Facebook at: Carol Kent, or follow us at www.Twitter.com/carolkentspeaks.

Be encouraged with these words: “Friends when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 (MSG)

It has been my privilege to visit my nephew, Jason Kent on many occasions.  I am Paula Afman, one of Carol's sisters and one of Jason's favorite aunts.  (Of course we all feel that way.)  I have often been amazed at how few visitors come to see the inmates.  I was told by one of the correction officers at the prison where he is presently confined, that out of approximately 1,500 inmates, only about 150 ever get a visitor.  A few years ago Speak Up For Hope was able to arrange to have Greeting Cards and postage provided so that the inmates could send out up to six cards to friends and loved ones during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.  Each year since, I noticed that the amount of visitors that come to see the inmates over the holidays has increased tremendously.  It makes my heart sing to think that God has used Speak Up For Hope to make such a visible impact.

As I was standing in a very long line waiting for my turn to enter the cage-like room where I would punch my identification number into a machine and a special camera would scan my hand in order for me to leave the visitation area after spending my cherished six hours with Jason, I spoke to the guard at the “cage entrance” as I would be in the next group of five to enter the “cage”.  I told him that I appreciated the way the prison staff handled the increased flow of visitors.  Then the guard told me that one of the inmates that had been there for 19 years, since he was a very young man, was expecting to have his very first visitor the next day.  Yes, I was touched but that was just the beginning.

When I went back to see Jason the next day, the six hours flew by as per usual, and once again, I found myself standing close to the end of a very long line waiting to exit, when I noticed an African American woman standing a little behind me crying very hard.  I took a few steps back to where she was standing and told her that she looked like she could use a hug.  She laid her weeping face on my shoulder and with our arms around each other I started to pray for her and her… she filled in, “brother”.  After praying, she explained how she had been separated from, but looking for her brother for many years, and that they were finally reunited that day at Hardee Correctional Institution because of a card she had received from him.  She didn’t explain how he had found her, but she went on to say that he hadn’t had another visitor in 19 years.  I interrupted and said out loud, “You’re the one”.  She looked at me with bewilderment; so I explained that a guard had mentioned a little bit about their story the day before.   As we walked out to the parking lot together, she shared with me that she and her three daughters had been homeless and living in a shelter, but that within the past year, God saw fit to provide her with a job, a home, and a car. She cried as she said, “And now He has helped me reunite with my brother”.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." Mark 10:27 NIV