#52 Transformed. One Man's Journey to Declare No More. - Jaime Kent — Compelled Podcast

As a young child, Jaime Kent saw his entire world fall apart in just a matter of minutes. Yet as his earthly family imploded, little did he know a Heavenly Father was watching from above.

The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Jaime Kent. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.

Written by Jace Bower

Hard Beginnings

Jaime Kent’s first ten years of life seemed normal but there was more beneath the surface that would cause an implosion.

When Jaime was quite young, around two-years-old, his divorced mother remarried. Jaime, his brother, and his sister lived with their stepfather and his two sons in a small town in Iowa. The family was involved in BMX racing and received a number of fun opportunities.

In the midst of this, however, Jaime’s stepfather was abusing his family. He physically abused his sons and step-sons when his anger flared.

Everything Changes in a Moment

One night, Jaime’s life was flipped upside down. While lying awake in bed, Jaime saw red and blue police lights flashing on the ceiling above him and heard a commotion upstairs on the main level of the family’s home.

Jaime’s brother walked downstairs and handed him a black trash bag. He told Jaime to gather his things. They were leaving.

Jaime was stunned. One moment he was a normal kid, going to school. The next moment he was leaving his home. What was going on?

A police officer followed Jaime’s brother down and escorted Jaime upstairs and out the door. As they walked out, Jaime saw his mother crying and his stepfather in handcuffs. Not only had Jaime’s stepfather been physically abusing the boys, he had also been sexually abusing his step-daughter, Jaime’s sister.

An Unstable Life

After that night, Jaime never saw his step-brothers. He moved with his mom, brother, and sister, from place to place. Jaime’s life was characterized by instability as the family struggled to make ends meet.

One day, Jaime’s sister had friends over at the family’s apartment. They were drinking and began to bully Jaime. They picked him up by his ankles and dropped him on his head. Jaime fought back, eventually freed himself, and took off running.

His mother worked at a mall ten miles away from the apartment. Jaime walked all the way to the mall that day to see his mother. He was angry and hurting and he turned to alcohol to cope. Even at the age of ten, he was drinking to get away from the pain he was experiencing.

Moving In With Dad

Now Jaime’s biological dad had actually always stayed in touch with his kids and they used to visit him on the weekends back when he still lived in Iowa. Even after he remarried and moved to Georgia he still had frequent phone calls with his kids and was always a part of their life.

When Jaime was twelve, his dad volunteered to host all three kids at his home in Georgia for the summer. It was a welcome reprieve at a critical moment in Jaime's life. Jaime’s father didn’t completely understand what was going on in his children’s lives in Iowa. He didn’t realize the instability and insecurity that characterized their lives. When the time came to return to Iowa, Jaime pleaded with his father not to send him back. Jaime’s mother agreed to let him stay and live with his father in Georgia.

This new development helped protect Jaime from even more trials had he returned to the mess of his life in Iowa. But it didn’t fix the deeper issues that he struggled with. He continued to use alcohol to cope with his pain, stealing from his father’s inventory of beer in the house.

An Exhilarating Freedom

Jaime had always been curious about God. While attending a Catholic church in his childhood, Jaime had a knack for getting in trouble due to his curiosity. He didn’t mean to disrupt the church’s routines but his well-meaning curiosity often led him to do things that the priest disapproved of.

Now, as a teenager, with far more burdens than he had as a young child, Jaime wasn’t interested in God. A friend named Alan invited Jaime to attend church with him. But Jaime kept putting it off. Eventually, Alan invited more friends and convinced Jaime to attend with them. This started a season of a few months where Jaime would accompany his friends to church and just hang out.

Jaime was hearing about his need for salvation and Jesus’ provision of that salvation. But he was still resistant. He didn’t want to surrender and admit that he was in such deep need. He continued to try to control his life and remain self-sufficient.

One night, Jaime opened up to the youth pastor about his struggle to surrender his life to God. His pastor graciously listened and then asked Jaime what he would do if he didn’t surrender. Keep living as he was? Jaime knew he couldn’t do that.

That night, Jaime prayed with his youth pastor and received the salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ. It was a moment of exhilarating and unprecedented freedom in Jaime’s life. He was born again!

“No More”

Ten years after his conversion, Jaime was living in Tampa, FL, with his wife Tami and their three children. He was working full-time in youth ministry and was leading youth missions trips to Central America.

One particular trip brought him and his team to a poor remote village in Nicaragua. There Jaime saw firsthand what poverty compelled people to do. A woman begged his wife to take her dying child back to the United States for medical care. Another woman was preparing to leave her family to work a job in another country to provide for them. The teens on the trip were inspired to raise funds for the family’s provision which prevented the woman from leaving.

This was providential. The woman was prevented from falling into what Jaime later learned was a human trafficking trap. This reality of human trafficking was new to Jaime. Back in 2006, it wasn’t talked about widely. But the exploitation of these vulnerable people pricked Jaime’s heart and burdened him with a holy discontentment.

When Jaime returned to the United States and his routine ministry with the youth, he felt God calling him and his family into something more. In particular, he was challenged by the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 to feed, clothe, and care for the very “least of these”. Jaime founded a ministry called “No More” with a vision for no more slavery, poverty, orphans, and hopelessness.

A Hard Calling

One thing that Jaime learned as he launched this ministry was the close but overlooked correlation between human trafficking and foster care. Seven out of ten girls who age out the foster care system are immediately vulnerable to human trafficking within 48 hours of aging out of the system. Eight in ten boys who age out end up in prison.

Jaime was challenged to lead the way in the campaign to provide foster children with a home and to protect the vulnerable. His family was also on board. The Kents started fostering and walked through the fulfilling but painful process of providing short-term care for beautiful children before letting them go. Despite the pain of these goodbyes, the family was convinced that this was what God was calling them to do. How could they refuse?

True Redemption and Hope

In the midst of all the practical good that Jaime, his family, and his ministry, is doing, they don’t lose sight of the nature of true redemption.

Jaime doesn’t want to just provide vulnerable people with an improvement to their situation. He wants to reach them with the hope of the Gospel: an eternal salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Jaime is careful to address this deep and eternal need in the people he serves, even as he works to help meet their physical needs.

Jaime’s story is a beautiful picture of one man transformed by Jesus and compelled to spread the hope and life he received to the world around him.

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Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.