The Story of Jordan (Part 1)

What do you do when your five-year-old son is diagnosed with cancer — and God says, "This is bigger than you"? Joe and Michelle Bono join host Lou Lepore to share how Jordan's battle with a brain tumor became a story of faith, miracles, provision, and gospel transformation.

 Romans 8:28 promises that God works all things together for good — but what does that look like in a children's cancer ward at 3 AM? Joe and Michelle Bono share the story of their son Jordan's brain tumor diagnosis and the year that put their faith, marriage, and trust in God to the ultimate test.

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Transcript

Lou Lepore with Podcast Intro

Lou Lepore 0:04

Welcome to the More Than Conquerors Podcast, where today's test is tomorrow's testimony. I'm your host, Lou Lapore. Each week we'll hear from Christians who have walked through various trials and learned to trust God right in the middle of them. Because God works all for good and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, we are more than survivors. We are conquerors. That's right. The joy of the Lord is our strength because our joy doesn't come from a position, but from a person in Jesus Christ. So sit back, relax, and let us minister to your heart. This is the More Than Conquerors Podcast, where today's test is tomorrow's testimony.

Meet Joe and Michelle

Lou Lepore 0:47

Welcome to the More Than Conquerors Podcast, where today's test is tomorrow's testimony. I'm your host, Lou LePore, and today's a special day as our guests are some of the first Christians I ever met after I got saved. I didn't know anything about my newfound faith in Christ and needed a lot of guidance. And our guests today poured into my life a bunch early on. And so I welcome Joe and Michelle Bono.

Joe & Michelle Bono 1:10

Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.

Lou Lepore 1:12

Yeah, I appreciate you being here. This whole podcast is just to remind us of Romans 8.28 to encourage the saints. 1 Thessalonians 5.11 tells us to do just that and to remember that we are more than conquerors through Christ, which is Romans 8.37. And that we need to share the gospel. And Joe and Michelle do all those things incredibly well. They've been great mentors to me, and I'm thrilled that you can share your story today.

Family Life and Early Years

Lou Lepore 1:34

So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your family?

Joe Bono 1:36

Well, Michelle and I were first married uh 10 months later, we had the joy of introducing our first son to the world, Jordan. Um, then two years to the day after that, we had our uh second son, Travis. So they it was neat that uh two years apart they shared a birthday. Yeah. Then about uh two and a half years later, we had our third, Dylan. So we were a busy family trying to serve the Lord and just plugging away, busy times, good times, two and diapers.

Lou Lepore 2:08

Busy, busy time. Yeah, it is busy. That is busy. It's the same birthday, so everything is moving and grooving. So you were you were basically smiling but tired. I'm understanding that correctly.

Joe Bono 2:17

Yeah, yeah. Michelle's stay-at-home mom at the time, so she was adjusting from prayer and to being a stay-at-home mom, which which was a challenge, but good. We were just plugging along.

Lou Lepore 2:27

Okay, and so Michelle, you're at home, Joe, you're working. Obviously, you're you're serving the Lord in ministry, and so as you're looking at just at life with all the kids, you then eventually had four kids total, three kids under the age of four. Yeah. So a lot taking place, but as the story will be told today, as if we weren't busy enough. We then add that that God said it was time to advance our walk with him. And Joe, you taught me this in the singles ministry that trials put our Christian growth on steroids.

Joe & Michelle Bono 3:01

Yeah.

Lou Lepore 3:02

And so what changed in your

First Warning Signs

Lou Lepore 3:04

family?

Speaker 3 3:04

Well, in early summer, we had a few episodes with our firstborn son, Jordan, where he had some pain in his neck. And if we were at a picnic, we just thought maybe pulled a muscle, and no big thing. We didn't even think of it. A day later, it was fine. It was a few moments, a few weeks later. He had his first uh episode with dizziness. We were at the hairdresser. Uh, we went to her home, so there was toys all around. There was this little bike. I remember looking over, and Jordan's riding the bike, and he's kind of tilted over, not being able to maintain his balance. So we were concerned, obviously. So we went to the doctor, and the doctor said, Well, let's keep an eye on it. It could be viral, it could be, you know, the viruses can cause symptoms, such, you know, a lot of different kinds of symptoms. So let's keep an eye on that. And if something happens again, look, we'll go down the next road. So Michelle was at a park with the kids. She babysat some kids as well. And she's at the park, and George's gonna at the top of this big slide, and as he's coming down the slide, right, babe?

Michelle Bono 4:11

Yes.

Joe Bono 4:12

She just heard him scream. Scream and on and unfamiliar. Scream, I would say. She called the doctors right away and they said, We want you to go straight to children's hospital in Philadelphia. So Michelle called me from work and off we go. Because they wanted to see what was actually going on. They wanted to do a scan right then and there. So we get there in the city of Philadelphia, not knowing exactly where children's hospital was, and we get there and you know, they do all kinds of tests and it comes back. It was inconclusive. They said it it could be vertigo. So vertigo was kind of the preliminary diagnosis. Which at the time we thought, wow, I'm thinking, you know, young son, I want him to play baseball. Sure. You know, and I'm hoping this wouldn't hinder his life. So we went home, we where we're living life again. Uh things seemed to be fine. Um, but then again, he had another another episode. Yeah.

MRI and Shocking Call

Joe Bono 5:13

So at that point, they said we need to do an MRI. They ordered the MRI. We had to wait a few weeks because of a busy schedule at the hospital. So we go. Jordan goes in, and you know, you sit outside the room where they're doing the MRI. And I just remember being there for a long time. And, you know, I'm showing our nervous parents what was gonna happen. And, you know, you sit there and you see while the test is going on, the X-ray light is on outside the room, and we the light was on for a long, a long time. I'm sure it fell. I'm sure ... They said they were just gonna scan the head, so it shouldn't have taken that long. Of course, the technicians come out and they don't they can't say anything because they're technicians, but I remember we distinctly remember a look on the gentleman's face. It was uh it was just almost somber.

Michelle Bono 6:04

Yeah, somber serious looked you in the eyes, yeah. Like they knew and we didn't yet.

Joe Bono 6:10

Yeah. So we do the scan, we go out to dinner, uh, the three of us, and then we get home and almost immediately the phone rings. And it was the doctor. Right away, Michelle and I look at each other with our eyes meet, and we have a nervous look on our face because we instinctively now know something's coming. She said they did the scan and they did find something, and they found a tumor in the back of his head, about the size of a small plumb. And you have an appointment tomorrow at children's hospital. You have to stop by the local uh hospital, pick up your x-rays, and go straight down to to Philadelphia. So that was a phone call.

Michelle Bono 6:57

You remember that like it was yesterday? Yeah. Your legs just go weak.

Joe Bono 7:01

Yeah, yeah.

Faith Under Pressure

Joe Bono 7:02

Yeah, so yeah, from from that point, we um we pray, obviously. We pray and we know that God's a control. We had a lot of questions, but we knew God was a control. And now we have to make the um the phone calls to family and friends, um and tell them the news that uh we're on a we're on a new journey. I remember one particular phone call to my sister. She said at one point, Joe, I just don't understand what's going on. Why? Why is God letting this happen? And I said, He's allowing this for something good. He's in control.

Lou Lepore 7:42

That is the peace that passes all understanding.

Joe & Michelle Bono 7:45

Yeah.

Lou Lepore 7:45

When she asked, what is God doing? And for your response, Joe, to be he's doing something good, there had to be a lot of peace. And and we know the joy of the Lord is our strength. That is something that stuck with me. When you shared that story with me, when we met, I guess it was 17 years ago when we first met. That just as a young Christian, I said, that's the difference between the world and a saved follower of Jesus Christ. That peace in those moments. Everybody celebrates a mountaintop. Yeah. There's it's hard to tell the difference. But when you're in the deep valley and it's dark, and you're walking by faith, and you're out of the boat and you're on water and you can't see Jesus, that's when it becomes real. And so you both leaned into to Pastor Wendal at Valley Forge Baptist.

Joe & Michelle Bono 8:34

Pastor WendelWendal came over that night. Him and his wife immediately they came over, ministered to us, sat down with us, prayed with us.

Lou Lepore 8:41

So, Pastor, they're they're ministering to you, but eventually you have to go back to the hospital and you have to have the surgery. So what was that? What was

Cancer Diagnosis and Surgery Plan

Lou Lepore 8:49

the next step?

Joe Bono 8:49

September 10th was the scan. September 11th, we're in uh high rise in Philadelphia, looking over the city line with a neurosurgeon telling us that uh he's gonna do surgery in a few days. He's gonna go in and confirm he by the type of tumor that he thought it was, the location and the way it was shaped. Uh he he didn't pull any punches with us. He said, This is cancer. And we're gonna go in and we're gonna take it out and we're gonna get it. It was just a whirlwind of information. So he we went right from his office to they admitted Jordan into intensive care. Um you come out of that meeting and I just see him over there on the floor playing with his matching box of cars and knowing his life was about to change as a dad. It was it was tough. Sure. Yeah, so we uh had a lot of visitors come, a lot of good times. I mean, uh the symptoms were still relatively um uh you know, not serious. Um, but the tumor was growing. It was a it was an aggressive uh tumor, and um they needed to go in and get it. So it was uh that Friday that they went and did surgery.

Lou Lepore 10:02

During this, you're obviously leaning into God because like you said, it was a whirlwind. You're getting medical information and had to be thinking, I'm not a doctor, spell it simply, like don't give me all these medical terms. I just need to know what's happening with my boy. Right. And and then you're driving from the suburbs into Philadelphia, you're working all day long, you're taking care of the kids all day long. So like pile it on right now. And you shared something with me in the past that I remember to this day. The Spirit of God was telling you, Joe, my son suffered as well. Do you remember like in that moment you felt kind of pressed that on your heart? What was going through your mind at that point?

Dark Night After Surgery

Joe Bono 10:39

Yeah, it was probably two or three days after surgery, and uh, we found ourselves um I would say a storage closet, but it wasn't much wasn't much more than that. It wasn't a room meant for a patient, but they put a bed in there and everything they needed for Jordan as he recovered from surgery. And um It was a long night. I remember he was in they were trying to find the right mix of um pain medications uh to keep him pain free if possible, but it was a traumatic surgery. There was a few little bit of comp complications. He had some paralysis coming out of the surgery and um so he was really struggling, he couldn't see, he was blind. Um they assured us that this is this is not out of the norm. So I was begging the doctors just give him something to help him because he was in uncontrollable pain. His feet were flailing and he was screaming. I tried to console him, and no matter what I did or what the doctors did, we were all working really hard to just have him be peaceful and and get get comfortable, but he just wasn't. And was hours and hours and hours into this, and it was in the middle of the morning the Lord laid on my heart the concept of um the suffering of a son. And I was in the midst of it. And immediately this Holy Spirit just said, Joe, I know what you're going through because my son suffered on the cross. And God just tried to uh teach me just in a small, small way. He understood, he knew exactly where I was, and he knew exactly where Jordan was. So I had a notebook that I commonly wrote notes in, and I started to write down that what God was trying to teach me. I was just at the end of myself and not knowing what to do as a father for his son. And I kind of just sat back off in the corner of the room and and was just praying, Lord, what do I do? I can't stand to see my son suffer like this, and I have no control. And then I hear Jordan say with a voice, Daddy, I just want you here. And I had thought all this time he was unaware of my presence, but in that moment, I was able to climb up next to him and hold him, and he finally had calmed down a little bit. And um, and that was the the um the night that God allowed me to be able to go through that and teach me a lesson about the suffering of God's son in a true way. And I was a privilege to be able to learn that lesson. So I ended up writing the pain of a son into u a gospel tract.

Hope In The Valley

Joe Bono 13:25

So we just started to reach out and say, There's hope. There's hope in the midst of your trial because we saw so many families going through it without the hope that we had.

Lou Lepore 13:34

And Michelle, you shared in that sentiment with Joe that here we are at our lowest low, the the toughest trial we've ever gone through, individual married couple, you name it, and your mindset, your heart wasn't woe is me, but how can we minister to the families and the people around us that don't know Christ?

Michelle Bono 13:56

Yes. Yeah, with the Lord. He wants you to look up to him and focus on him, but he also wants you to love and minister to others when you're suffering, that it's not just about you. And when you're down deep there in the valley with the Lord, he's so close. You can almost feel him surrounding you and carrying you because there's nobody else that can do that for you.

Lou Lepore 14:22

That's right.

Michelle Bono 14:22

And God just is so good and more mighty than you can ever imagine until you're in that situation. And God is so true, and he's so great, and he proves himself over and over. And even in our suffering, just to be able to see how he could use the suffering of our son Jordan was amazing just to be a part of it. And I feel privileged that God used Jordan to minister to other people, just even see souls be saved was such a privilege.

Suffering With Purpose

Lou Lepore 14:55

So people that you were ministering to came to know the Lord through this process. Yes. Yeah.

Joe & Michelle Bono 15:00

Yes.

Lou Lepore 15:00

You would define this not as something that happened to you, but something you were selected by Jesus Christ for.

Joe Bono 15:09

Yeah. Michelle and I had the attitude that this was bigger than us. We didn't know, we couldn't understand it, we couldn't communicate that in any other way. I just say, hey guys, God is good. We want to share how how good he is.

Miracles And Growth

Joe Bono 15:24

I mean, I look back at that time, it was just over a year of of trial. And our spiritual growth was went on steroids. And the encouragement that we had watching miracle after miracle and God's blessing and God's provision day after day, week after week, it was exciting to be a part of it. And we were excited to see how God was going to use it, not just in our lives and our son's life, but well beyond anything we could even imagine. And to even to this day, he's still he's still using it.

Lou Lepore 15:56

Well, Psalm 23, verse 4 tells us, Yea, though I walk through, through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. You are a living example. When the trial's hitting, you're in need of another gear, that he's faithful and he's there. And I'm just encouraged by

Cancer Returns Again

Lou Lepore 16:15

that. Getting back to the story here, as Jordan goes through the surgery and you're with him through the night. The next uh about six weeks, you shared with me earlier there was some paralysis taking place. But what was going on after that?

Joe Bono 16:27

Uh the doctors paint a realistic picture as as mom and dad. You always want to have hope. Uh and in Christ, there's always hope. It was going to be tough to overcome. So it was an experimental trial down at children's, which was a privilege to be able to go through that. So they were doing some pretty aggressive treatments. And um there was there was success. I mean, they they went in and took out the tumor and they were successful doing that. But um the type of tumor it was, it was kind of a they explained it to us, like it was a shedding tumor. I'm sure there's a medical way to say that, but it was a shedding tumor. So small pieces would come off and and go into um the brain and then the spinal fluid. So they were constantly looking for for um tumors in other places. After post-surgery, they did see some small tumors starting to form in the brain. So round one of chemo, those those went away. And you know, you recover from that round, and then you know, you see tumors coming back again. So there was this this thing, and you're you're hoping to be able to get through all of these treatments and you know, hear the word cancer-free. So um I can't say we ever heard those words. Um but when we got done stem cell, they said we can see no visible signs of cancer. So we were hopeful. And but there was always that that next scan for us after the five rounds of chemo and then stem cell, we had that next scan, and uh sure enough, the cancer came back in in spades.

Choosing To Stop Treatment

Joe & Michelle Bono 18:16

And it was it was just roaring back. And you know, as a mom and dad, after all that we had been through to know that okay, this is God's will. This is God's will. So we were trying to understand what our next steps were. We knew that chemo would be just a short-term keeping the cancer at bay, trying to keep Jordan alive and comfortable, because at this point he had tumors in his spine, so some of that pain pressing on nerves uh was really starting to make him uncomfortable. We had to go into a meeting with the doctors and decide what our next steps were. And it's mom and dad to to be able to make the decision to just not give up hope, but just to stop treatments, knowing that that decision was going to take Jordan home to be with us was a hard decision mom and dad did not want to make. No, right.

Lou Lepore 19:17

I would imagine, and I guess my question is for anyone listening who is faced with this now, and you have the wisdom, and now a few decades out that you're looking back, what would you say to the mom and dad who are sitting there who have to make a similar decision?

Joe & Michelle Bono 19:32

God

Peace In The Doctor Meeting

Joe & Michelle Bono 19:33

is good.

Michelle Bono 19:34

God's grace was amazing. Yeah, it was and he answered because we prayed and begged God that we didn't want to make that decision for our child. We wanted God to make it for us. Lord, please take this from us. I don't want to make this decision. And God is so good, he cares for us so much, and he knows our heart, and he was so clear in that meeting that day when we met with the doctor, and we share with her this is what we believe. We we believe that God wants us to make will make this decision for us, and she honored that. We asked her if we could pray in the beginning of the meeting, that God would be in the middle of everything we discussed that day about Jordan and the future of treatments. And what we didn't realize was is during that meeting with a doctor, and she was so kind and gracious, she let us Joe prayed and asked God to just make it very abundantly clear that he would decide what would be best for Jordan and what was his will, would be very clear. And uh God just gave us so much peace, as we talked about before, peace that passes all understanding. And what I didn't realize is there was a nurse or a helper in the back of the room, we didn't even realize was there, and she was in the back and had stayed during our meeting and our discussion about uh what would be best, and the doctor didn't sh sugarcoat anything, and she said, Okay, guys, if you would continue to do treatments for Jordan, it would be for you to have him a little bit longer, but he would still struggle with all the symptoms and sickness and it would might maybe prolong his life for a couple more months, but it would basically be for us. And she was just brutally honest, which we had prayed and we had we appreciate it. God was right there with with us in that meeting. Um, he was so present and gave us so much peace. When you think you can't, God says he can, and he always, always does. Like I said, it was almost like you could reach out and feel him in the meeting and with us right there in the midst. He says when two or three gather in his name, he is in the midst of them. After the meeting was over, we said, Okay, God's made it very clear that we're not gonna proceed with treatments. The doctor went out the room and I hear someone sobbing in the corner. And Joe and I are looking at each other, and a sweet girl comes up and she's just crying. She comes over to us and she said, Um, I'm a Christian, and I've walked away from my first love. My Lord. And she said, I felt God in this room, and He's spoken to my heart as well. That I need to go back to my first love, which is the Lord. And again, it was a sweet reminder that God said, This isn't just for you, Michelle, and Joe, and for Jordan. I want to use this mightily for my glory. I want to be glorified in all of this. And how we respond to what God allows in our life is way bigger than just us. God has a bigger

Marriage Under Pressure

Michelle Bono 22:49

plan. And I have to say that through it all, God made it very clear that God is first. Joe and I in our marriage is right below our relationship with God. And through all of this, even though we were focused on the love of our child and our relationship with God, God made it very clear that we are to hold on or how important our relationship and our marriages as best friends. And we made that a priority as best as we could through that whole year to stay connected to each other on the phone, talking for hours late at night. And his best friend was losing his her son. Yeah, it's different for a mom and a dad. It really, really is. And to be able to minister to each other, God wanted us to stay very connected to each other as well, which is very

Provision And Promotion

Michelle Bono 23:46

important.

Joe Bono 23:46

We watched so many families without Christ situations where the dad couldn't be at the hospital because he had to work in threat of being fired. I had the privilege to work for a company that allowed me to spend as much time as I wanted to with my son. So I literally I think I worked 40 days that year. And kept your job. Got a promotion about three quarters of the way. And you got promoted? And I got promoted during that time. And Yeah, so God was just they was just provided over and over and over again. Miracles and miracles in miracles.

Michelle Bono 24:22

We could imagine.

Lou Lepore 24:22

And and you didn't interview for that job.

Joe Bono 24:24

That just kind of came out No, it was a natural progression where I was at the time. And and um Yeah. Things were like a lot of time. Yeah, my work God ordained the place I worked at that moment. And uh Yeah, I worked 40 days that year. And financially, God provided week after week after week, you know, person after person, family after family would come to us and say, Joe, here's something to keep you home one more week and one more week and one more week. And it just happened for over a year. Yeah, and we never had any financial uh concerns.

Lou Lepore 25:00

His grace is all over the story. Just to recap, you get a promotion at work for working 40 days. That is some great 40 days of work to get a promotion. You're good at your job. Yes, I know, yeah. I'm gonna acknowledge that. I don't know. One of the two. I don't know. I'll go with the first one. I'll go with the first one. It's it's a Christian station. We're gonna go with the first one. But but you so you have that, you have you have friends and and family reaching out financially, making sure the needs are met. God's there. He's he's in the midst of the hardest meeting you may have ever had in your life with the doctor under the diagnosis. But then even there, that nurse is in the back and says, Your story inspired me. I'm going back to Jesus. And so He's working there.

Jordan’s Final Prayer

Lou Lepore 25:42

And then on the back end, although we were praying for healing, the last few days come. He's getting ready to go to bed. You you put him down, you do your routine, you're walking away. Yeah. But he calls you back. Tell that story.

Michelle Bono 25:56

Yes, we'd said goodnight to him in his room. He shared a room with his brother Travis, and we had give talked to him and gave him hug and kisses and real tight. And it was getting late, and we were leaving the room to walk down the hall to our room. And we heard Jordan say very clearly, going to be with Jesus tonight. And so mom and dad right away stopped in our tracks. He quickly ran right back in and sat on his bed, and Joe was on one side and I was on the other. And he said, I'm I'm gonna go be with Jesus tonight, mom and dad. Mommy and daddy. And we said, Okay, Jordan. He said, Can I pray for you? Can I pray for my mommy and my daddy? And we said, Okay, that that would be great, Jordan. And so we leaned in and I think he put his hands like on the back of our heads. We the three of us were like touching Jordan in the middle. And he just prayed so sweet and so eloquent that I remember at one point I looked up at him because it didn't sound like a five-year-old little boy praying for his parents that he loved so much that he was gonna miss, and praying for comfort and that God says that you're gonna be okay and that we're gonna be together again one day. And that he loved us, and then he knew that we were gonna be okay. It was so beautiful. I'll never forget it.

Joe Bono 27:28

Yeah, and again, to its last days, last hour. He ministered. Yes, he did. He he did. He just ministered to us.

Lou Lepore 27:38

Yeah.

Testimony And Next Steps

Lou Lepore 27:40

Wow, Joe and Michelle, it is so clear that God's hand was on your family during Jordan's illness and here today as you're sharing your testimony. That's where we'll leave the story for now. But the journey isn't over yet. Tune in next time to hear how it all unfolds and just how many people got saved as a result of Jordan's life. This has been the More Than Conquerors Podcast, where today's test is tomorrow's testimony. God bless you.