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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.
Thank you so much for joining us again today. We're Charlie and Jill, and this is the Finding Hope Podcast, Getting Through What You Never Asked For. And it's hard to believe that we are starting our fifth month. I mean, we're already into our fifth month
Charlie LeBlanc:Is that right?
Jill LeBlanc:Of doing a podcast.
Charlie LeBlanc:I knew that we'd been doing it a while. It's been really incredible journey just getting to share and seeing how the Lord just pulls different things out of us even when we don't expect it, you know?
Jill LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Charlie LeBlanc:We're finding just a real flow in this podcast. We really welcome you, and thank you so much for joining us. We're believing today that this is gonna be a special moment for you, that God is gonna speak to you some things and encourage you in some ways that maybe you haven't been encouraged before.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. Yeah. His mercies are new every single day.
Charlie LeBlanc:That's right.
Jill LeBlanc:And, so he's got something fresh for you today, we believe.
Charlie LeBlanc:That's right. You know, we wanna encourage you to like this podcast and to, to leave a review for us as well. And also share it with your friends because we just want this message to be sent all over the world, really, because get, people tell us no one's talking about this. They tell us that a lot.
Jill LeBlanc:We get that a lot.
Charlie LeBlanc:We're talking about grief, we're talking about the pain of loss, we're talking about how to get through difficult times. The subtitle is Getting Through What You Never Asked For. So we're talking about that and people say hardly no one's talking about it.
Jill LeBlanc:That's true.
Charlie LeBlanc:So we're honored actually to be able to share these things and to have this as a major part of our ministry right now. Many of you know we're musicians, we've been traveling. Well, we're celebrating forty five years of full time ministry this month.
Jill LeBlanc:And believe it or not, we are that old. Do the math.
Charlie LeBlanc:Uh-oh. Don't do the math. Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:But, you know, God's grace and mercy is new every day, like I said. Even though we are the age that we are which is not that hard to figure out
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:His we draw on his mercies.
Charlie LeBlanc:Amen.
Jill LeBlanc:And, oh my gosh, have we had to do that a lot over the last sixteen years after losing our son? We pull on God's mercy. We need it that much, even all this time later.
Charlie LeBlanc:Desperate. Desperate for it. Yes. And you know, another thing I remembered this morning, that we're celebrating fifty years of knowing each other.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow. So I got saved.
Jill LeBlanc:We are that old.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. Fifty years ago, I met Jill, we met each other in a line at church for what they called a pot bless meal because they wouldn't speak of luck in the Christian faith.
Jill LeBlanc:So the last Sunday of every month was a pot blessed dinner. And so we were at the back of the line and
Charlie LeBlanc:Walking and she was, I think, were you in front of me or behind me? Don't remember.
Jill LeBlanc:I don't know.
Charlie LeBlanc:I don't remember, but I had just turned 20 years old and Jill was 17.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:And so we were just walking down the line and she said, Hi, we said, Hi.
Jill LeBlanc:And I had been seeing him
Charlie LeBlanc:For a few weeks.
Jill LeBlanc:Like, weeks at church, you know. I don't know. Was was I doing anything with the music? Did you ever notice me on stage?
Charlie LeBlanc:I don't recall.
Jill LeBlanc:I think I was just getting started. But
Charlie LeBlanc:Maybe. Maybe that's what it did.
Jill LeBlanc:I don't know if you had started.
Charlie LeBlanc:No. I hadn't yet. I don't think so.
Jill LeBlanc:But I remember seeing him because he was just so passionate for Jesus. He was a new believer, and he just had that zeal, and, it just caught my eye. So when we met in line in the queue, we were in the end of the queue for those of you outside The US.
Charlie LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:I I I had been wanting to meet this guy. And so it just happened to be that we were both at the end of the queue and got introduced ourselves to each other.
Charlie LeBlanc:Which is unusual because you're normally at the beginning of the queue these days.
Jill LeBlanc:Someone's gotta go first.
Charlie LeBlanc:Must have been a God thing.
Jill LeBlanc:Break the
Charlie LeBlanc:It was a God thing.
Jill LeBlanc:I just break the the awkwardness of
Charlie LeBlanc:So we were in the line long line to to get food.
Jill LeBlanc:And I after we were chatting for a little bit, and I thought, wow. There's something really special about this guy. Oh. The Lord dropped something in my heart about him. And I knew that I just had to hide it away for another day.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow.
Jill LeBlanc:And but we became really good friends.
Charlie LeBlanc:We did. That was what was very, very cool about it is we were close friends, very close friends before
Jill LeBlanc:Very quickly.
Charlie LeBlanc:Before we began to date in any kind of serious relationship. Would pray together. I'd go to you and say, would you pray for me about things?
Jill LeBlanc:About my old girlfriend?
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. My old girlfriend.
Jill LeBlanc:Say, I'll pray for her. I'll pray as she gets out of your life.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right. But yeah. And we would pray together for people and for situations, you know, just say, let's just pray together. And so, yeah, we were with the singles group, youth group, hanging out, and we would end up together just talking and visiting, and, you know, so yeah, it was really, really cool. But that's fifty years now.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow. Jesus, praise the Lord. And I gave away my age because I said how old I was.
Jill LeBlanc:Yep. Charlie had a special birthday in the last few months.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. But we're celebrating God's faithfulness in our lives and in everyone's life because he is faithful. I think I'm gonna do a study and a teaching on faithfulness sometime because it's not what we think. You know, we think, well, if you say God's faithful, then that means that everything's gonna go right in your life. No.
Charlie LeBlanc:But he is faithful. You read the scripture last episode about God's mercies being new every morning.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, every day.
Charlie LeBlanc:And that's his mercy. That's His faithfulness. His faithfulness is that no matter what we go through, no matter what pain, difficulty we experience, He's faithful to be there with us in the middle of it. He'll never leave us or forsake us. So He'll be with us through darkness, through pain, through trial, through loss.
Charlie LeBlanc:In Psalm 23, it says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. And so we've been through pain, we've been through heartache in these fifty years of our relationship and forty five years of full time ministry. We've been through a lot. But His mercies have been with us every time and it's not been easy to accept and receive His mercies and His strength, but it's been there.
Jill LeBlanc:It has been.
Charlie LeBlanc:It's never left.
Jill LeBlanc:Never.
Charlie LeBlanc:Amen.
Jill LeBlanc:I'd like for you to share a couple of the things that you had some people wrote in recently about how they've been finding God's mercy.
Charlie LeBlanc:This one
Jill LeBlanc:God's faithfulness.
Charlie LeBlanc:We put out newsletters on a regular basis. If you're not familiar with that, please sign up on our mailing list and you'll receive our newsletters, because really, they're just an extension of what we're saying here in this podcast. We write about it and we share about it. But recently someone said this, they had just read our newsletter, and they said, What a God send. I wish I could tell you what comfort this message is, especially from you and Jill.
Charlie LeBlanc:I remember the devastation of the loss of your son and since the loss of my granddaughter two years ago, I have been pummeled with pain day and night, often being bombarded with the thoughts of why as a pastor I didn't pray harder or exercise greater spiritual authority over her disease of depression that ended up taking her life. I just want you to know that in the last two years, I have thought about you guys often. And I know you don't know me, but those thoughts about how I have seen you guys continue to serve God have been enough, a lot of times to inspire me to not quit. Thank y'all so much.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow. Man, that just ministered to us so much that, you know, that you know, people have told us that just our lives of seeing that we went through this, it has been a testimony to them and an encouragement to them. And and we're grateful for that because, you know, the bible says we're all living epistles read of all men. And it's not we give all the glory to God because we Absolutely. Know that without him, we would be in an ash rubble, if that's the right word to say, a pile of ashes. We without him, we would have been, never would have recovered from We this would have turned our backs on him. We would have run as far as we could away from the Bible and God and the word of faith and everything.
Jill LeBlanc:You know, and some might wonder, why would you do that? But we were so discouraged and so broken because we were hoping and trusting that our son was gonna come through the cancer that took his life because he was you know, Jesus heals.
Charlie LeBlanc:Sure.
Jill LeBlanc:And so that didn't happen, and we felt we felt let down by the Lord.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And so it it was you know, there are no words for for the depths that we went to in our hearts, the depths of sorrow.
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:But God carried us through it.
Charlie LeBlanc:But God help I us get through mean, we don't have all the questions answered, but, you know, the scripture says we see through a glass darkly, but then we'll see face to face. You know, we we know in part, and we don't understand all that went wrong, all why Bo wasn't healed, why he didn't, you know, receive that healing on this side of of heaven. And those were tough questions. Those those are very, very difficult things to but, you know, Paul was beheaded.
Charlie LeBlanc:Many of the apostles were hung and beheaded and and tortured, and, you know, didn't they couldn't understand why these difficulties were happening to them, but but they still knew that God was good. And that's what we ultimately came to
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Charlie LeBlanc:To understand that it wasn't God that did this to us, and and that he was with us through the whole thing and working with us and actually standing with us, and so it's kind of I'm getting to some doctor role crazy, but but really, he if God be for us, who can be against us, is what the Romans says. So God was with us in the battle, and he does fight with us against the adversary and fight with us for his will to come to pass in our lives. So, you know, so his mercies are new every day, and he never stops helping us even when we go through the most difficult times.
Jill LeBlanc:So true.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:Last time I read from Lamentations 3
Charlie LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:In the Passion translation.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:But it goes on, and I just wanna read a couple verses that I didn't I didn't include last time. But it says Yahweh is always good to all who trust him.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow. Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:To the soul who searches for him. It is always good to hope and quietly waiting for Yahweh's deliverance. That's chapter 3:25-26
Charlie LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:In the Passion translation.
Charlie LeBlanc:Beautiful.
Jill LeBlanc:And, you know, we didn't see that in the beginning.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:Because, like we said, we were so broken. But once we resurfaced, we were able to begin to see that we could trust him and that he is always good.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:So if that's where you're at today, if if you are struggling with wondering is God really really that good? Is he is he really trustworthy? Because what I have experienced doesn't say that.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:Just hold on. Let him continue to hold you and you'll you will come through. It's hard. It's so hard in the beginning. But you'll come through, and you'll be able to see again that that you can trust him because he is good.
Charlie LeBlanc:That's right. When it first happens, you know, you don't think you'll ever be able to make it. I remember our neighbor many years ago, after we lost Beau. They loved us, on us, and we had moved away by this time. But a little while after we lost Beau, he lost his daughter, and he called me and crying and screaming and just begging for help, didn't know how he would get through the pain.
Charlie LeBlanc:And we were only, I think, a year out or so.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah
Charlie LeBlanc:After we had lost Beau a year or two out when he lost his daughter. And our hearts broke with him. But just hearing him cry and hearing the pain that he was going through just reminded us of what we went through. And and, you know, all we could do is love on him and pray for him and let him know that, you know, God would bring him through somehow and I mean, they suffered and suffered like so many of us do that have lost children like this lady that we read about has suffered losing a granddaughter. And the pain, we have another dear friend who recently lost a grandson, right, Selena?
Jill LeBlanc:Oh.
Charlie LeBlanc:And the pain of that was just unbearable. And we have another couple in Florida that lost a grandson, was murdered, their grandson was murdered. I mean, the pain of these situations is beyond words for a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a grandparent. You know, my dad was fighting some illnesses when Beau died, but three months later, my dad passed. And I have to think that part of it was that broken heart in him, know, the pain of losing Beau.
Charlie LeBlanc:I have to believe that that was part of it. But three months later, my dad passed after my son passed. It was very tough. But, you know, God, in his mercies, he brings us through the darkest, deepest, darkest times of our lives. His mercies, like you said, Jill, are new every morning.
Jill LeBlanc:Mhmm. Yeah. And we've read so many times in second Corinthians one verse four how, he comforts us, and then we can comfort others
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:The way that he has comfort comforted us.
Charlie LeBlanc:That's right.
Jill LeBlanc:And, you know, I can't help but think about even just driving around town. You see these signs at an intersection with someone's name on them.
Charlie LeBlanc:Crosses.
Jill LeBlanc:And yeah. Crosses or wreaths.
Jill LeBlanc:In our area, they they have a little sign they'll put up. I don't know if it's free or if you have to pay for it, but the they'll put on there, drive safely in memory of such and such, you know, and it'll have someone's name. And you can just tell by some of the names that was a younger person.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:And, you know, to see and and, you know, and and in some of the cases, heard about the accident, you know, and and then now there's a sign there.
Jill LeBlanc:And to pray I've gotten into a habit of praying for those families.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. I do too.
Jill LeBlanc:That the God of all comfort will comfort them like He has comforted us.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right. Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And that's something that we can all do to pray for those whose
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:We see the memorials on the roadside. Just pray for the families.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:It's just so difficult.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. I remember yeah. It is. And I remember after we lost Beau that a few of the odd things I did was, I I googled how many kids have died this year. I don't know why I did that, but but I I knew, I felt in my heart that I know what I was going through was harder than anything I could ever experience, but I knew I wasn't the only one.
Charlie LeBlanc:And if others could make it through, I felt like I could make it through. And there were so many, you know, around the world, millions, you know, of children that had died that year. And, you know, it's horrible to think those kind of thoughts, but just to know that others have been through it and gotten through it is very helpful. And we hope that our heart and our testimony and our words and life have been a help to you in this podcast. In fact, we have some materials here.
Charlie LeBlanc:Jill, why don't you tell them about this one? This is fairly new.
Jill LeBlanc:This is a recent release. It's called the God of All Comfort. And, boy, do we need that.
Charlie LeBlanc:We need comfort.
Jill LeBlanc:It's a USB. It pulls out there, and you can it's just packed full of really helpful resources. And so it's a little thumb drive. You can put it in your computer, your smart TV.
Charlie LeBlanc:Some of it you can even hear on your on your car in your car.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:Because there are some audio things on there as well as video as well as things to download that are, you know, written.
Charlie LeBlanc:And and not only are there there's a lot there's videos to watch that Charlie does a great teaching about the God of All Comfort. We have some music videos you can watch.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:There's music resources, but we also have a a a beautiful PDFs that you can download and print out that are full of scriptures on comfort. We do a a five day devotional.
Jill LeBlanc:That's the beginning of a devotional that we're writing for a month long devotional. We just shared some of it in there. So it's just a great resource that you can listen to over and over if you're struggling with loss, whether it's your own or or maybe your friend, your very dear friend or relative is struggling, this will help you and you can in turn help them.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:So there's just a lot of it's been beautifully designed and we have it there for you.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. And it's on our website. You can www.charlieandjill.com. You can go there and you can see that and all the other products we have, including our book that's called When Loss Comes Close to Home, and finding hope to carry on when death turns your world upside down. And that's exactly what it did for us.
Charlie LeBlanc:It turned us upside down. But God, by his grace, has brought us back up to see his grace and his mercy. But you know, Joyce Meyer actually did a forward in this book, and she said it this way. She said, if you've lost someone dear to you, Charlie and Jill's story will comfort and encourage you to go through your grieving process the way you need to do it, one step at a time. If you want to be a better comforter and encourager to others who are grieving, their story will help you understand how to do that too.
Charlie LeBlanc:So like Joyce said, we're blessed that the first half of the book, we're talking to those who have had losses, but also the second half is to help all of us become a better first, a good first responder, like you said, we did in the last that, month's you know, we all need to be better at coming to the rescue to helping others when they're hurting.
Jill LeBlanc:Yes. Because that's that's a huge issue.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:How many people have gone into hiding once they have to walk that grief journey.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:Because others just they say things that are not helpful. They'll say things that are hurtful. They don't mean to be hurtful but they just don't know the best ways to help.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And and so the the Lord if you were able to catch last month's podcast, if you haven't, we encourage you to go back and listen because the lord gave us this this word after being on the phone with someone who's who's friend, the daughter of some very close friends of theirs just died suddenly. And after we talked on the phone, the Lord said, we all need to learn how to be better first responders.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:That's why she was calling. It's like, what do I do first?
Jill LeBlanc:What do I say? Should I call? Should I text?
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:When can I send them your book? Right. And so we just talked all about that. But like I said, after getting off, I just realized we all need those skills.
Charlie LeBlanc:We do.
Jill LeBlanc:So there are things that we can learn to be a better first responder. So that's what we talked about all month in June. You can go back and listen to those. And we encourage you to sign up on our email list because the response that Charlie read was from an email we did recently called, why are they not over it yet?
Charlie LeBlanc:Why are you not over it yet?
Jill LeBlanc:And you not you know, people didn't really say that to us, but we heard that that was said about us many times as as the months would go on. And it's just not there's no quick fix to a grief journey.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And so we have to be better at at being Jesus' voice, Jesus' hands , His, you know, loving arms. Anyway, we just encourage you to sign up on our email list so you don't miss these important emails that we put out. We put a lot of heart and time into making sure that it is quality ministry that will help you. And if you sign up on our email list, you can receive this free download. It's called nine steps for the bereaved and their supporters, and it's it's just got several things that will be helpful.
Jill LeBlanc:You getting started in your grief journey or if you're walking beside someone that's just getting started. It'll give you some good starter direction so that you don't flounder and and drown or just so that you can be a better first responder.
Charlie LeBlanc:Amen.
Jill LeBlanc:So if you go to charlieandjill.com/welcome, you can find that nine step guide. Just click the link and follow the prompts, and and you'll receive that.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right. Amen. Well, you know, we're getting low on time, but you know what? I think we have enough time for one more song. We did that last one, and this this song here, the God of All Comfort, I want we're gonna go ahead and show you that video or if you're just listening, you'll be able to hear this beautiful song, God of all comfort, and again, our hearts are to minister comfort and and grace to you if you've been through a difficult time.
Charlie LeBlanc:Our hearts break with you, and we're praying that you will be able to get through this as we did by his amazing grace. Well, we love you. We're saying bye. God bless you. We'll see you next episode.