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What do you do when the bottom drops out and life breaks in ways you never imagined? Charlie and Jill LeBlanc have walked that road, and through their personal story of loss, they’ve discovered the sustaining power of God's presence. In this podcast, they offer heartfelt conversations, Scripture-based encouragement, and the kind of hope that only comes from experience. Whether you're grieving, struggling, or searching for peace in the middle of chaos, this space is for you.
Hello. Thanks for joining us today.
Charlie LeBlanc:Hi, everyone.
Jill LeBlanc:We're Charlie and Jill LeBlanc, and we just are looking forward to a few minutes spending with you. You know, we're just coming through all the holiday season and it's been kinda rough for some of us.
Jill LeBlanc:I mean, it's the happiest, joy most joyful time, most wonderful time of the year. But for those of us that have, you know, walked through some really hard times, it it comes with a few a few challenges.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:So we just wanna continue to talk about, the goodness of God because the subtitle of this podcast is getting through what you never asked for. And that happens by God's amazing grace in our lives.
Jill LeBlanc:He loves us so much, and he is so faithful. So we're just gonna talk more about his faithfulness. Yes. Even in the light of the junk that happens to us, he is still faithful and he loves us so much. He loves you so much.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes. And Jill, you know, the other night before Christmas, we had a little gathering at our house, Taco Tuesday, and we had a wonderful time. All of our grandkids were here. Family was here. And yet, I told you when we went to bed, I thought, I looked around as delightful and sweet as it was, I thought, this is it.
Charlie LeBlanc:We don't have any, you know, Beau's not here. We don't have more family, you know? And, you know, and that's fine. It's okay. But it was it was an awareness and it did bring me a little bit of grief to realize that, you know, we didn't get to we don't get to celebrate Bo and his family here as well.
Charlie LeBlanc:But nonetheless, we have a great show for you today. And we are going to be interviewed by Andrew and Jamie Wommack.
Jill LeBlanc:Right. It was recorded about a year ago and we just haven't had a chance to bring it before you yet. But, we were guests on Andrew's show called Grace and Faith today on the GTN network. And we just talked all about this season of our lives and our ministry. And so we wanted to share with you just so you could hear from another perspective on God's grace in our lives.
Jill LeBlanc:When I say our, I mean collectively, and how He carries us through the hard times.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. And, you know, before we go into that, I just wanted to add to what I was sharing earlier about missing Beau. Forgive me for jumping around like this, but I just immediately thought of many of you that even some of you that I know that lost your son or your daughter even in this last year.
Jill LeBlanc:Or your brother or your sister.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. And and I mean, my heart just went out to you. I mean, like we've said many times, it's been sixteen, almost seventeen years for us. But for those of you who have just lost your loved one, just know, man, we understand and our hearts are with you and we're so, so sorry.
Jill LeBlanc:Yes.
Charlie LeBlanc:So, God bless you and I hope this interview does minister to you as well.
Andrew Wommack:Welcome to another Grace and Faith today. I'm Andrew Wommack, and I've got my wife, Jamie, with me again. It's been great to have you on these programs.
Jamie Wommack:It's been good. We have Charlie and Jill again today.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, we interviewed Charlie and Jill LeBlanc on yesterday's program, and we've got them back again today. If you missed yesterday's program, I encourage you to go back and view it, because we've got a long history, 40, 40 plus years and we shared a lot of things about how the Lord put us together, but also about their ministry, their musicians. And man, I've benefited from their music so much. As I was saying yesterday, there's times that I'll be working outside and just stick on their music and let it play ten, twelve hours at a time. I've sung their songs nearly as many times as they have.
Andrew Wommack:Probably more. And so we shared a lot of things yesterday. I encourage you to go get that. But what we wanted to talk about today, you've got a book that you wrote about the things that you went through with your son, Beau. And I knew Beau. You know, let me just share before we get to talking about the negative things. One of the things I remember about Beau was when I was with you in St. Louis, and he must have been what, eight, nine years old?
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Wommack:And we went out to a park and we were running around and they were in their van. And then we got back in the van and I was thinking, Boy, something smells. We found that Beau had stepped in some dog poop and it was sticking up everything. And when we said, Beau, you got this on your feet, he just went wild and got to kicking and that stuff went everywhere. On the roof. It got worse.
Charlie LeBlanc:It was worse.
Andrew Wommack:I remember Jill took him to the back of the van and you had some
Charlie LeBlanc:Clean them up.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, had some paper towels or something. Paper towels or something. And boy, you had to scrub him down.
Charlie LeBlanc:It's a great memory, yeah.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, a great guy. But anyway, when was it? What happened with Beau and what occasioned this book and what are you guys doing now?
Charlie LeBlanc:Well, you know, Beau was just a normal great kid. And as you know, as you could tell in that moment, so as he grew up, he got into music, which we were real, real proud of him. But he got sick in 2008. Actually, it was interesting. He actually played drums at one of the conferences at Elkton.
Jill LeBlanc:Or 2007.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, in 2007. And Dave Duell actually had a word for him and for
Jill LeBlanc:Samuel Sims?
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, Samuel Sims, I think it was. Anyway, but I've got a beautiful picture of Dave Duell and Beau together, but yeah, he was ill and he
Jill LeBlanc:Well, tell him what Dave said. Do you remember?
Charlie LeBlanc:Mm-mm. Not exactly. Just prophesied this, the beginning of your ministry.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, that's what it was. He said, Tonight starts the beginning of your ministry. He had him by the shoulders, looking at him in the eyes, saying this.
Jamie Wommack:Wow.
Charlie LeBlanc:So long story short, he just, you know, he got cancer, thyroid cancer, and it just got worse and worse. And of course we stood, we prayed, we did everything we knew to do to help him get better as any parents would do for their child. We worked with him for nine months. We were in Scottsdale for a little while at the Mayo Clinic there as well, and then moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and where there was another Mayo Clinic there. So we were combining prayer, the word of God, and the best medical attention we could find for him.
Charlie LeBlanc:He was 22 years old at the time, right Jill, or 23?
Jill LeBlanc:Well, when he's first diagnosed he was 22.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, 22 and then he turned 23. But we fought and we fought for his life and he slowly started leaving us. So on January 14 actually of 2009 is when he passed. So yeah, this was just a very difficult time for us, a time that we'll never forget. The trauma of you being in Vietnam, you may have seen people die around you or situation, but the trauma of your own son dying in front of you is pretty difficult.
Charlie LeBlanc:And so, you know, we recovered from that. It took many years, but the book we we journaled through the whole time. You know, we journaled expressing our hearts and our feelings and our and our brokenness and our tears. And so through the years, God just continued to speak to us that we needed to tell our story. And so so that's how the book was birthed.
Charlie LeBlanc:Just last year, we finally released a book. It says, when loss comes close to home because it's something you never expect to happen to you. You know? And and when it does, you know, it's it's it's pretty tough. So we finally got this book out, and it's been out for about a year now.
Andrew Wommack:So this book was like fourteen years after Beau's death?
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. Released, yeah. You started on it a long time ago, probably after about seven years is when I started writing. But we were both journaling from the beginning, and so we both had things to reference. But as we went through those years, we began to It's incredible how many people that we are close to that lost loved ones after Beau died.
Jill LeBlanc:And a lot of the people you know as well, like Jerry and Clifton lost their son and just so many.
Charlie LeBlanc:Dave Duell and others, yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:But the Lord gave us things that we could share with them to help them, that he had showed us that helped us. That was part of the impetus of this book, is not just to tell our story, but to affirm those that are going through it, because that is something that people, a lot of people that experience loss, they feel like they have to hide their feelings, that they can't be honest with what they're going through. And just to affirm them that God loves you, he is with you, he is holding you, carrying you through this time, and not just try to get them to stop crying, because it's so life shattering to go through this. So anyway, we affirm the bereaved in the book because that's what the Lord did with us, and then we share with people that are walking beside them how to be a better support.
Andrew Wommack:That's one of the things about this book. It's not only how to get through grief, but it's how to help somebody who's going through grief.
Charlie LeBlanc:Exactly.
Andrew Wommack:And I think that there's wisdom in being fourteen years removed from it. If you'd have written this book when you were one year into it or something like that, it wouldn't have been the same book.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wouldn't have been the same, no. Yeah, and that's our heart right now is to just help people get through this stuff, because it's tough and it can knock you off the rails. And there's lots of people that will turn their back on God when they when their, you know, their prayers didn't get answered the way they expected. They're praying for healing and they didn't see the healing. And so, our heart is to try to help them get through that in a healthy way.
Charlie LeBlanc:I know when we lost Beau, I was desperate. I mean, I just cried out to God. I said, I don't wanna end up on trash heap. And and I said, God, I need help. You gotta help me get through this.
Charlie LeBlanc:This is hard. One of the scriptures that God spoke to me because I was really upset and angry at first was was when the disciples faced Jesus, and, and he said, are you gonna leave me too? And and Peter, I guess, had said, where else can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life. And I think that was a point for me where I just thought there I have no place else to go. I mean, I was so hurt. I wanted to turn my back on God and run, but you can't do that.
Andrew Wommack:Well, I knew that you guys were suffering, but I didn't know that that was a real temptation. I mean, like, where else do you go?
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. I mean, at at the time when everything crashes, you know, after we talked in the last time we were together about graduating from Rhema, sitting under, you know, your great ministry for so many years, seeing people healed left and right everywhere we go. Richard Waller, I laid hands on him. He got healed. You know?
Charlie LeBlanc:And then you pray for your son for nine months, and and he doesn't get healed. And so all the scriptures we stood on, all the confessions we made through those nine months plastered all over the walls, You know, when everything falls apart for that moment, you just don't know what to do. You know, your your your heart is just shattered. And so we, you know, the Lord spoke to me that that was the beginning. And I just turned to him and I said, well, God, there's no place else I can go.
Charlie LeBlanc:So I I know I've heard that you're the God of all comfort. I've I've read in scripture that you comfort those who mourn. I read in scripture that you heal broken hearts. I said, so I don't understand maybe all the other scriptures right now, but I believe that. And I said, you need to help me and heal my broken heart and help me get through this.
Charlie LeBlanc:So it was a journey. I contacted other people who had lost children, minister friends of mine, even musicians that had lost their kids. They just ministered to me and gave me some wisdom along the way of how to be strong.
Andrew Wommack:How about you, Jill? Did you struggle through this?
Jill LeBlanc:Oh, gosh. Did I ever. The day that Beau died, I was furious.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yep.
Jill LeBlanc:I just, I couldn't even cry because I was so mad because everything was on the line.
Jill LeBlanc:Everything we believed, everything we stood for and lived for just fell to pieces before us, and I was so furious. And our daughters, know, we prayed for several hours after he stopped breathing, and just worshiped. Well, you know, we spoke to his body, commanded him to come back. And then we just worshiped and prayed and thanked God that, you know, knowing that he was gonna come back. And after five hours, we stopped praying and our daughters are wailing because they were best friends.
Jill LeBlanc:He's just not even knowing how to handle seeing them respond, feeling somewhat responsible for it all, as the head of the house, and I just couldn't even speak or cry. I was just so mad, I didn't even talk to God for weeks. Because I was like, all along through the journey, it was like, God, we've been crying out for wisdom. We've been speaking your word. We're standing on your word.
Jill LeBlanc:Your promises are true, and yet our son is declining and we're asking, Show us where we're missing the connection between the natural and the supernatural. And yet, we didn't get those answers. So, I just walked away for a while. And yet, something I learned later is the Lord, even though I was so upset and disheartened and felt deceived and lied to, He was carrying me that whole time because that's how he is. He is love, and he loves us and he can take whatever we say to him.
Jill LeBlanc:And he carried me until one day he began to open my eyes after several weeks. Weeks, he began to let me know that he's been right here with me the whole time and just began to let me until see in the spirit, you know, just let me sense him and know that he was there the whole time. And even though we still don't have answers, he has just, he loved us through it.
Andrew Wommack:We've got a testimony that we play on our GTN network of one of our employees here that she liked this guy that was against Christianity. And so she just told the Lord, I'm gonna walk away because I love this guy. And as she told him that, he says, I'll be right here. I'll be with you. And it didn't last very long with the guy and then she felt so condemned that I don't remember what period of time, but finally she came back to the Lord and He says, I've never left you through the whole thing.
Charlie LeBlanc:Well that's the beauty of it is no matter what you go through, He never leaves us or forsakes us. He's with us always and even in the depths of pain and heartache, even when you, like Jill said, you didn't even know He was there, but but he was, you know, and and he carried us. You know, there's a scripture that says, when Israel suffered, he himself also suffered and he carried them through. And, and I think that was part of the one of the many revelations that I got in the journey was that when I was hurting, God was caring. He he was hurting with me.
Charlie LeBlanc:He- when I was weeping, he was weeping with me. I know there's not a scripture to say that, but it does say to weep with those who weep. And I my logic was that it would've if God told Paul to write that, then he he wouldn't tell you to do something that he wouldn't do himself. I really sensed the Lord holding me and and and weeping with me and and comforting me in the midst of a lot of my pain and a lot of my heartache. But it wasn't overnight.
Charlie LeBlanc:It took us a while. And I wanted to say before I forget, we appreciate you guys. You guys came immediately to our house after passed. You prayed with us through that whole journey. I called you that night.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, stayed up praying with you for hours after Beau died. Of course, I wasn't here, but I was praying.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right. Exactly. And then I remember calling you and saying, I think we're gonna have to let him go unless you had a vision or something and tell me not to stop, you know? But I appreciate you guys standing with us through that and and and loving us and and helping us through that time because one thing that happened to me along the way was a lesson that the lord spoke to me was we were actually on our way to minister at Jerry and Clifton's church. Their son had had died in a tractor accident and we were in England when we heard that. We were with you in England. And but the Lord on the way there, I said, God, what do I say? What do I preach? And the Lord said, tell the people to do the loving. And he said, I'll do the fixing.
Charlie LeBlanc:So God just spoke that supernaturally to me. He said, tell people to love you, to do all the loving to Jerry and Clifton, and to let God do the fixing. And I think sometimes when it comes to the loss of a loved one, I think sometimes people get over too overly anxious to try to go and fix that person. They're in pain. They're mourning.
Charlie LeBlanc:But, you know, Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for every purpose under heaven. There is a time to mourn. There is a time to grieve and we need to let people have those moments. Now of course there can be a situation where people get caught, the enemy comes in and causes them to get into depression and causes a problem. But I believe that there's a healthy place in grieving the loss of a loved one.
Charlie LeBlanc:We see scriptures all over scripture of great men and women of God that mourn the loss of their loved ones, their wives, their children, David, you know, it goes on and on. And so I think there's a healthy way to get through this, which by the grace of God, we have found that, you know. But I do appreciate you guys have really been a help because you guys never tried to fix this. I remember sometimes we'd leave worship in the conference and and we were so hurt that we would just go sit in the back and and just hang out. One time, Jamie, you came to Jill and said, just want you to know you we still have your seat up in the front row.
Charlie LeBlanc:Whenever you wanna come back, you're more than welcome, which was so sweet of you. You may not even remember seeing that, but but it was so sweet of you because you weren't like saying, listen, if you're gonna lead worship at my place, you need to be on the front row and you need to show support to us, you know. But we were hurting so bad, but you let us you let us minister and lead worship, which in itself was a difficult thing at times. I had to be real careful. My heart was so broken that I had to find songs that I could really, really engage deeply with the Lord.
Charlie LeBlanc:And and really this going through this, my my relation with God has gotten so much closer, and the word of God has become so much more alive than ever. Paul's sufferings become more alive to me. Seeing him talk about all that he went through, I go, wow. Yeah. I get it. Not near what he went through, of course, but but nonetheless, the word has come more alive to us. And so but you guys' support, allowing us and I knew you you knew that we were hurting, but yet you left.
Andrew Wommack:Well, it was from a distance. I mean, we certainly weren't hurting the way that you were hurting. We just worked through it with you.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, you did.
Andrew Wommack:It was hard.
Charlie LeBlanc:We appreciate y'all helping us through and and, you know, loving us and giving us opportunity to worship because in the interesting way, you know, if we hadn't had this opportunity to still lead worship in your conferences, you know, I don't know what would happen.
Andrew Wommack:Well, you know, I think that there's a balance here. You don't just go back and try and throw yourself into being normal and act like nothing happened. But at the same time, if all you do is sit and focus on your grief, you're never going to get through it. So I think it was healthy.
Charlie LeBlanc:It was.
Andrew Wommack:I think if I remember correctly, you canceled one service that you were supposed to be at and you asked Lamont and Sharon to come. Actually, was a couple of them. Was it a couple? But then, within a very short period of time, you started singing again and we could tell that you were still dealing with all of this. But it was healthy, I think, for you to get up start acting like God is still alive.
Jill LeBlanc:And also, we started working here at the school and we started the worship school right at that time.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, when you first called us about Beau, we had a vacation planned. When we heard it, we decided we'd go down there to Phoenix and visit with you. Probably didn't do this right. Was so excited because I thought, Man, Charlie and Jill, would you come and help start a worship track? I was so excited about that while you were dealing with Beau being diagnosed with cancer.
Andrew Wommack:I might not have been as compassionate as I should have been.
Jill LeBlanc:So we did that first year part time. I think we just came every other week. I didn't realize that was the same time.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, it was while Beau was sick that we did it part time.
Jill LeBlanc:And so then he passed in January, and we took a couple months off and then came back to finish out the year. But then the next year we-
Charlie LeBlanc:September of 2009, the same year is when we started.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, man. And we'd stay, you know, we wouldn't go home every week, but
Charlie LeBlanc:Sometimes, every week we'd have to go to a conference, you know, we do.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, but my point is that gave us something to keep getting out of bed for in the morning.
Andrew Wommack:Yeah, and you need that.
Charlie LeBlanc:Exactly. Exactly.
Jill LeBlanc:Because we probably wouldn't have.
Andrew Wommack:I agree.
Charlie LeBlanc:And I remember pulling in, a couple times pulling into that garage at Elkton And Jill and I would just be in tears. We just, we were just thinking about Beau and missing him and missing and grieving over that situation. And then we'd have to go in at 7AM and set up and get ready for rehearsal with the worship band, and then God would help us and strengthen us. And that whole semester was, like Jill said, it was important for us to get back engaged and to be around these young boys and girls in the worship school was so sweet and so tender. That's why we met some very close dear friends to this day and just being able to mentor them and love on them.
Charlie LeBlanc:Now the traveling back and forth and all that was wearing on us and because it was within the first year and you know you when you go through the loss of a child like that, you know, can affect you. Now I know everybody grieves differently, everybody goes through it in a different way, but for us it really knocked us hard. It was like a train wreck in our hearts, in our minds. I mean, Beau was our only son and he was very gifted and very talented. And of course, we had a lot of dreams and aspirations.
Charlie LeBlanc:His middle name was Charles. And so, you know, that was a hard hit. It was a very difficult time. But, you know, we see God's love in God's hand and we're seeing His compassion and His understanding, understanding His compassion more clearly every day. And that's why, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, it says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
Charlie LeBlanc:That just jumped out of the page to me. I mean, I've read that a thousand times, but the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our tribulation that we can comfort others with the same comfort that we've received from him. And so just to see God as like the God of all comfort, I've seen him as, you know, the God of faith, the God of miracles, the God would do this, God would do that, walk on water, heal people, you know, cleanse lepers, all the things, but then but he is the God of comfort as well. And, of course, the Holy Spirit is the comforter. And so to know that we could go to him as a comforter and see that he would help us.
Charlie LeBlanc:And I think people who have been through loss, I think they really need to understand that God loves them so much. Nothing can ever separate them from the love of God.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. Yeah. Boy, I'm so grateful, you know, hearing the story again even though we walked through it. Every time I hear it, it it just I'm just makes me so grateful for God's comfort
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:To us.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:And his grace to carry us when we couldn't walk
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:So to speak.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes. And Andrew and Jamie, you know, they were a big part of our recovery. By the way, they never tried to fix us. And I think I share that somewhere in this entire interview. But they were always very loving to us and they cared for us.
Charlie LeBlanc:They knew we were hurting, but they just loved us through it. So we appreciate that so much, their love. And like you said, Jill, as I was closing on that, I said, you know, people just, we all just need to know the God of all comfort. We only need to know how much he loves us because, we know him in so many different ways. But, but as a comforter, when you're hurting that bad, I knew the Holy Spirit was the comforter and I would sing about it and he's comfort, comforts all the more and all.
Charlie LeBlanc:But it wasn't until I experienced it and I got to the depths of mourning, the depths of pain, that all of a sudden I had to experience that in a real way. Does he really love me? Is he really gonna comfort me through this? Is he really gonna help me through this? And he did. And it wasn't easy, but we've said so many times, God just continued to hold us and carry us through these difficult times.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. And he will do that for you.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes. Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:He is carrying you when you don't even realize.
Andrew Wommack:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:And he will never stop. He's he is there as your comforter to help you in these incredible times of need
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:When we relive these moments and have to carry on without our loved one in our lives.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:He's just faithful like that.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes. Praise God. So we hope you enjoyed that that it ministered to you. And we're gonna go to the second segment next week and go ahead and share the rest of this interview. But if you don't have our book and thumbs up our podcast, just share it with others, we'd appreciate that.
Charlie LeBlanc:So, God bless you and just have a wonderful week. We'll see you next week.