Dr. Stork (honest!) delivered Brenda to Donald & Karen Robey in Dubuque, Iowa, on March 18, 1962. She is the oldest of their three children and has two brothers (also delivered by Dr. Storck), with not quite three years separation between the oldest and the youngest. The family moved around the Dubuque area until Brenda was nine and then, due to a promotion at work for her father, they began to move around frequently throughout south/central Iowa and Missouri. In 1974 they returned to Dubuque again for approximately one year and then moved on to a very tiny rural area, Utica, Illinois, where they finally settled in 1975.
Brenda was raised Roman Catholic. The family went to church weekly and on most other holy days, regularly attended catechism class, and received their Catholic sacraments at the “suggested” times. Brenda attended parochial Catholic schools until she was 12 and the family moved to an area that did not offer one nearby. Brenda recalls from a very young age, knowing that God was working on her, but was confused about God’s forgiveness and the concept of eternity, and held “non-Catholic” views on them. She does’t remember exactly when it began, but recalls very distinctly at age 7 or so, not understanding the need to confess sins to a priest and wanted to know why she could not talk directly to God through Jesus. No one really addressed the issue and for years, until she was 12, even the priests and nuns let her “slide” not really knowing how to deal with her convictions.
She recalls at age 12 the parish priest more or less drawing the line in the sand. Though she still held strongly to the conviction that God’s Word told her she could pray directly to God through Jesus (with no other “mediator” necessary), she relented out of nothing more than obedience to her parents and to honor the priest and made what was a very futile and immature request for forgiveness. It was’t until age 14, as she was making preparation for the sacrament of confirmation that she began to firmly understand God’s Word. The preparation truly did confirm for Brenda that Jesus was her Savior and she was forgiven of her sin because of him.
During high school, junior college and her early twenties Brenda continued to attend Catholic church most Sundays, but gave no real attention to its meaning and as she put it, “definitely did not walk the life of a Christian, in fact I was walking in hypocrisy.” She recalls only really turning to God during these years when her life was in turmoil but believes the foundation God had started is what kept drawing her back to Him.
After a short career with Braniff Airlines and a return home to Utica, in May, 1985 Brenda moved to San Clemente, California at the encouragement of a friend to keep her from joining the Army. In July, 1987, she met her husband Jim through mutual friends and they were married in October, 1988. They attended church occasionally, but it wasn’t until 1993, when God blessed them with their daughter, Kaylyn, that Brenda began feeling the tug of a need to be closer to God again. They agreed it was important for their daughter to know Christ, so she and Jim returned to the Catholic Church.
But for Brenda, all the old childhood convictions surfaced again. “For the most part I remained quiet about them, sharing them with my husband only occasionally. Basically I resolved myself to being a mediocre Catholic, unable to meet church law perfectly, certain that heaven was out of the question anyway for someone like me because of the valleys of my past. I began serving in the church at my husband’s encouragement hoping that it would help my walk.” Brenda says, “those years back in the church did have some definitive moments when I caught glimpses of the real truth, but I was terribly bored and more or less going through the motions.”
Then in 1996, tragedy struck Brenda’s very close-knit family. Her brother, Jim, was killed instantly while at work. He left behind two small children and a wife who was expecting their third child. As the first year unfolded after her brother’s death, Brenda found herself questioning everything about God, whether there really was a God, and what purpose her own life had here on earth. Throughout life God had placed different people of different faiths on Brenda’s path and as a result she was able to familiarize herself with different beliefs. As she searched through some of these beliefs trying to find some understanding, she became more and more encouraged to learn the real truth and search for a place to worship. Brenda feels that this ultimately helped lead her family to CCO.
It wasn’t until another Marine in her husband’s Bible study fellowship on base introduced them to Calvary Chapel Oceanside that life started to make sense. “We were so happy to have found a church that reads the Bible, verse by verse, and teaches the real truth of God’s Word.” She and Jim began serving here at CCO in the Military Connection fellowship. They both began serving in other ministries and through God’s perfect plan she was asked to join the staff in January 2004. Jim has since retired from the military and is now a deputy sheriff in Riverside County.
“As I mature in faith, God has continued to prepare me for my journey of serving here at the church. I tell people, I can look back now and see how it was all coming together and how each step was an important part of the process. I joke and ask why God didn’t just let me in on His plans for me twenty years ago and I would have been so much more obedient. But it’s all for His glory and He is so perfect at growing each of us. He knows our future, provides our agenda, and goes with us along the path, through the puddles and with that we have endless hope. It doesn’t mean He will spare us pain, suffering and hardship but that God will see us through to a glorious conclusion. And the best part is I know He hasn’t finished with me yet. God is so faithful!”
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