Hello, my name is Leslie and I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been courageous and said why not today.
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often did say why not today.
I'm based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, DC, and thanks for joining us today.
So I've got a guest today that I really don't know very well and met her quickly shopping one day.
And it's kind of funny how I always talk about connections and how you meet people and it was destined to be.
So if you listened at all, you know, I spend a lot of time at St. Mount Lake and our guest, the guest I had two weeks ago, J. Bonn,
I was in her, she has a cute little store at the lake and I'd gone in once like on Friday and she went there.
And then Sunday it was kind of a dreary, it had been raining and I was like, ah, it's kind of bored.
So I just went by, it's like quarter five, she closed at five and I just thought, I'd go in to say hi.
Well, I walked in the door and she immediately said, it's nice that you got to meet my friend, Jesse.
And she wrote the book, which I do have, we're going to talk about friendship, suitors for a journey.
And I had my hand on the book the first day I was there, but didn't buy it.
But Jesse and I stood there and talked for a long time and got to know her.
I'm like, ah, you have to be on this podcast.
So I'm super excited to have you here today, Jesse.
So I'm going to have you introduce yourself with a fun fact and then we'll get into the courage stuff and your story.
So thank you for joining me.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
And I think Leslie, J-Bond stayed open to probably a half hour later than she wanted to.
Because I don't know what she was looking and talking.
I don't think I left till six o'clock.
Oh, you left after me.
Yeah.
Oh, it's a great little store.
We are sporting not today, but we are sporting her sweatshirts to just share about who she is and her online store and all that.
So I'm so grateful that, you know, I met her.
I was a speaker at Eastlake Community Church last year and she had a table there for like a vendor table and we met at that conference.
And then my daughter and I went right to her store.
As soon as the conference was over, we went right to her store and it's been fun to watch it grow into three locations now since last summer.
Yeah, it's fun to have those connections.
Yeah.
You know, I shared my last episode of how we met, which is the crazy connection and it's just me being at the lake is another crazy connection.
I know how God opens those doors.
It's so great.
How's it going?
You, Jesse, and a fun fact.
Well, my name is Jesse Seneca and I live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
And we also are at the lake at Smith Mountain Lake a lot and that's how I met Leslie.
I have a ministry in the Northeast, but it takes me across the whole country and into Canada.
So it's been fun to go throughout the country and meet women and speak at events and conferences.
I'm also a life way, you lead trainer with that organization.
And so that's, that's been a real blessing as well.
And so I had that ministry started it in 2000.
Where are we 2010.
Okay.
And so it's been, it's been a great journey.
I am married to my high school sweetheart.
That's called the fact.
And we have two daughters grown married.
We have four grandchildren, three boys and one little girl Parker who's just nine months.
So I keep telling J-Bon that she has to get some girly little baby clothes in that store.
That would definitely go over well.
Wouldn't it?
I tell her that all the time.
Yeah, for sure.
So I'm balancing being a Mimi and family and ministry and in a new season of ministry for that.
But I love, you know, all that God has allowed me to do and be and really probably Leslie,
like you just trying to balance some of that.
The fun fact is I ride on the back of a Harley while he's driving it and I can sightsee.
So that's okay.
Would not have expected that.
Cool.
So let's start with what does courage mean to you?
Well, you know, I've been thinking about that and there's so many things that I've been
processing through that, but basically I think just having the confidence to fearfully move
forward.
And I say that because as you know, I'm a Christian speaker and I look at that faith chapter in
Hebrews chapter 11 and I look at a lot of those people and think, yes, God called them to
do something, but you cannot tell me.
Noah wasn't a little fearful.
Like, you know, those people in there didn't have a little bit of fear, but they just followed
what God had called them to do.
And so when we know what our calling is and where God is taking us, we can have a confidence
that's not of our own, right?
But we're able to step out into that calling even afraid, you know, that we don't know what
tomorrow looks like, but we know who holds tomorrow.
Absolutely.
And you know, you've got confidence and courage.
Nobody goes into that without a little bit of fear.
Yes.
And they make sense.
I know you do.
But we all do.
So you've got an interesting journey and, you know, I loved your book and what attracted
me to the book was friendship, which is I think so important to me and building those
relationships.
And I think I've shared on this podcast before there was a study done that talks about the
study that's gone over on her, I think since the 20s or something.
And I think that's the first thing that I think is important to me is that you know,
you know, you have this devotion that you wrote about friendship and I love it.
It's a bike and you can kind of explain the analogy to that.
But I think when we talk to friendship in the book, it's important, but how you got
there and how you got there.
And I think that's the first thing that I think is important to me is that you know,
friendship in the book is important, but how you got there and you definitely had a courageous
journey, a health journey.
And I'd love for you to talk about that and how that transformed you and the path and
journey your life has taken because of that.
Yeah, I'd love to share a little bit about that journey.
I was 27 years old when I came down with a disease called Cushing's syndrome.
And it's when you have too much cortisol in your body and my girls were very small,
two and a half years old and six months when the onset of the disease happened.
We didn't know really what was happening initially because we didn't have the internet
and couldn't check Google and all of that.
Yeah, yeah.
So we were just relying and trusting on doctors and it was quite the journey to get to where
we found out what was wrong with me.
And so at the onset of the disease, I ended up in the hospital for five months when my girls were
very young and the beginning of December all the way through till Easter with being home about
three days in between that time.
I was in four different hospitals.
Two of those were psychiatric facilities where the longest visit was two and a half months in a
psychiatric facility because they didn't really know what was wrong with me.
They kept treating the emotional state, but they weren't treating the disease because they didn't
know enough about the disease.
And so it's a very bizarre, it's a rare disease, although I don't think it needs to be as rare as it is.
And that's for another podcast, but I was in the psychiatric facility and my symptoms just
continued to worsen with hair growth on my face, moon face, acne all over my body, sugar
diabetes, a large hump on the back of my back, thickness in my stomach and just the will to live
was not there.
But this particular hospital that I was in, that psychiatric hospital, it was a secular hospital
with a Christian section to it.
And so there were Christian counselors and psychiatrists and the nurses were wonderful.
But there was a particular counselor that believed my husband that there was something physically
happening to me to be causing the emotional state.
And so she would pray over me almost every day that she was there, she would come in, she would
pray over me, and she would say, Jesse, one day God's going to use all of this.
And really all I could say, Leslie was, can't you see I'm dying?
And she's like, I see what's happening, but I believe God has a plan.
And all I could say was, Jesus, I love you.
I couldn't read my Bible, I couldn't think beyond that and just kept going and surviving
until one day my husband found out about a doctor at the University of Virginia.
And that became my hospital for 20 plus years of going back from Pennsylvania.
Five hour drive, sometimes it was once a month, sometimes it was every three months.
And then there were times where I just stayed in a hotel and was there.
But they saved my life multiple times.
So Cushing's is a disease, like I said, that has cortisol, too much cortisol in your body.
Most people have on their pituitary a tumor that's producing that too much ACTH,
which then becomes cortisol in your body.
Well, I happen to have a tumor on my left lung that was producing this hormone.
And so once they found out that there was a tumor on my lung, they removed a portion of my lung.
And I did well for a few years, but then another tumor appeared and that happened three different times
with a full left lung removal.
Yeah, so that was kind of crazy.
The initial onset was a pituitary brain surgery, which it never was there.
And then that's what caused me to be in the psychiatric hospital because they didn't know what was wrong with me.
And they needed like a holding place till they figured that out.
And then about 14 years ago, I had another tumor in my chest cavity that they removed.
And I have been free of the disease for about 14 years, but I still continue to check myself.
I still continue to, you know, test yearly and that kind of thing just to monitor all of it.
And so, so yeah, so the interesting thing is Leslie, when I was in that psychiatric facility,
this counselor prayed over me like, Jesse, one day God's going to use all of this and you are going to be sharing and giving hope to other women.
And I, it was hard for me to believe at the time and I had no idea what to expect.
But a few years after the onset of it, I was sitting in the audience of a women of faith conference.
Do you remember those conferences?
I don't think I've ever heard about that.
They were a pretty big conference throughout the country for, I don't know, 10 to 15 years.
But the very first one was in 1996 and it was in a church in my hometown in Bethlehem and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.
And I remember sitting there in the audience, not realizing or understanding what a calling meant or, you know, what God's plan was.
But I felt what that counselor spoke over me was going to happen when I was at this conference and just some things that were said.
And I didn't really share it with anyone except for my mother-in-law that came with me because I didn't know what that looked like.
But I knew God had a plan.
And so I'll be honest, it was hard.
And this is kind of what I also want to share with women and those that listen to your podcast.
It's in the weight that we find God and we find ourselves.
And so it took 12 and a half years for God to open the door to what I thought he had called me to in that audience, on that chair.
And I questioned it for many years.
God, is this really what you want?
And I want to say it wasn't like I didn't do anything in those 12 and a half years.
I could go through my resume of the volunteering that I did, of the things that I started, Bible studies.
I was over children's ministry for 12 years and just different things that I did throughout those 12 and a half years.
But when I look back on all of it, God used every single position, every single action that I did, everything.
He used all of it to bring me to where I was when I walked into my full-time ministry in 2010.
And so you can look back over your life and see God's hand upon it.
And I think, I not think, I know, Leslie, that that's what gave me the courage to finally say, this is the year that I am going to step into full-time ministry.
Both my daughters had left for college and I started to write my first Bible study.
And so I just trusted him, right, because really what he's asking from us is obedience.
And we have to be obedient, but we have to leave the outcome up to him.
And I'm sure you've seen that even with starting your podcast.
Absolutely.
Without a doubt.
Yeah, I mean, just starting this was like, I don't know what it looks like and I have no idea.
But it's like, all right, I'm just, I picked a date and I started and I've been obedient to an episode every two weeks.
And since it started, so that's over a year, and a couple months.
So, but yeah, and I totally can relate to what you're saying.
I think this podcast and what it's done really aligns with what you're talking about, that I think what it's doing is giving women and people hope to do the things and have courage to say yes.
And I think I know that it is a calling and it's bigger than me and there's ways that we can change, help change lives.
Life by getting, giving people just courage to do the things, say the things and move forward and fight like you had to fight with your illness.
I mean, that's crazy.
Well, and you know, I know you're reading my friendship book and in that book, I talk about the importance of that tribe right of friends.
Yeah, and there was one story you shared, and I'd love you to share here is about the friends that came to you, not knowing.
She's like, she quit her job or something and came just to help you.
But actually she came to my husband because I was in the hospital and at that point, it was a few weeks in a month in and no one knew what was going on.
How long I mean we never fathomed five months of being in the hospital.
No, but sharing or were you sharing with friends and family what obviously family what was going on.
My husband was.
Well, because you're in a psychiatric hospital and I will not talk about it or did anybody.
And we didn't have social media we didn't have cell phones texting. So it was basically family and our church, you know that knew because you have the prayer request and you know that type of thing.
So that was pretty much how that was, you know, dispersed and our neighborhood. So our neighborhood would do meals every two weeks, our church would do meals every two weeks.
And so they went back and, you know, did that for almost five months of me being ill and I should say probably six months and you know the month after I came home from the hospital but yeah this one friend her name was Sarah, and she would watch our girls.
When they were you know when we just had the one she would say go out to dinner and I'll watch the girls and you know that type of thing. And so I was friends with her but not like best buds good, you know, and, but she felt like God was saying
to her that she should help with our girls and so she came to my husband, and she said, you know, I'd like to help with your girls I know you don't want to put them in daycare and I really want to help and she was a stay at home mom Leslie but she was one of those
stay at home moms that I don't know if you ever heard of Bible study fellowship but that's today's commitment she was a leader in that she had two sons that were in third and first grade she was homeroom moms, you know for both of those classes.
She, her husband was a very affluent chef at a country club in the Lehigh Valley, and you know what that means nights and weekends. So she did everything around the house, everything cutting grass you name it she made she did it.
And so she really stopped everything except for her wife Lee and motherly duties, right, took care of our girls four days a week while my husband went to work.
And it was just the most precious thing, you know, not only for our family, but for so many who were watching what was going on. And I'm just getting ready to publish my 10th book, and you will always find a small portion of that story and every book.
So not only did the people who watched it happen but now who are reading like you, you know, impact that one woman can have. And the great thing is, I mean my girls are still here we are 30 years later from the onset of that disease they are still close to her.
She visited six months before our daughter our first daughter got married seven years ago. She came to me and she said mom would it be okay for big Sarah and George to walk down the aisle, you know after the grandparents and I was like, absolutely.
So you can see I mean I think today they call these bonus moms you know that just impact your kids lives and how important it is to have that.
Yeah, I've got a good friend of mine and her kids call me their fake aunt.
Oh, that's so fun.
Yeah, and I often wear and I have it on today a starfish necklace. And I think you have. Did you have on on.
No, not a starfish.
Do you know the story of the starfish.
Remind me of I know I read it at one time.
And so this guy would probably talk about him podcast a lot. One of my favorite is guy was walking down the beach and picking up starfish and throwing them in the water and picking up starfish thrown in the water and somebody walked up.
What are you doing there's millions here you can't possibly make a difference. And he picked one up and threw it in the water said I made a difference in that one.
And I really live by that motto that you just never know who's life you're going to touch and what's the little act of kindness is going to make a difference. And now with social media, who's watching you.
And somebody watching you and you're giving them hope or somebody listen to the podcast or reading your book or go under your ministry.
And just never know who that one person, you know that event you went to how many years ago that you had that calling sitting there. It may be nobody else has affected that whole event.
But you, you know, and I tell I've got a good friend and ministry and we talked about that a lot. You know when you were doing things in ministry and speaking to people and helping it's like if we can make a difference in just one person.
You know, that is so true. I remember one early on before I had a ministry and I was just, you know, doing volunteer ministry type things. And I remember the church having a mother daughter banquet and thinking to myself well, man, I've got this great story.
Why don't they ask me to share.
That was kind of like my thought process and I remember waiting for my daughter she was four years old at preschool, and I was listening to a song on the radio I can't remember what song that was, but it really spoke to me and I felt like through the song.
God was saying to me, Jesse, would you be willing to speak to one person, because I honestly was at this women of faith conference. I didn't know what to expect what what it was going to look like. I kind of just had myself on the stage, you know, of women of faith and like really, that's going to happen, you know,
But I thought it was going to be like two multitudes of people. Now God has opened that door years later, right, but initially, would I be willing to speak to one person and I was so humbled and I was like, absolutely.
And honestly, within two weeks, we had a fairly new pastor, and he came to me and he said, Jesse, would you mentor this other woman now I'm only 2930 years old, I'm like mentor, you know, younger than me.
I said, yes, and I knew Leslie, from that point that God had my plan, like he had the path for me, and I had to trust in him. And you know, even a few months ago I did a retreat, and there were only 32 women there and the women were like, we're sorry, there's only 32 women.
I'm like, I took it does not matter to me. If one or 1000, I am still going to minister the same way I'm still going to share I'm going to still encourage it. And if, honestly, if one person comes up to me from a conference and tells me their life has been impacted and
changed. I feel like, God, I've done what you've called me to do.
Exactly. Yeah, I have a mentor and Mary Kay that taught me, you know, when you're doing an event and of course we want lots of people to come and that's probably about us, not about them.
And she said, you know, if you turned it around, and you came to an event and you're the only ones there as the guest, you had one on one time with the speaker how blessed would you feel like, oh my gosh, that would be amazing, you know, you think about that and the
opposite. True. From a stage going, oh, I'm sorry, there's not more people here or too bad more people didn't come because it makes the people that came feel bad for comment like why they didn't come why did I need to come.
Yeah, yeah, it's just, and it's those and talking about just obedience is doing those things that like I didn't know I was going to start this podcast.
It's kind of about me when I started like, oh, this might be fun who knows, but it's become about so much more and the people I've met is just crazy the path and the connection, just walking into J bond store meeting J bond, you know, walking into her store, you being there at that
exact time when she was closing like with both of us really shouldn't have been there. You know, and so many knew it was a God moment when we started. Oh, absolutely.
And, you know, so many other people that God has led me to in this path of this, and just, it's just kind of fun to see where we're going.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to doing more things with you and hearing more about what you do. So anything else you want to share about your courageous journey or things that happen.
Well, you know, a lot of times when I'm speaking or events, women will ask, how do you do what you're doing? How do I get to do what you're doing, you know, kind of thing.
And I wish I could give them a formula, you know, and I know that there are others that had this grand plan and they've got it all planned out a five year, you know, plan 10 year plan.
I never really had that. I was just obedient with what was right in front of me. And I think going through the things that I went through and still continue to go through and considering what could be right.
I always looked at each day as such a gift from God. I really did. And, you know, my husband and I both try to live in the present. And that's hard sometimes, right, because we're always wishing for something, right,
we're always wishing for this, wishing for that. I'm wishing that my four year old grandson would be potty trained, you know, like all those kind of things, right, you know.
But I just followed God each day. And he opened doors that I never expected. And I always felt like it was, if you're faithful in the small things, he will take care of the bigger things.
Like you said earlier, you know, it's bigger than you. There were so many things. I had a she leads retreat or she leads conference for 12 years, two of them a year that turned out like bigger than I ever expected.
We're doing a she leads retreat at the end of December in the Lehigh Valley and, and we started a mom's conference called the real mom conference. And it's just been like one step at a time and even the books that I've written.
They were nothing that I ever set out to do. I never set out to be an author. I really did not. And there's even days I'm like, I'm not an author.
Because I read them and I'm like, who wrote this like I know it's God's hand upon me, you know, writing it. And so it's just being faithful with what's in front of you, and letting God take care of the tomorrow, you know, and I'm not saying you don't plan because I am a planner,
I know maybe it doesn't seem like a thing. And I plan, I absolutely plan. There was one time I was on a walk and God gives me a lot of creative things on the walk. I was on a walk.
I had this whole event planned out who was coming who was speaking up above for an hour. I had this whole plan, right. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to call so and so when I get home. And by the time I walked into my garage and I'm hooked my dogs.
I felt like God was saying, I never gave you that. We're not doing that. But I knew there was something bigger than what I could do. And eventually within six months, God showed me what that was. But it was just being obedient.
And I could have totally stepped out and said, I'm going to do this conference. But once I felt that no from God, I had to be obedient to that.
Yeah, and that funny, we make all these perfect plans and God like kind of laughed that up like, yeah, that's not where we're going. Yeah. And I think that's where I've been with this. Why not today is just being open to like, it's going here and then it goes here and then it goes there and then it's like the people and the connections that I'm just like totally led.
I actually, there was one episode I had and probably one of my top episodes. I was up in July of last year. I was in upstate New York with a good friend of mine. And the person I was supposed to interview for the podcast got COVID. And so we had to reschedule.
So my friend and I are going for a walk and I'm like, I don't know what we're going to do. I haven't missed one yet.
She goes interview me like, okay, what have you done courageous. She's like, got clean from being addicted to oxy. And I didn't realize her whole journey she had several surgeries and I knew she was in a bad place here and there but I didn't realize how bad she was.
And she was that afternoon we did her recording and her family and people didn't even know the extent of addiction and it was just like such a God thing that you know it was that perfect moment.
It's like, yeah, me and I'm like, really? So you just never know and I'm just kind of being a being it. So how would you encourage somebody else to be courageous.
Well, you know, I think a lot of people have a dream, you know, or something that's been placed on their heart hasn't come to fruition yet. And I just want to encourage them. The weight is a big part of birthing that right.
We think about even having a baby that nine months before the anticipation of the birth right the just preparing you. And so for me, as I prepared in the weight because it wasn't just like, okay, I'm going to sit still and rest all day and eat
and I was going to actively wait, you know, for God to move and so I think just being obedient in that and what he's given you for today as I've mentioned that before, and just being actively waiting, I think is important.
And for me, it was like if I if God if God would open the door when I thought he should, it would have been a hot mess, a train wreck. I needed to study God's word. And I got a long ways to go.
But for those 12 and a half years, I just delve into God's word studied it Bible study after Bible study after Bible study to get, you know, to know the word of God before I went out and started teaching it to others.
And so I look back and I'm like, okay, God, yeah, you were right. But I actively waited in that time for when he was ready to open the door and once he was ready to open the door. And this is what I tell people, you will know when
that time is. I have no doubt that you will know absolutely when to step forward, because it just it for somehow, some reason, it just all connects, and you're able to walk through that door. And so that's what happened with me and I think, you know, just to encourage people, even
if something hasn't come to fruition yet, just to trust God with the outcome. Well, that was for me. Thank you. I needed to walk in that store that day to hear you share that one thing in the weight because there's a lot I want to do with this and I'm impatient.
And I'm like, you know, at this point, it's not an income producing activity. So I need to work on the one that does and no, and so thank you for that. The other coincidence thing that I forgot to even mention is so your book with the bike, a good friend of mine that has a ministry in
Carolina uses a bike as their some as their kind of one of their logos and a lot of bike stuff. But your forward from your book is by Glenn Smith, who spoke at one of her conferences. So it just goes full circle. Yeah, I love Gwen. She's amazing. Yeah, she was awesome. So how I will share in the show notes how to connect with you but how can people find you what's the best way.
Yeah, so I have a website, more of him ministries.org. That's the name of my ministry based off of John 330 that he would increase and I would decrease so more of him ministries. And then you can find me on Facebook. I have a my regular Jesse Seneca page and then I have a more of
a ministry page as well. And then on Instagram, just look up Jesse Seneca and you can find me there too. Okay, and LinkedIn but you know I'm mainly on Facebook and Instagram.
And you know me both. So, alright, we'll share that. So thank you for sharing your story. I'm so glad I bumped into you that day. Thank you for everybody for listening and watching and you can find everything why not day and their why not today podcast under Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, website, all those things.
On the website to we do have why not today swag is a great graduation gift. Why not say we have cups. I have t shirts. I have vinyl thinking about maybe journals. So anybody interested in a journal that said why not say let me know.
So again, thank you for listening. Make sure you share like comment. And thank you Jesse for joining us and I'm excited to get to know you better we'll have to meet for coffee at the lake sometime.
Oh, yeah, that would be awesome. I would love that. Thank you for probably closer to each other between where I live in Pennsylvania and the lake but
thanks again and thanks everybody.