From Sewing Seams to Tailoring Lives 

Nine years ago, Jay Bliven had no connection to anyone who had ever been behind bars. He was a retired engineer, happily married, and settled into a quiet life. He received a Friday night invitation from a friend to go to an event at church. He said yes and his life has never looked the same since.

A Boy From Woodbury  

Jay grew up in Woodbury, Connecticut. He met Joyce while stationed at Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami. He had no vehicle of his own, so Joyce's family made him a simple offer. He could stay at their house on weekends, as long as he went to church with them on Sunday mornings. Jay figured that was a fair trade. 

Jay and Joyce married and have now spent 56 years together, moving through 19 different homes across 8 states along the way.  After their wedding, they settled for a season in Tennessee, and church slowly slipped out of their routine. 

An Emergency, An Answered Prayer

In 1975, Joyce became pregnant with their first child. Labor did not go as planned as the baby could not make it through the birth canal. Doctors rushed Joyce into an emergency C section, and for the first time in his life, Jay called out to God in true desperation. Afterwards the baby was healthy and Joyce was safe. From that day forward, the Bliven family never stopped showing up to church and community together. Jay says he has watched God show up in every relationship since, in every sorrow, and in every hardship, life has handed him. He says you only must look to God in every situation. 

Jay went on to spend 35 years as a manufacturing engineer in the cut and sew industry. He can still sew a straight seam if you ask him. Today he calls Chesnee, South Carolina home, and he fills his days working around the house, spending time with Joyce, and traveling when he can. 

Saying Yes

In 2015, a friend from Jay's church invited him to a Friday night gathering at Second Presbyterian Church. Jay had never known anyone who had been in prison and admits he was hesitant to go. Before the night ended, everyone circled up, held hands, and sang Amazing Grace. Jay stood there holding the hand of a man once labeled an ex con, and it felt completely normal. Jay has been serving with JUMPSTART SC ever since. 

The Need He Couldn't Ignore

Jay saw the need up close from his very first night with JUMPSTART SC. How does anyone rebuild a life after release with no outside support waiting for them? A newly paroled man walks out the gate with no income, no housing, and no transportation, and it is nearly impossible to secure one of those things without the other two. 

Jay loves that JUMPSTART SC is Christ centered from the ground up. He especially values that much of the leadership and staff are formerly incarcerated men and women who walked this same road themselves. They know the mindset. They know the fear. They know what it takes to make it, because they have already made it. Jay believes ministering to someone truly requires walking in their shoes first, and JUMPSTART SC lives that truth every day. 

For nine years, Jay has shown up week after week for men rebuilding their lives after prison. He is currently walking alongside his seventh mentee. During Jay’s time with his mentee, they share a meal, sometimes at a restaurant, sometimes at the JUMPSTART SC community table. They talk through the week, checking in on work, on life, on health, and on the struggles nobody else asks about. Jay always makes sure to pray with him before they part ways. 

Jay has attended every kind of JUMPSTART SC event there is. Community meals, celebration release days, and graduations. He says no matter the occasion, it is always uplifting to celebrate redeemed lives, to hear remarkable testimonies, and to witness firsthand what happens when a person surrenders their heart to Christ.

Philip's Story

Every mentor carries stories that mark them forever. For Jay, that story belongs to Phillip. Phillip was sentenced to death for murder during a robbery attempt. He spent 9 years on death row before his sentence was commuted to life with the possibility of parole. He married and had a son while incarcerated, yet kept landing back in lock up for fighting, drugs, and defiance. 

In 1990, after another stint in lock up, Phillip's wife gave him an ultimatum. One more mistake, and he would never see his son again. Phillip walked back to his cell and asked God for forgiveness. He was never the same man again. Phillip stayed in prison until his parole in 2019, when he came straight to JUMPSTART SC. Shortly after arriving, doctors diagnosed him with stage 4 stomach and liver cancer. What followed was a year of chemo, radiation, broken bones, infections, and a stretch in hospice care that would have broken most men's spirits. It never broke Phillip's faith.He left hospice to return to JUMPSTART SC because he considered it his family. The staff made special provisions to care for him there. Through every treatment and every hard day, Phillip kept ministering to the men around him. They called him the Christ's JUMPSTART SC Ambassador. 

Jay mentored Phillip through all of it. The last time Jay saw him, Phillip was gasping for breath and told Jay it felt like he was drowning. A few days later, Phillip returned to hospice. The day before he passed away, he called Jay on the phone and told him he had lived an amazing life. Jay has never felt so humbled. For a year, he could not tell that story without tearing up. Today, he tells anyone who will listen to it. 

What Mentoring Has Taught Him

Jay says the men he mentors need one thing above all else. They need someone to believe in them. Many spent decades inside walls that structured every hour of their day. The outside world, with its freedom and its technology and its lack of structure, can feel overwhelming. Jay has also learned to see past the label the world hands these men. They are no longer hardened criminals. They have repented. Their hearts have changed. And Jay will tell you, they are a whole lot like him. 

He has noticed something else too. Most people outside JUMPSTART SC believe that formerly incarcerated men and women should keep paying a price long after their sentence ends, and most people have little idea how hard the road of reentry truly is. Jay has learned to look past that misconception and see the man standing in front of him instead of the record behind him. 

Mentoring has not always been easy. Jay has celebrated milestones and built real friendships with the men he has walked alongside, and he has also grieved. Two of his former mentees have gone home to be with the Lord. Every part of it, the joy and the sorrow both, has been a humbling experience that has grown his faith in ways he never expected. Watching broken lives find redemption reminds him that hope in Jesus is real and present, and it reminds him to count his own blessings too. 

Right now, that faithfulness looks like Thursday afternoons with Cav (pictured below). For the last several months, Jay has met with Cav every week, an hour of pursuing the Lord together followed by a shared meal at the community table. Jay has even brought his wife Joyce along on occasion. It is a simple rhythm, and JUMPSTART SC sees it as a gift. A mentor and a mentee, meeting week after week, encouraging, challenging, and praying for one another.

Twenty-Five Reasons to Say Yes

By the end of this year, more than 25 new transitional participants will arrive at Restoration Village. Each one will need a mentor like Jay, someone to sit across the table, ask the hard questions, and pray with them when the week has been long.

We need more men and women ready to step into that role before they arrive. For anyone sitting on the fence about becoming an outside mentor, Jay has three simple words: "Just do it."

Our participants need guidance and encouragement. They need someone willing to show up week after week, the way Jay has for nine years running. Scripture backs up his call. In Matthew 25:36, Jesus says, "I was in prison and you came to visit me." Jay will tell you what you receive will match, or outweigh, everything you give.

Nine years ago, Jay Bliven walked into a room as a stranger. Today, he is family to men who never expected anyone to believe in them again.

More than 25 men and women are on their way. Will you be the reason one of them finds that same hope?

Become Someone's Steady Presence

You do not need decades of ministry experience or a theology degree. You need what Jay had, a willingness to say yes to a Friday night invitation and keep showing up. JUMPSTART SC needs more men and women willing to walk alongside the 25+ new transitional participants arriving by the end of this year. Every one of them needs someone to sit across the table, ask the hard questions, and pray with them when the week has been long.

If you are on the fence about mentoring, take it from Jay, "just do it." Become a mentor today at jumpstartsc.org/volunteer

If you are considering giving: Your gift funds the meals, the community table, and the space where mentors like Jay and men like Cav sit down together week after week. It turns a Friday night invitation into nine years of faithfulness, and it can do the same for someone else. Give today at jumpstartsc.org/give

If you are considering giving to Alumni Housing: Your support funds more than a home or a program. It funds the structure that turns hope into a real pathway from incarceration to restoration. Give today at jumpstartsc.org/give