Creating Strong Ripples of Faith with Jennifer Godwin

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County Living presents Conversations with Rich Bennett. I love you, John. 

You're a bad guy. 

You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. No, no, no. You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. 

Rich Bennett 0:27
Have you ever felt a nudge to do something that made absolutely no sense at the time? Maybe something that wasn't part of your plan. Wasn't on your bucket list. And definitely wasn't in your comfort zone. My guest today knows exactly what that feels like. Jennifer guy went and spent 24 years running a successful photography studio. Built a beautiful life with her high school sweetheart, raised a family, and looked forward to enjoying retirement. Right in a book wasn't on her agenda. In fact, it wasn't even a dream she seriously considered pursuing. But sometimes life takes an unexpected turn. And after a lifetime of experiences, faith, and lessons learned. Jennifer felt guy calling her to do something she never imagined. Write a book. So it started as an unlikely assignment, became a three year journey of obedience, discovery, and purpose resulting in her book Go Make Ripos. So in this conversation, we're going to be talking about the book, we're talking about faith, stepping into the unknown, the power of small actions, and how one person's willingness to say yes, can create a ripple effect that reaches far beyond what they have ever imagined. So whether you're searching for purpose, wrestling with a calling, or simply wondering if the little things you do each day really matter. This is a conversation you won't want to miss. Hey, doing Jennifer. 

Jennifer Godwin 2:09
I'm doing well. How are you doing? 

Rich Bennett 2:11
I am doing good. It's great to see you. And for those of you listening, Jennifer has been on my other podcast. The author pitched where she actually read an excerpt from the book. So when that comes out, make sure-- actually, I could tell you right now. I already told you, and I forgot the date already. That'll be out September 8. So look forward to that. The author pitched. Jennifer is going to be reading an excerpt from the book and pitching the book. So we had a good conversation. And that's short form, but when you're reading the excerpt from the book, just like 

I said, it grabbed me, and I loved 

Jennifer Godwin 2:53
t. Good. 

Rich Bennett 2:54
That there makes for a good book. At least I think so. 

Jennifer Godwin 2:59
Yes. I hope 

Rich Bennett 3:01
So 

Jennifer Godwin 3:01
so. 

Rich Bennett 3:02
I-- which I still find it hard when you say retirement, because I may have told you this before. To me, you still look like you should be in your mid-30s or whatever way too young to 

Jennifer Godwin 3:16
Thanks. 

Rich Bennett 3:16
retire. 

But you were enjoying your retirement after a successful career, right? And then you felt God calling you in a completely different direction. So take us back to that moment. What happened and how did you know this was something you were supposed to pursue? 

Jennifer Godwin 3:38
Well, it goes 20 years earlier to a 

Rich Bennett 3:41
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 3:41
dream. I had a dream. And in my dream God told me I was going to write a book. Well, you know, God has given me other dreams. And 

Rich Bennett 3:53
have-- 

Jennifer Godwin 3:53
I 

Rich Bennett 3:53
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 3:54
I have, you know, followed through with what he told me, and I thought, huh, that's interesting. So I told my scholarly friend who loved to go to college, you know, she was a teacher, then an administrator. And she just wanted to keep-- 

Rich Bennett 4:09
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 4:10
I told her the next day. She, you know, we were hanging out with our kids and I said, "Oh, God told me I was going to write a book." And she goes, "Well, what would a book--what would the book be about?" And I said, "I don't know." He just told me to write a book. And she says, "Yeah, but you haven't even gone to college." So that kind of-- I know, good friend. 

Rich Bennett 4:32
[laughs] 

Jennifer Godwin 4:33
So I mean, at least she was honest. And it's true. You know, I--and honestly, looking back now, I'm glad that I was so naive because honestly, I didn't know people actually went to writing workshops and they did all these different prep things for writing books and stuff. I had no clue. 

Rich Bennett 4:58
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 5:00
.. So, uh, fast forward, you know, after she talked to me and gave me my little talk, I thought, "Well, maybe it was just a crazy dream", and then that was it. But, it was about 20 years later and God said, "It's time". And, for some reason, I thought I could kind of pretend I didn't know what he was talking about. And so, this went 

Rich Bennett 5:22
couple 

Jennifer Godwin 5:22
on for 

Rich Bennett 5:22
of 

Jennifer Godwin 5:22
a 

Rich Bennett 5:23
weeks. 

Jennifer Godwin 5:24
And, finally, he wouldn't let me sleep at night because he just kept saying, "You know what I'm talking about? I want you to write this book and now it's the time". 

Rich Bennett 5:32
Oh, wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 5:33
Oh, yeah. Every time there is something that he wants me to do, he disturbs my sleep. And so, I really like my sleep. And so, I thought, "Alright, fine, I'm going to sit down and I'm just going to write". Well, like I told you before we got onto this podcast, I'm not tech savvy. Trying to get a piece of paper. I thought I'd write it on a piece of paper because I liked that better than working on a computer. But, I knew that, you know, for my typing days, you can delete things and I thought, "I better..." Since I don't know what I'm doing, I better have some way to delete it. Otherwise, I'm going to go through trees of paper. So, I sat, I'll put it, it took me probably an hour to figure out how to start writing a book 

Rich Bennett 6:24
computer. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:24
on a 

Rich Bennett 6:24
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:25
Well, I know, "Hey, I'm not tech savvy. I'm sorry. I didn't have to do that with my photography studio." And 

Rich Bennett 6:31
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:32
I was in, when I was in high school, that was when computers came out. And I took a computer class in high school, but you know what it was? Computer 

Rich Bennett 6:44
Cards. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:44
programming. 

Rich Bennett 6:45
Oh. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:46
It's 

Rich Bennett 6:46
Oh. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:46
like dot-dot-dot-cq-l-this. 

Rich Bennett 6:50
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 6:50
It's like, "I don't want to program a computer. I just want to know how to put a floppy disk in and turn it on and how to work it." And they bypassed the whole simple version and went straight to programming a computer. So, I didn't, I didn't have that kind of, that kind of knowledge that people...

Rich Bennett 7:13
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 7:13
I was just in that in-between stage of computers coming out, didn't have to use it, and then went into my adult career of taking portraits. 

Rich Bennett 7:24
Alright. So, I got to ask you this question because some people listen maybe a little skeptical. How do you hear God? How do you listen and hear God? 

Jennifer Godwin 7:37
Well, like I said, I know. I mean, I, he, I know he really doesn't let me sleep. 

Rich Bennett 7:46
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 7:46
And he just kind of speaks to my mind. I mean, he just kind of does. He just, it's just a hunch. It's a, it's a, it's a knowledge that... It is, 

it's a, I know what I know, what I know, what I can't...

Rich Bennett 8:02
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:02
That's how it is. You know how you know what somebody's thinking, but you don't know how you know somebody's what they're thinking. But then when they say it, you're like, "I knew that's what you were thinking. It's the same thing with God."

Rich Bennett 8:17
Do you think a strong faith actually helps to hear God as well? 

Jennifer Godwin 8:21
Okay. 

Oh, a 

Rich Bennett 8:22
percent. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:22
hundred 

Rich Bennett 8:22
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:23
Because I don't know if you...

Rich Bennett 8:24
I 

Jennifer Godwin 8:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:24
agree with you. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:24
I don't know if you truly hear God speaking, unless you have a relationship with 

Rich Bennett 8:29
Right. Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:31
Him. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:32
And the reason I ask is because, you know, some, and I may have told you before, because I still want to do an episode on how to talk to God, how to listen to God. Even how to pray, because I do believe a lot of people don't know how. 

Jennifer Godwin 8:45
Oh, right. I agree. 

Rich Bennett 8:48
Yeah, and it's... Number one, you have to have faith. I think that is very strong. And otherwise, I mean, anyways, I'm sorry. I'm going to sit back and let you continue, because I cut you off there. 

Jennifer Godwin 9:04
That's all right. So, then I sat down and I started typing, and when I started typing, I really didn't know who my book was going to be written to. 

My passion is for people that don't know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, because I didn't grow up in a family that had God. I 

Rich Bennett 9:26
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 9:26
didn't know Easter was a religious holiday. I thought it was Easter bunnies, and people dressed up and went to church, but I didn't know what going to church meant. And 

Rich Bennett 9:35
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 9:36
Christmas was Santa Claus. Of course, back when I was younger, they had the little drummer boy, Cartoon, and 

Rich Bennett 9:42
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 9:42
I knew there was something else, but I couldn't quite figure out how this little baby born someplace warm had something to do with Santa Santa Claus delivering gifts. So it was very confusing for me. 

Rich Bennett 10:00
It's confusing for a lot of people. 

Jennifer Godwin 10:02
Right. Right. And so that was where my heart was. It was it's for you know for unbelievers. That's where I thought it was 

Rich Bennett 10:10
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 10:10
going. But the longer I typed and the longer whatever came to my mind, I realized it was really truly for believers. 

Rich Bennett 10:22
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 10:22
And when it got all done, the problem is most believers have a fear of sharing Jesus with others. They think that they're going to be attacked. They think that they don't have all the right answers. They've been sold a little goods that they have to tell people that if you died tonight, where would you go? Would you spend the eternity in hell? Well, yeah, that's gonna work for some people. But for the 

Rich Bennett 10:48
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 10:48
most part, a lot of people, especially now, especially in this day and age have a very negative opinion towards Christians. And so my book is more about how to weave Jesus in our everyday actions, activities and conversations. You know, sharing Christian books, sharing Christian podcasts, sharing different things like that. Or just being kind, you know, 

Rich Bennett 11:20
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 11:21
like I was telling you earlier, I give out little blessing bags and it's got a little it's a little baggy with a gospel track that shares how Jesus, you know, how to have a relationship with Jesus. It's got one of those little Jesus many figurines that they have these little 

Rich Bennett 11:37
Yes. 

Jennifer Godwin 11:37
plastic ones now. Has some candy. So it, you know, it makes the medicine go down better with the candy. A then I just hand it to people and then they can read it on their own terms. So that's that's what I do. I just weave Jesus in every day. 

Rich Bennett 11:55
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 11:56
You know, and pray for people. But here's the biggest thing that Christians don't get. The biggest thing they don't get is that most people will not step into a church unless someone invites 

them. I would say 90% of all people will not just walk into a church on their own unless they're invited. 

Rich Bennett 12:20
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 12:20
And so Christians aren't very good about inviting people to church. 

Rich Bennett 12:24
That is true. That is, 

Jennifer Godwin 12:27
yeah. Well think about it because people will say it's my 

Rich Bennett 12:31
church. Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 12:32
It's my church. And so if it's their church, who do I think I am that I can just walk into 

Rich Bennett 12:39
church? 

Jennifer Godwin 12:39
their 

Rich Bennett 12:40
Mm hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 12:42
You know, when somebody's going to an arena to a concert or something like that, they don't call it my concert. They don't call it my arena. So that opens up the invitation they can go wherever they want. Because it's a public space. People don't think of churches a public space. 

Rich Bennett 13:01
I never thought about that, but you're right. It's always my church, my church. And 

Jennifer Godwin 13:08
mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 13:10
Cause throughout. 

Jennifer Godwin 13:12
So if it's your church, then you should be invited. 

Rich Bennett 13:14
Exactly. Exactly. And I think throughout the years, I'm 63 now, I can probably count on one hand. How many times people have invited me to their church? And the last time was, 

Jennifer Godwin 13:30
and how many times have you invited? 

Rich Bennett 13:36
Probably twice, 

probably. 

Jennifer Godwin 13:40
See, that's the problem. 

Rich Bennett 13:41
Well, and here's, 

Jennifer Godwin 13:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 13:42
yeah, but here's the other thing too, because you know, growing up, well, as a kid, I always went to a different church, but as I got older, I was going to a Catholic church, even though I'm not Catholic. So I didn't really feel like it was my church, if that makes sense. Because I, 

Jennifer Godwin 14:01
mm hmm, 

Rich Bennett 14:02
uh, communion or anything, At least that's what I was told in the Catholic religion. I 

Jennifer Godwin 14:09
right. 

Rich Bennett 14:09
couldn't take it. But you know, my sister, my brother, Catholic, my wife's Catholic, or my kids are baptized Catholic. So I always went to the Catholic church, but I got more out of actually a friend of mine when I was in the IT field went and to, I was the Finley Ohio, to become a pastor. And I couldn't travel to his church because it was too far. But every morning, I was, because he was televised in the services. There was a live stream. 

Jennifer Godwin 14:45
Right. 

Rich Bennett 14:45
And that's, I was, that's my church. I was doing it because I got so much out of his sermons and I learned 

Jennifer Godwin 14:53
Right. 

Rich Bennett 14:53
more. 

Jennifer Godwin 14:54
And I do think that that has been a big help. 

Rich Bennett 14:56
Oh, yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 14:57
But, but if people don't share sermons with people, 

Rich Bennett 15:01
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:01
they don't know what they don't know. 

Rich Bennett 15:03
That's true. That's true. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:04
You know, it was like me. I didn't know, you know, Easter was a religious holiday until somebody finally told me somebody finally explained it. You don't you just took my son and I had this conversation all the time. He's always saying there's no reason somebody couldn't become a Christian because there's a church on every corner. 

But people don't know what 

Rich Bennett 15:26
know. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:26
they don't 

Rich Bennett 15:26
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:27
They think if a 

Rich Bennett 15:29
people 

Jennifer Godwin 15:29
lot of if you're good, you're going to go to heaven. I'm better than the neighbor down the road. I'm better than this person. So I'll get in and that person won't. 

Rich Bennett 15:39
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:40
You know, it's always on it. It's always on a judgment base. 

Rich Bennett 15:44
Mm hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:49
So 

Rich Bennett 15:50
when you start writing the book and you said typing, but you were typing on the computer now the typewriter. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:56
Yes, I did have typing class 

Rich Bennett 15:58
Okay, that does help. 

Jennifer Godwin 15:59
now. I didn't use that skill for probably 30 years. The skills work much worse than they are now now my typing skills are back where they 

Rich Bennett 16:10
was kind of hard to type on a camera. I mean, since we were doing photography, so although these cameras now a days, who knows maybe you do. 

Jennifer Godwin 16:20
Yeah, I got out of it before it went digital. 

Rich Bennett 16:22
Oh, wow, okay. And I'm sorry, there's still nothing like the old film and developing it and seeing the art come through that's again, that's me. 

Jennifer Godwin 16:33
Yes, but I'll go on a little rant. Kodak wasn't very kind to professional photographers. It cost a lot of money. 

Rich Bennett 16:43
Yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 16:44
so you know, they they were charging the professionals a lot of money for that film. And so that's why when you came in and I said I was going to take 12 pictures of you, I was going to take 12 pictures. 

Rich Bennett 16:56
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 16:58
500 pictures 

Rich Bennett 16:59
And then 

Jennifer Godwin 16:59
and then 

Rich Bennett 17:00
send 

Jennifer Godwin 17:00
you 

Rich Bennett 17:00
you 

Jennifer Godwin 17:00
pick the 

Rich Bennett 17:00
12. 

Jennifer Godwin 17:00
best 12 out of 

Rich Bennett 17:01
them. 

Jennifer Godwin 17:02
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I made sure that they looked good before I took the picture. Everybody thinks they're a photographer now. I'm sorry, but everybody thinks they're a photographer. And when you look at I'm sorry, it's just 

Rich Bennett 17:17
I know. 

Jennifer Godwin 17:18
They're snapshots. 

Rich Bennett 17:19
I was in the DJ business for years and you know, the same thing with DJ's They figure, oh, I got a phone. I can stream music. So I could be a DJ. No, it doesn't work that way. It's the connection 

Jennifer Godwin 17:32
right. 

Rich Bennett 17:32
to talking to the people. The number one, if you're streaming your music and charging your customer, you're streaming and afraid that's against a loan, you shouldn't be doing it anyways. You 

Jennifer Godwin 17:43
want to. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:44
But when you were writing the book at any time, did you feel like God was taking you in a different direction 

about what you were writing about when you first started? 

Jennifer Godwin 18:00
Well, I didn't know what 

Rich Bennett 18:02
going. 

Jennifer Godwin 18:02
direction I was 

Rich Bennett 18:02
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 18:03
I mean, I really, I really didn't have a clue. Yeah, because like I said, I thought it was going to be for unbelievable. And when I finished it up, it was like, no, this is definitely for believers because mean, yeah, the unbelievable could read it 

Rich Bennett 18:18
I 

Jennifer Godwin 18:19
because at the beginning it's what my one of my friends described it as one of those dummy books. How to how to be a Christian, but 

Rich Bennett 18:28
for dummies, yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 18:30
Yeah, becau that was how it was. Nobody really mentored me. Nobody discipled me. And so I kind of had to figure out everything on my own, you know, like so I had never read the Bible before. Well, you know, if you never read the Bible, you didn't and you've never been by the time I read the Bible, you know, you only get an hour sermon once 

Rich Bennett 18:54
week. 

Jennifer Godwin 18:55
a 

Rich Bennett 18:55
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 18:56
Okay, you're not you're only going to learn so much in an hour sermon. I'm 

Rich Bennett 19:00
sorry. 

Jennifer Godwin 19:01
And so that's why you do me to read the Bible. And so when I started reading the Bible, I thought, well, we're going to read it at the beginning. Well, when you read Genesis, you're at least for me, it was kind of like, well, what else is left? Because we took care of Moses, we took care of Noah, we took care of Adam and Eve, we talked, you know, so that was all interesting. And then when you got into Leviticus and, you know, numbers, and who we got, who, and, you know, this is how big the temple isn't, it's not the easiest read in the world. I will say that. It's not the easiest read. But I learned so much. And then it went on to the New Testament when I got to the New Testament. And I got to, you know, I read Matthew, I read Matthew Mark Luke. And when I got to jump, I was like, I think I read these stories. 

Rich Bennett 20:01
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 20:02
So then I started going back and seeing if I did read those stories. Well nobody explained to me that it was different accounts from different people at the same time. 

Rich Bennett 20:13
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 20:14
I- I- I didn't have a clue. Nobody had told me that. So, but by reading the Bible, I learned so much that they could never teach me. For the rest of my life, by only going to church one- one 

Rich Bennett 20:29
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 20:29
hour a week. 

Rich Bennett 20:30
Well, and the thing is, too, you read the Bible and even when you read the Bible, your- each book, you're not going deep into it. You know, even when you go to Bible study, you're not really going deep into it. And I- and there may be books out there like that, I don't know. But it'd be nice just to really dig into it. You know, go deeper. Um, but that- that's probably a book that will take you forever to read I would think. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:03
Oh yeah, but they- they do Bible study. I mean, there's different Bible study. 

Rich Bennett 21:07
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:08
You can do a study on the book of Luke. You can do a study on the book of revelations. You can- you know, yeah. There's lots of different- different things like that. But yeah, you'd always be- you'd be learning for the 

Rich Bennett 21:20
Oh 

Jennifer Godwin 21:20
rest of your 

Rich Bennett 21:20
yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 21:20
life. 

Rich Bennett 21:21
yeah. Be non-stop. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:21
'Cause it, you know, it's written in Latin. It's written in Greek. It's written- you know, so I mean, you'd have to study those. 

Rich Bennett 21:29
You spent three years writing the book. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:32
Yes, I did. 

Rich Bennett 21:33
Would actually, uh, surprise you most about yourself during that process. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:44
That I did it. I mean, honestly, I- it's- I didn't know again. I didn't know what I didn't know. 

Rich Bennett 21:53
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 21:54
And when you finish up a book, then you start- when you finally- when I finally got to breathe again, when I wasn't re-reading my same book over and 

Rich Bennett 22:05
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 22:05
over and over to edit it. By the time I was done, of course, my- my son kept telling me, "You need to learn to market this. You've got to market this. You've got to be marketing." I'm like, "I- I don't even know who's going to read 

Rich Bennett 22:18
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 22:18
this. I couldn't come up- I couldn't come up with maybe 30 people that would read it." You know, and that was family and maybe good friends that would read this book. And, you know, of course, along the way you do have that dream of, "Oh, maybe it'll be like the purpose-driven life, and it will sell millions of copies." You know, you go from one 

Rich Bennett 22:37
to- Mm-hmm 

Jennifer Godwin 22:38
together. But when you start looking it up, if you look up how many books, the- the first author writes. They don't sell very many 

Rich Bennett 22:50
No. 

Jennifer Godwin 22:51
books. But see, the good thing is, I am a marketer. I am a salesperson. I love to sell. I mean, I like to be creative. I loved the creative part of the photography thing. I hated the equipment. If it could have just been me out there with just the person and making a beautiful portrait, that would have been the best thing without the equipment. But I could sell. 

Rich Bennett 23:16
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 23:16
I could sell, you know, I could sell the portraits. Not a problem. I could sell them for the aunts, the uncles, the cousins, you know. I'm happy. I could sell. And I used to sell A-bom when I was back in high school. I was, you know, top salesperson in my state for only being 16 years 

Rich Bennett 23:35
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 23:36
old. Oh yeah. Well, yeah. I'm a salesperson. I really am. So, I have sold a lot of my books way more than most authors will sell. But that's because I know how to get it into hands 

Rich Bennett 23:50
That's 

Jennifer Godwin 23:50
of- 

Rich Bennett 23:50
good. That's good. 

Jennifer Godwin 23:52
You know, but it's not all me either. It's God. God has gotten my book into people's hands that there's no way I could have ever figured out how to have gotten them into their hands. So yeah, when I was writing it, 

I even said it on my first page, it was gonna take perseverance and determination to get the book finished. And it did. And I put it down several times. That's the only reason why it took three years. There were, there were so many times when if you, if you think you don't hear from God, you definitely hear from Satan. And Satan has a really distinctive 

Rich Bennett 24:36
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 24:36
voice. And he will tell you negative things like, who do you think's ever gonna read this? Who do you think you are that you're writing this? People are gonna make fun of you for writing this. You know, I heard this so many times. I put the book down and I thought, you know what? Nobody knows. I did have a few people that I had told that I was going to write it. And that is what kept it going. 

Rich Bennett 25:01
They kept it 

Jennifer Godwin 25:01
Always 

Rich Bennett 25:01
as she. 

Jennifer Godwin 25:02
knowing because when you're halfway through, a people will start encouraging. 

Rich Bennett 25:07
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 25:07
and so I think when you start a project like that, you should vocalize it, you should tell people, hey I'm gonna do this. And then that way people can step up and combat the enemy's lies, that he's telling you, that you can't do this. 

I'm sure I've taken off the G's on the, on the end of my sentences and, you know, like, I, you know, like writing a bike. 

Rich Bennett 25:56
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 25:56
It should be writing a bike, but and I had to put a lot of those G's in my book, you know because it's like, 

Rich Bennett 26:04
I 

Jennifer Godwin 26:05
don't write it that way, but I do speak it that way. And so it was just, it was interesting. And I became a much better speller, because at least the nice thing is you can use your phone and you're like, how do you spell vehicle? And you just type, you know, you just say it into your phone. 

Rich Bennett 26:21
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 26:21
It's like, oh, I actually spelled that right. You know, so, that made me a better speller. 

Rich Bennett 26:27
And the other thing is too, as you're writing, a lot of times you'll look at a word and when you're reading it's like, women, no, that doesn't look right. 

Jennifer Godwin 26:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:37
yourself, 

Jennifer Godwin 26:38
Questioning 

Rich Bennett 26:38
just to find out that it is right. 

Jennifer Godwin 26:41
Well, you think about it. The word read, READ. Or I read a book, READ, or LIVE, 

Rich Bennett 26:52
and LIVE, 

Jennifer Godwin 26:52
you know, it's spelled the exact same way. I don't know how people ever learn this when they're an adult because the English language is so 

Rich Bennett 27:00
It's 

Jennifer Godwin 27:00
hard. 

Rich Bennett 27:01
one of the and I've always heard that it's one of the hardest languages to learn to speak as well. 

Jennifer Godwin 27:07
I don't, I don't doubt it. 

Rich Bennett 27:10
Especially depending on one part of the country you go to learn from because of all the different lingo with accents and everything. 

Go to the bottom where 

Jennifer Godwin 27:20
Exactly. Right. 

Rich Bennett 27:20
are we? You're going to wash. What? I don't even know how they say in here. Wash, wash, what? 

Jennifer Godwin 27:25
I say wash. 

Rich Bennett 27:27
At my head. 

Jennifer Godwin 27:28
Not wash. 

Rich Bennett 27:34
When you're writing the book, was there actually a particular part that it was a two-part question. That was actually very difficult to write and also especially meaningful to write as well. 

Jennifer Godwin 27:59
Well, yes because the reason why I ended my photography career was because I got sick. And we didn't tell everybody I got We 

Rich Bennett 28:11
what 

Jennifer Godwin 28:12
didn't even really tell anybody because we didn't really know if it was and the doctors were kind of like, well, if it is, it's a really like case, but they put me on medication, I ended up with what they said was MS. And it changed the colors and it changed some of my eyesight for a 

Rich Bennett 28:33
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 28:33
while. And well, but as time went on, I stopped all medication. I haven't. There is no distinctive test to say, yes, you have MS. They can do a whole bunch of tests and they say, well, you fit the profile. And so we're going to put you on that. Well, the other thing with that is MS medicine is very expensive. 

Rich Bennett 29:00
Yes. 

Jennifer Godwin 29:00
And I think that there's a lot of money to be made in 

Rich Bennett 29:04
No. 

Jennifer Godwin 29:04
pharmaceutical. I think, yeah, that's just me, but we could go on different 

Rich Bennett 29:11
down 

Jennifer Godwin 29:12
the road. But so, yeah, I was having different symptoms and the Nile virus. I think that's what I, I think that's what I got, you know, yeah, you know, when I, when I was, and I kept telling him that I'm like, you know, it wasn't until I got bit by hope. And there was no, there were no. 

Oh, anodotes or anything that you could take. 

Rich Bennett 29:42
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 29:42
It affected the elderly, it affected the young people, and pretty much you got bit as a middle-aged person, and you just dealt with a few symptoms, and then it would go away. Well, that's kind of what it did, but by that point, they said, "No, we're going to diagnose you with this, and this is what you got." And so then that's when I I stopped doing photography. Well, since we didn't tell anybody, and only a few people in my family even knew, when I was writing that, I felt kind of guilty. I even asked my husband, I said, "Is it all right if I put this in there?" And he said, "Yeah, I think 

Rich Bennett 30:22
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 30:22
you should." But we didn't people, because honestly, I had other people that I knew they had that disease, and it was always Tom with MS, or Jane with MS. It was never just Jane or Tom. 

Rich Bennett 30:39
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 30:39
It was always defining that person, and I didn't want it to be defined by a disease. 

Rich Bennett 30:44
Do you also feel in the back of your that the doctors were wrong and you 

Jennifer Godwin 30:48
have --Oh, 

Rich Bennett 30:49
didn't 

Jennifer Godwin 30:49
I do. 

Rich Bennett 30:49
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 30:51
Yeah, because I'm not having any other symptoms. 

Rich Bennett 30:53
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 30:53
I took the medication for probably seven or eight years, and 

Rich Bennett 30:57
Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 30:57
it was injections, daily injections, or weekly injections, but no, I went in and I the neurologist. I said, "Okay, I really -- That was another dream." 

Rich Bennett 31:11
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 31:12
Several people that said, "I think you should go off of this." was when God talked to me, He said, "You know, yep, I think you should." And I laid out fleece tests. I said, "Okay. If my husband says this okay, if the doctor says 

Rich Bennett 31:27
It 

Jennifer Godwin 31:27
okay, then I'm going to go off the medication." And all three did, and so that, that was what it was. So, I went off the medication, I haven't had anything since. 

Rich Bennett 31:36
I've had a couple friends that were diagnosed with MS, and they were on medicine for years, and the medicines just kept -- I mean, screwing them up, all kinds of different ways, just to find out that the doctors were wrong and they didn't have MS. 

Jennifer Godwin 31:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:51
But, 

Jennifer Godwin 31:52
--Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:52
the medicine 

Jennifer Godwin 31:52
It's the most mis --Thanks, 

Rich Bennett 31:54
other problems. 

Jennifer Godwin 31:55
It's the most misdiagnosed disease there is. And like I said, it's in a very expensive 

Rich Bennett 32:03
medication 

Jennifer Godwin 32:05
that it's on. So, yeah. So, that was probably the hardest thing because it was like, "I kind of felt guilty, you know, here's my aunts that I know my aunts would probably read my book, and it's like, okay, and I didn't ever tell them." I mean, it were close family members 

Rich Bennett 32:23
know. 

Jennifer Godwin 32:23
that didn't 

Rich Bennett 32:24
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 32:25
Through the days. And then, "Oh, what was the other -- many full hard or many full?" 

Well, it wasn't so many -- yes, it was. I wrote about the person that led me to the Lord. 

Rich Bennett 32:43
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 32:44
The first person that -- she was the one that asked me the question, "Do you want to know how to get to heaven?" And so, that -- what was meaningful was, I saved the very first copy. I didn't even give my husband the first copy of my book that I got in the mail. I gave it to her because she was the one that led me to the Lord, and I just felt like I wanted to honor her with my book because she was the one that started the whole process of this. 

Rich Bennett 33:13
Oh, nice. That's good. 

Jennifer Godwin 33:16
Yeah. So, that was the most meaningful thing that I was able to -- because she wasn't in my life. She happened to be a friend sister -- didn't even know she had a college-age sister, and yeah, she -- I just happened to be spending the night at her sister's house, and she walked into the room. So, and I only seen her one other time, and that was when her husband had passed away, and I knew I would be able to see her at the funeral and I wanted to give her something that was positive. 

Rich Bennett 33:50
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 33:51
In the receiving line, and I just wanted to -- so, I just said to her, I said, "You know, I know you might not know who I am, but I'm Jennifer. You love me to the Lord. I wanted to just say thank you, and thank you for what you've done for me in my life." 

Rich Bennett 34:06
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:06
And so, and then I passed. But that the only two times that I had never met her until I gave her my book. 

Rich Bennett 34:13
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:13
And then we had a great conversation. Well, and here's the weird thing. She let me to the Lord. She actually wrote letters to me to help me grow spiritually. 

Rich Bennett 34:22
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:22
You know, because pretty much I was just thrown out there. And, come to find out, I never got any of the letters she wrote. I didn't even know she ever tried to keep in touch with me. 

Rich Bennett 34:32
What? 

Jennifer Godwin 34:34
Yeah. Well, you know, our sister probably thought it was Dorky and didn't want to give it to me, and she didn't, so. 

Rich Bennett 34:40
Oh. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:42
And we didn't have cell phones back then, 

Rich Bennett 34:44
well, 

Jennifer Godwin 34:46
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:47
Yeah, so you've never seen any of the letters to 

Jennifer Godwin 34:50
day. 

Rich Bennett 34:50
this 

Jennifer Godwin 34:51
No, now they guess it now. 

Rich Bennett 34:53
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:54
I know that's just shame. 

Rich Bennett 34:56
Yeah, yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 34:57
I know. 

Rich Bennett 34:58
I said the title go make ripples. 

Jennifer Godwin 35:01
How 

Rich Bennett 35:03
did you come up with that name? And what's it mean to you personally? 

Jennifer Godwin 35:09
Well, wasn't my first. Oh, first title, 

Rich Bennett 35:13
OK, 

Jennifer Godwin 35:13
choice. 

Rich Bennett 35:13
I got 

Jennifer Godwin 35:14
All 

Rich Bennett 35:14
here. 

Jennifer Godwin 35:14
there were, there were some. It's in my 

Rich Bennett 35:17
OK, 

Jennifer Godwin 35:17
book. it's it's it's the beginning of my book of what some of the ideas I had, but everybody kept shooting me down. So finally, I'm like, I am not telling anybody else the title of my book until I'm done. And then I will decide the title on my book and nobody else will decide the title of my book. And I really liked the ripple effect, but there it was so well used and Tim Tebow's mother at the time had just written a book with that title. I didn't I didn't know this, but I did find this out. You can that's the one thing you can't copyright is a title of a book. You can there's multiple books with the same type. 

Rich Bennett 35:57
Yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 35:58
you can't copyright that. And so I could have had the ripple effect, but I wanted to do something else. I was a cheerleader in high school and so it was always go make a basket or whatever. And so I thought go make ripples, you know, go get off that. 

Rich Bennett 36:16
Yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 36:17
get off the bench and get it get off the peel and go out there and start making ripples. And that's what it is. You know, it's just it's just little things that ripple into something big. But when Brenda asked me if I wanted to know how to get to heaven, you know, she would have never known that I'd write a book later on in life that would go out to spread the gospel and, you know, tell others about me sitting here with rich Bennett and telling people about Jesus Christ. What I knew that you know it was it, but it's been a ripple. 

Rich Bennett 36:49
Yeah. All right. So let people know because I mean we've talked about the writing journey, but we actually haven't talked about the book yet. Let people know what the book is about because it's not a memoir. Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 37:03
And it is a little bit. Yes, I mean, yeah, it takes me back to age six. 

Rich Bennett 37:09
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 37:09
I started at the beginning. Well, like I said, I didn't know how to read a Bible. I didn't know how to write a book. So, you know, there were a lot of people that said, Oh, you have to group all your your like-minded subjects together. And that didn't make sense to me. I like to start at the beginning. Yeah. I mean, if we're going to start somewhere, we're going to start at the beginning. And so I started when I was six and that was when I remembered, you know, here in the name of God and trying to figure out God. And like I said, with a little drummer boy, I knew there was something and I was trying to figure out God. And so it took me on all the steps, all the times that I remembered that God was brought into my life. And it's quite amazing to me. Those are some of my most vivid memories as a child. I remember all my little God moments, you 

Rich Bennett 38:04
Oh 

Jennifer Godwin 38:04
know. When 

Rich Bennett 38:04
wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 38:05
my grandfather gave me a Bible or, you know, somebody took me to a VBS and they had the little flannaboard. And, you know, all those things. So it takes you through that. It takes you through my spiritual journey on how I first started to read a Bible and how I figured out all there's different translations of Bibles, you know, there's the New King James Version, which I couldn't read that. I couldn't read that now if I wanted to read that. I'm not in Shakespeare era. 

Rich Bennett 38:36
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 38:37
Just. the thou and it was funny. Because even when I tried to type up the end thou in the on my computer, it kept auto correcting it was like, 

Rich Bennett 38:47
Oh, 

Jennifer Godwin 38:47
no, those aren't real words. 

Rich Bennett 38:49
wow, 

Jennifer Godwin 38:50
So 

it is about that. But then it's also about how I've tried to the crazy adventures that God's put me on. I like I had a junior high, well, not junior high. It was third through fifth grade. 

Rich Bennett 39:10
a 

Jennifer Godwin 39:10
It's 

Rich Bennett 39:10
big difference from junior high 

Jennifer Godwin 39:12
summer. Yes. Yes. Third through fifth grade summer camp. 

Rich Bennett 39:17
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 39:18
Because they were sending them clear to Missouri from Iowa. And I was like, that's too far for those little kiddos. And so we did a third through fifth grade, you know, we did it in my backyard. I had a big backyard and I had a swimming pool and I I roped people into doing crafts and I wrote people. And so, you know, it's just different things. for things. 

Rich Bennett 39:37
Mm. 

Jennifer Godwin 39:37
that different adventures God and I went on and then it turned into how I spread the gospel now. You know how I pass out the blessing bags, how I tell people about different books or invite them to church or share podcasts. It's just different things. I didn't even know that there was Christian like we said earlier. don't know what you don't know. 

Rich Bennett 40:03
You 

Jennifer Godwin 40:03
I didn't know that there Christian music on the radio and so when somebody told me about Christian music on the radio it was like wow I didn't know that and so they shared with me where you can listen to Christian music. I mean like I had no clue that there was a K-love radio station. 

Rich Bennett 40:23
Oh yeah, Matthew they just bought the last station I worked at. 

Jennifer Godwin 40:28
Well there you go. I mean that's that's the thing you don't and how did how does somebody find that out with somebody 

Rich Bennett 40:36
tell you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh I could I listened to the message on series XM a lot. 

Jennifer Godwin 40:42
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:42
A lot. I love Christian music. 

Jennifer Godwin 40:45
What see do you tell people about 

Rich Bennett 40:46
it? Oh well all the time. Well 

Jennifer Godwin 40:49
that's good. 

Rich Bennett 40:50
I appreciate a deepest. 

Jennifer Godwin 40:51
A lot of people don't. 

Rich Bennett 40:52
I mean when I was DJing there would be events where I was DJing and I would throw on a Christian song. A lot of people didn't know what I was playing but they liked 

Jennifer Godwin 41:02
it. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:04
It's just it's something about it that just pulls you in and grabs you. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:09
Well the other thing is they're thinking the old ranger. You know it again if you don't know what you 

Rich Bennett 41:14
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:14
don't know it's not I'm not talking about the old ranger cross songs. 

Rich Bennett 41:19
Right 

Jennifer Godwin 41:19
talking about everyday popular. It's you know like Lauren Dygall and Dagle. 

Rich Bennett 41:25
right. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:25
However, she proudily elses her last name. I mean no, she's on mainstream you know regular radio stations 

Rich Bennett 41:32
I'm 

Jennifer Godwin 41:32
but she's really a Christian singer and so it's that kind of music. It's it's you know it well it can be rap, it 

Rich Bennett 41:41
country. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:41
can be 

Rich Bennett 41:42
It's like Tobi Mack. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:43
It's it's all genres of music of Christian music. 

Rich Bennett 41:46
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 41:47
So Christian music has all genres like 

Rich Bennett 41:49
it. It's uplifting 

Jennifer Godwin 41:50
and actually well and here's the other thing you know what has been I've talked about this you know the reason why they keep playing the 70s in the 80s music is because that was when people were actually writing songs and they you know instead of it but but the people that are really writing songs now are Christian. 

Rich Bennett 42:12
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:13
It's the Christians that are actually writing more songs than even on popular 

Rich Bennett 42:18
songwriters. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:19
They're using the AI stuff and they're you know they they can't come up with anything new. 

Rich Bennett 42:24
Well you're seeing that with movies too look how many movies and TV. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:28
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 42:28
remaking because they can't think of something new. But 

Jennifer Godwin 42:32
They're 

Rich Bennett 42:32
you're looking at the Christian ones because there are Christian channels. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:36
Oh 

Rich Bennett 42:37
And 

Jennifer Godwin 42:37
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:37
the stuff on there is amazing. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:40
Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 42:41
The 

the the the the prayer banks, is there what you call them? 

Jennifer Godwin 42:48
Blessing. 

Rich Bennett 42:49
Blessing bags. Blessing bags. So when somebody purchase the book do they get the blessing bag with it? Or is that only 

Jennifer Godwin 42:56
No. 

Rich Bennett 42:56
in person. 

Jennifer Godwin 42:58
That's only in person 

Rich Bennett 42:59
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 43:00
because it's for unbelievers. You know 

Rich Bennett 43:02
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 43:02
well I don't know. I mean I I've given it to Christians before and then when they look at it and then they you know sometimes I stick around long enough for them to open it up and that what what have you but if there are Christians I look at them and they and you instantly pretty much know because they look at the Jesus oh I go to this church. 

Rich Bennett 43:24
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 43:24
Oh I do you know and it's like good then you pass it on to somebody else that needs it that don't know. 

Rich Bennett 43:30
Yes. Yes. 

Jennifer Godwin 43:31
You know I don't let them off the hook. You know I used to I used to be really sad when I sold a lot of things on Craigslist back in the day a lot of stuff and every person they got you know everybody that came to look at the item or everybody that purchased something they always got a gospel track. Well I used to be sad when it was a Christian because I'm like oh I wanted to go to an unbeliever but then I figured out you know what now I'm gonna I'm gonna push that Christian into giving it to somebody else. 

Rich Bennett 44:03
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 44:04
Because they they need to learn too and that's why with my book it's Christians being inspired to go out and do something 

Rich Bennett 44:14
look 

Jennifer Godwin 44:14
all Christians can go out and spread the gospel in one form or the 

Rich Bennett 44:17
yet. Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 44:19
And and that was the other thing that's that is another big surprise. How many people? The funny thing is I always thought it would be written. I didn't write it gender gender wise. I mean it's not fluffy it's 

Rich Bennett 44:33
yeah 

Jennifer Godwin 44:34
I'm not a I'm more of a joy smires and not a a bath more. 

Rich Bennett 44:38
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 44:39
Uh, I'm, I'm more direct in your face. You just need to go spread the 

Rich Bennett 44:43
Mm 

Jennifer Godwin 44:43
gospel. 

Rich Bennett 44:44
hm. 

Jennifer Godwin 44:44
You know, I don't, well, you know, if you would go do this, I'm not that kind of person, sorry. Um, so I... that was what surprised me is how many men liked my book. I have had as many men 

enjoy my book as women. Matter of fact, I just went to a funeral and it had a lot of the, uh, old church members there. 

Rich Bennett 45:14
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 45:16
And, and a guy that, I mean, I knew he might've seen me before, but I, he wasn't in my children's age group, you know, so we didn't really ever have a big connection. 

Rich Bennett 45:27
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 45:27
And, uh, I mean, I knew who I knew who he was, knew his name, but didn't know him. And he came up to me and he said, 'Hey, I read your book.' And it's always interesting to me when a 50-year-old man comes up and says he read my book. And he said, 'I, he goes, it was sitting at the library, it 

Rich Bennett 45:47
Oh. 

Jennifer Godwin 45:47
was sitting next to Charlie Kirk's book.' And he's like, ' think I know this person.' And he opened it up and he goes, 'Yeah, it is.' And so he said, 'I read it.' And he goes, 'It was so interesting because I actually knew some of the people that were in the book.' And he said that was kind of fun, being a, but, uh, as we're sitting there, another gentleman walked up and he proceeded to give a whole commercial for my book to the other guy. And yeah, she wrote this book and it was good and you should get it and you haven't gotten it, you should read it. So it was, it's amazing to me that even guys like this book. 

Rich Bennett 46:23
Why is that? 

Jennifer Godwin 46:25
I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 46:26
[laughs] 

Jennifer Godwin 46:27
Because I couldn't, because Rich, I could only... 30 people that would read my book. I didn't know. Remember, I was a photographer. I wasn't an author. I don't know. I just, it surprises me how well received it has been. It really, it has blown me away. 

Rich Bennett 46:46
I, 

Jennifer Godwin 46:47
how well received it has been. 

Rich Bennett 46:48
I do believe you are seeing more men reading books like that. And I might be wrong, but I think one of the reasons is, I think Charlie Kirk is definitely a big reason. But I also believe Phil Robertson from "Duck Dinest," his books. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:07
Damn, more like Phil. 

Rich Bennett 47:08
Yeah, but I think I was a big reason why I, I think you're seeing a lot more men reading the books, whether it be written by a male or female. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:17
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 47:18
No, I, it's just what I 

Jennifer Godwin 47:19
I'm 

Rich Bennett 47:19
believe. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:20
not a male so I 

Rich Bennett 47:20
know. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:20
don't 

Rich Bennett 47:21
Oh, 

Jennifer Godwin 47:21
then. 

Rich Bennett 47:21
okay, well 

Jennifer Godwin 47:22
I'll take your 

Rich Bennett 47:23
Look, 

Jennifer Godwin 47:23
word. 

Rich Bennett 47:23
I do, okay, I love, that's one of the things I've always loved about "Duck Dinest," any of the duck shoes when they were on at the end. They would always finish, even their podcast. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:35
Yeah, they're, 

Rich Bennett 47:36
Oh, 

Jennifer Godwin 47:37
they're great. 

Rich Bennett 47:37
yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:38
I listened to the "Unashamed" 

Rich Bennett 47:40
I 

Jennifer Godwin 47:41
podcast. 

Rich Bennett 47:42
haven't listened to it since Phil passed. 

Jennifer Godwin 47:45
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 47:45
I have to be, because his sons are just as good. Just as 

Jennifer Godwin 47:51
good. 

Rich Bennett 47:52
Yeah, I definitely have to listen to it. Oh, so with the book, Owl. Sorry, I'm just point cables out. With the book, what was one of your favorite parts to write? 

Jennifer Godwin 48:09
Well, I really like, again, back to the cheery. I love to encourage people to do things. I, I, I love to, and, you know, you didn't know when you were writing it. I didn't know that that was it. It was, it didn't come until the feedback. 

Rich Bennett 48:29
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 48:29
And so, the, you know, there were so many people that have said, "Oh, I have all these Christian books in and around, and I never thought to give them to somebody. I always thought I just needed to donate them, or, or they're just sitting on my shelf doing nothing. And, and pretty much I say to people, you know, if you got a Christian book sitting on your shelf, that Christian book cannot help any other person sitting on your shelf. 

Rich Bennett 48:53
that, 

Jennifer Godwin 48:53
It needs to get out into people's hands. It needs, you need to either give it to somebody that will read it, or you need to leave it somewhere like a little, one of those little mini libraries, or 

Rich Bennett 49:05
be- Yes. 

Jennifer Godwin 49:05
it'll During the matter, a doctor's office, or, or take it somewhere, or some, you know, to what? Well, I give a lot of books to our local jail. Now, they only take paper back here. Now, there are places that they take hard backs, but they only take paper backs but I give a lot of those away, and, matter of fact, you know, you don't know until you start talking to 

Rich Bennett 49:30
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 49:30
somebody. What affects other people? I was buying a whole bunch of the same book, uh, the Purpose German Life, that's a big book for, for jails to have. And, uh, the gentleman that was selling it was at a teen challenge thrift store. And he says, 'Do you know you already had this book?' He goes, 'You're buying three copies of the same book?' I said, 'Yeah, I give them to the jail.' I guess. 'Oh, thank you so much.' And he says, 'I was in jail and I appreciated all the Christian books that they had.' 

Rich Bennett 50:01
'Yeah.' 

Jennifer Godwin 50:02
He said, 'Keep up the good work.' So that's the thing, you know, you get the encouragement, you see the encouragement in different places. You know, you write it, but you didn't know that that was going to be what spoke to somebody. 

Rich Bennett 50:15
You 

Jennifer Godwin 50:16
know, like I even had one, and it's funny what people will say to you as to what got out of your book. You know, I switched churches because of not because of, uh, doctrine, but because I wasn't growing in my first church. 

Rich Bennett 50:36
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 50:36
It was so theological, it was floating over my head. And so when we switched to the other church, it was like, wow, they actually speak English. And I can understand it and I can apply it to my life. You know, so, uh, I had a lady that read the book and she said, you know, I've been going to this church for a very long time and I just felt like I needed to stick around for my friends and such. But she says, I never felt that I was spiritually growing. And she said, you gave me the courage to switch churches. Now, I did not write my book to encourage people to switch churches 

Rich Bennett 51:08
right. 

Jennifer Godwin 51:09
But it did speak to her that way because of my experience. 

Rich Bennett 51:15
Wow. Now you, you're a lot of good reviews on it as well. And you see them on your website. 

Jennifer Godwin 51:23
Yeah. Oh, people 

Rich Bennett 51:25
are learning a lot. 

Jennifer Godwin 51:28
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. I've had people tell me, you know, I never thought I could do this, but then I started pray like I prayed for my servers 

Rich Bennett 51:39
go 

Jennifer Godwin 51:39
when I on vacation. Well, anytime we go out to eat and, you know, everybody that goes out with us knows that I'm going to do this. So, and this was a funny story that's in my book. My husband, my husband doesn't like to really step out and do different things. 

Rich Bennett 51:56
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 51:56
And so the first time, so the first time I prayed in front of him, I asked the server, I said, we like to pray before dinner, which we did. 

Rich Bennett 52:06
Ye. 

Jennifer Godwin 52:06
And I asked her, I said, is there that I can pray about for you now? Of course, that came out in record speed because I was really nervous and really scared and my husband was looking at me. And when we got done, he goes, what was that about? And are we going to do that again? Now he likes it. But so I always asked my servers how I can pray for them. And a lot of people have told me, I started that. 

Rich Bennett 52:34
know, 

Jennifer Godwin 52:34
They're like, you 

Rich Bennett 52:35
I love that idea. 

Jennifer Godwin 52:36
It's it's it's nerve-wracking. But they're like, I have gotten so much great feedback from people so much. And so I've been hugged so many times by by waiters and waitresses so many times. I have one way, I have one waitress that will probably outtop anybody's prayer request. She I asked her if we could pray for her. She grabbed her heart. She started to, you know, tears coming out of her eyes and she said, I would love for you to pray for me. My husband was murdered. My fiance, I'm sorry, my fiance was murdered. And I have to go to court next week and I need the strength to be able to speak and to know what I should say. 

Rich Bennett 53:25
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 53:25
Oh, that's funny. So yeah, you just don't know what people are going through. 

Rich Bennett 53:31
Yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 53:31
just 

Rich Bennett 53:31
you 

Jennifer Godwin 53:31
don't know. And the. And the thing is so I mean I wouldn't we when we go on vacation, we are at one place for a 

Rich Bennett 53:43
while. Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 53:44
I am good friends the staff. That's the best way to 

Rich Bennett 53:50
get. 

Jennifer Godwin 53:50
Good service is to hang out with the staff. It isn't the people in charge. It's the people that are dealing with you're dealing with. And I can tell you, nobody cares about the staff. 

Rich Bennett 54:01
They don't know for 

Jennifer Godwin 54:02
You know, people don't say please and thank you when they're 

Rich Bennett 54:06
you. 

Jennifer Godwin 54:06
ordering. The only time to hear anything is when it's something bad. And so when somebody comes along and they say, thank you and they say, please and they and they ask you if you can pray for him. You know, I've been told this many times. They're going to expect a really bad tip because Christians don't tip well. Well, you know, we're out to prove that wrong. You know, we tip well. And even when it's done, I give blessing bags, but I also put in a devotional. 

Rich Bennett 54:36
Oh, 

Jennifer Godwin 54:37
I'm a devotional, you know, so when when it's over, I give them a devotional too. 

Rich Bennett 54:42
I love that 

Jennifer Godwin 54:43
because you know, if well, it's just a ripple. 

Rich Bennett 54:46
Yeah, 

Jennifer Godwin 54:46
you know, if if they can get a better feeling of a Christian. 

Rich Bennett 54:52
Uh huh. 

Jennifer Godwin 54:53
Then they're going to think they're going to think a little bit more about Jesus. 

Rich Bennett 54:56
And they're going to pay us it on 

Jennifer Godwin 54:59
Right, right. You know, but if but 

Rich Bennett 55:03
Wow. 

Jennifer Godwin 55:03
if, but if all they ever see from Christians is a negative. 

Rich Bennett 55:05
Mm hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 55:07
Why why do that? 

Rich Bennett 55:08
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 55:09
Why become a Christian? If Christians are just like the people in the world, why, why be any different? 

Rich Bennett 55:17
We 

Jennifer Godwin 55:17
have to be different. 

Rich Bennett 55:19
I love that idea because we may have spoken about this on the other podcast. One thing I always prayed before. No matter what, even if it's a candy bar, although I stopped eating candy bars. But yeah, we go out and everything. I'm going to have to do that now. It's my server. If if there's a prayer that I can, you know, if they want me to include them in my prayers for anything. 

Jennifer Godwin 55:44
See and it and here it is. 

Rich Bennett 55:46
Yeah, yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 55:47
So if I encourage you to do it, and then you go out and do it, maybe somebody else will do it. 

Rich Bennett 55:52
Oh, I love that. Um, you're and you're doing speaking engagements now as 

Jennifer Godwin 55:59
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 55:59
well, right? Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:00
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 56:01
With. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:01
That was another front. That was another funny story. 

Rich Bennett 56:03
Uh-oh. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:04
I had some woman. She got my book at a coffee store in a small town. She asked me to come speak. I told her I'd never spoke before. 

Now I had at the time I was an MC for an organization. 

Rich Bennett 56:23
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:23
Speaker did come and talk, but I introduced the speaker as such. And I'm not afraid to use my mouth. I'm okay with using my mouth. I'm speaking. And so I told her that I said, you know, I've never professionally spoke before. And she's like, okay, she was a little, she was a little nervous, but she still had become. And God had been telling me that I was probably going to start doing speaking. And I was like, 

Rich Bennett 56:53
mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:54
Oh, another thing. You know, I mean, like, like throw me in. I'm 

Rich Bennett 56:58
book. 

Jennifer Godwin 56:58
writing a I had to learn how to do social media. Now I'm going to start speaking. It's like, boy, did you just completely change my whole entire life, my whole existence? And yes, he did. And so I wouldn't spoke. And she even paid me. So God's like, okay, there's the explanation point. You are going to start speaking. And so I took a speaker's course. And yes, I've been speaking. 

Rich Bennett 57:21
Nice. 

Jennifer Godwin 57:22
Yeah, I mean, it was just something got threw me in. And he's like, okay, let's go on this other adjourn. I used to tell people when the -- it's calming down now because I'm settling in. Of course, this was a little nervous. I was glad that people are only going to hear my voice instead of see me. And so 

Rich Bennett 57:43
about -- I 

Jennifer Godwin 57:44
hey, we talked 

Rich Bennett 57:46
know. 

Jennifer Godwin 57:47
And so, you know, I'm more comfortable on doing these things. But I kept telling people at the beginning. I'm like, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride and I'm holding tightly onto the bar because I never know when God's going to say, okay, now let's do this. 

Rich Bennett 58:03
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 58:04
And we go down a hill or we go up the hill. And so I was just hanging onto the bar. I'm glad that -- I'm glad the safety belt 

Rich Bennett 58:11
-- 

Jennifer Godwin 58:12
still 

Rich Bennett 58:13
I'll 

Jennifer Godwin 58:13
be clutching the bar quite as -- 

Rich Bennett 58:15
Oh, geez. I -- something very important, tell the listeners why they need to purchase Go Make Ripples. 

Jennifer Godwin 58:30
Well, just like -- just like you. Because even the smallest ripples can lead someone to Christ. And if now Rich Bennett goes out and starts asking his servers how they -- how he can pray for them. You just never know. It's like, I listened to one of your podcasts. Like I was telling 

Rich Bennett 58:51
"Uh, mm-hmm." 

Jennifer Godwin 58:51
you, I listened to one of your podcasts. He happened to have dinner with two people that committed suicide -- you know, days after he had had dinner with them and not that he caused the suicides. But if we can -- you know, if we can't affect somebody else's wellbeing because of kindness, Jesus kindness, then it's all worth it. And so I want people to go out and make ripples. 

Rich Bennett 59:24
I love that. 

Jennifer Godwin 59:25
I want them to go out and share Jesus by making ripples and sharing Him with others. The love that He gave you -- Go share it -- is love with others. 

Rich Bennett 59:38
Eh, all of you listening, you know what I'm gonna say. When you purchase Go Make Ripples by Jennifer Godwin, if you're ready to make sure you leave a full review wherever you can leave reviews, purchase copies for other people and pass them on, as a matter of fact, for all you businesses, nonprofit organizations, service organizations, here's what you need to do. Purchase several copies, donate them to the local jail, donate them to a recovery center, donate them to, you know, whoever you think, basically, anybody, 'cause, we need to keep the ripples going. We need to create tidal waves from these ripples. So, make sure you purchase copies and donate them. I love the idea of donating them to the jail. That, that is great. Um, the recovery centers, they could always use them 

Jennifer Godwin 1:00:39
so many, absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:40
So many different places. Jennifer, something important. Tell everybody the website and how they can get in touch with you. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:00:49
Oh, rich. We talked about not being the sub, uh, being a tech savvy here. Um, go make, go make ripples dot com. Uh, find me on Facebook. Jennifer Godwin or ripples for God. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:07
It's easy, easy stuff and, and follow her on Amazon because when she releases another book, Amazon will notify you. You are going to write another book, aren't you? 

Jennifer Godwin 1:01:18
Um, in the process. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:19
I had a feeling. I had a 

Jennifer Godwin 1:01:21
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:21
feeling. All right. So, Jennifer, before I get to the last question, would you're going to pick? Is there anything you would like to add? 

Jennifer Godwin 1:01:37
Like I said, you just don't know what one ripple will do to affect the, affect others. And you know, you, you may save someone from committing suicide. You may come up. You may save in marriage. Open your mouth, share 

Rich Bennett 1:01:58
Jesus. Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:01:59
Because well, here, here's, here's the most important thing. If you believe Jesus is the most important thing that you have in your life, why would you keep it to yourself? 

Rich Bennett 1:02:10
Oh, 

Jennifer Godwin 1:02:11
I, I tell people this all the time, if you knew guests was 50 cents down the road, You would tell every single person, you know, I don't care if it's a convenience worker. I don't care if it's, if it's the bug man coming to spray your house, you'd go, you know what, down the road, you can get gas for 50 cents, 

Rich Bennett 1:02:27
hmm, 

Jennifer Godwin 1:02:28
you would tell everybody, we have something way more important than 50 cents gas. We have the saving grace of Jesus 

Rich Bennett 1:02:36
yes. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:02:36
Christ. And if we are to share Jesus Christ with everybody, shame on us, because then do we really believe 

Rich Bennett 1:02:43
Right, 

Jennifer Godwin 1:02:43
it? 

Rich Bennett 1:02:45
I love that. Alright, we're gonna see how good you are now, because 

Jennifer Godwin 1:02:49
a 

Rich Bennett 1:02:50
lot 

of times when my guest picks the question, it aligns with what we've been talking about, so we're gonna see how you are to numbers. I need, I need you to pick a number between one and five,

Jennifer Godwin 1:03:07
four, 

Rich Bennett 1:03:08
four . Okay, now I need you to pick a number between 61 and 

Jennifer Godwin 1:03:23
80. 80. 

None of my favorite numbers popped in there, just so you know. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:32
Alright, we'll have to do two questions then, because we'll do one of your favorite numbers, because I got a hundred different questions here. 

Okay, if you could design a perfect educational system, what would be its core principles? 

Jennifer Godwin 1:03:58
Well, if I could design a perfect one, it would have Jesus Christ in it, it would be what the Ten Commandments, it would be serving others, it would be thinking of others first, it would be Jesus first, others second. Then you can put yourself third, but it would be Jesus others and then yourself. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:20
And I think that's something that needs to be in all school systems to be honest with you. That's just me. Did you want to pick one of your favorite numbers to? I don't usually give people two questions, but I'll let you. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:04:31
Oh, well, my favorite number's 24. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:33
24. You're age. Okay, let me see 

Jennifer Godwin 1:04:36
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:04:36
here. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:04:37
alright. Here's a go. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:44
But we already know the answer to this one. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:04:48
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:48
What's a risk you took that you're incredibly glad you did, even if it didn't turn out as expected. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:04:56
But 

it's true. I would never believe the benefits of that I have experienced from writing this book. I have had so many new relationships, so many opportunities, 

so many things, so many things from writing this book. And that's the other thing. You know, you. You don't know what you don't know by not going and doing it. If you don't do it, if you don't take the step of faith to do it, 

you'll never have that experience. And the experience that I have had from writing a book and let me tell you, well, I mean it. It was not easy. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life. I swear it is, even harder than raising kids. But the joy I have gotten from it, the joy is, is not comparable. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:05
Now I have to go read it. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:06:09
I kind of asked you why you hadn't read it before, but you were saying you were going to be like Larry King. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:14
And see, and now I want to read it. Plus, 

Jennifer Godwin 1:06:18
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:18
well, I can't 

Jennifer Godwin 1:06:19
But 

Rich Bennett 1:06:19
show you. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:06:19
you shouldn't want to read it before. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:21
I did, but I can't show you because I can't move the camera. I have five toots. Big toots of books that authors have sent me to have come on the show. I'm not a face reader. I never took the Evelyn Wood speed reading course. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:06:42
I didn't either, but you know what you do. This is what I tell people. And because I've had, I've had different people that say, I want to read your book, but I don't read. I'm not a reader. I'm like, three pages a day. But the thing is, you're going to end up reading more than three 

Rich Bennett 1:07:00
Right. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:00
pages. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:00
Because you get hooked. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:02
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:03
Oh, no, 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:04
three pages a day. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:05
And I've tried reading more than one book at a time. I can't do that. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:09
Oh, I do that. But see, 

Rich Bennett 1:07:10
I know 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:11
a lot of theological books and I saw read a read one chapter of a hard book. And then I reward myself with being able to read the fun book after it. So somebody's testimony or somebody's. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:26
My wife does. I don't understand how she can do it. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:29
Well, because the theological book isn't the same. What? 

Rich Bennett 1:07:33
I know. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:34
I'm not I'm not reading a 

two novels. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:40
Yeah. Oh, she is. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:07:41
You know, where? Oh, I can't I couldn't read two novels where you've got a storyline here. And then you got a storyline there because then that would be confusing. If you're reading one that's more like I said, educational and then one more that's more storyline or something like that, then you know. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:58
Well, I'll try to read more. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:00
But you know what, Rich, are you ever going to be able to read my book? Because you got a whole total books that you don't read yet. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:08
You know what? I'm going to make you this promise right now. I am going to start reading it today. I promise 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:17
But 

Rich Bennett 1:08:18
you. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:18
Rich, I'm one of those people. I will follow 

Rich Bennett 1:08:22
Thank 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:22
up. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:23
you. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:23
And that's, and that's another thing too. Christians don't follow up. If you would just follow up with what you do, you know, if somebody tells you that they're having a bad day and you pray for them, follow up. How are things going? 

Rich Bennett 1:08:41
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:42
Or, you know, should I keep praying? Because then they know that you are actually praying for them. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:47
Yeah. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:08:48
But follow up. Yeah, I had this suit salesman that he, I think he just bought my book because he, because we were having a fun conversation. And I've called him for the last two years. Joe, have you read my book yet? Joe, have you started my book yet? And actually Joe started reading my book. Because you know what? It's an actually pretty good book. Joe, I keep telling you, 

Rich Bennett 1:09:12
you 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:13
read my book. But yeah, I follow up. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:18
what me, hold me accountable. Follow up with me. And 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:22
Well, 

Rich Bennett 1:09:23
I, I, I won't lie. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:24
I'm very persistent. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:25
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:26
I wrote a book. I'm very 

Rich Bennett 1:09:28
Okay. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:28
persistent. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:29
I'll make sure I get it done. 

Thank you so much. Always great seeing you and you know the doors always. Well, you got to come back on both podcast when the second book is finished. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:39
All right. Sounds good. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:40
I'll be here still. Thanks a lot. 

Jennifer Godwin 1:09:44
Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:45
As we wrap up this episode, I keep coming back to one simple word, ripples. Jennifer reminded us that changing the world doesn't always start with a microphone, a stage, or writing a book. Sometimes it starts with something as simple as an invitation, a conversation, a prayer, a smile, or asking someone, how can I pray for you? Those little moments may seem insignificant to us, but to someone else? They could be exactly what they needed that day. I also loved hearing how Jennifer never planned to become an author. She simply chose to be obedient when she felt called to do something outside of her comfort zone. Three years later, that decision has encouraged countless people to live their faith more intentionally, and to realize that sharing hope doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to be genuine. One thing that really stood out to me was her reminder that people don't know what they don't know. Whether it's inviting someone to church, sharing a book, recommending a podcast, or simply showing kindness, we never know how one small action might change someone's life. That's the ripple effect. So here's my challenge for you. Before today ends, create one ripple. Reach out to someone. Encourage someone. Pray for someone. Invite someone. Thanks someone. You may never see where that ripple ends, but that doesn't mean it isn't making a difference. And if you'd like to learn more about Jennifer, pick up a copy of Go Make Ripples or invite her to speak to your church organization and be sure to visit GoMakeRipples.com. And as always, if this conversation encouraged you, please share this episode with someone who can use a little hope today. Leave a review, tell a friend about the podcast, and I love to hear your thoughts. Reach out to me and let me know what ripple you're going to create this week. Until time, I'm Rich Bennett. Thanks for listening and remember, every great conversation starts with someone willing to listen and someone willing to share. And now it's your turn. Join the conversation by sharing this episode, leave in a comment, or reach out to me directly. Take care, be kind to one another, and I'll talk with you again soon.