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Welcome back to Fierce Calling! In this inspiring episode, host Doris Swift sits down with Robin Gerblick, an award-winning author, biblical life coach, and founder of the Exodus Women’s Retreat. Robin shares her powerful story of redemption, from a painful past marked by abortion and decades of wandering, to finding healing and purpose through Jesus. Together, Doris and Robin discuss the real, raw, and redeemed journey that led Robin to embrace forgiveness, launch a transformative women’s ministry, and write her book, Giving Up Grace: A Spiritual Rebranding of the Soul.
Robin opens up about the challenges she faced, the grace she found after hitting rock bottom, and how God used her story to impact the lives of other women. Whether you’re struggling with regret, searching for healing, or just needing a reminder that it’s never too late to step into your calling, Robin’s testimony will encourage you to trust God’s timing and reclaim your joy.
Plus, discover how Robin’s retreats empower women to encounter God in the wilderness and take the next steps toward spiritual wholeness.
Tune in for an honest, hope-filled conversation about surrender, restoration, and stepping boldly where passion, compassion, and conviction intersect!
Episode Highlights
00:00 “Surrendering Joy Stealers”
05:17 “Real, Raw, Redeemed Journey”
09:27 Regret Over Missed Adoption Choice
11:53 “Seeking Identity Before Faith”
15:31 “Giving Up Grace Explained”
17:54 “Believing Is Seeing: Trusting God”
22:52 Abortion’s Lasting Impact on Fertility
24:41 Volunteering at Crisis Pregnancy Centers
28:33 “Grace: Healing and Reflection”
31:43 Grace, Stories, and Comfort
36:51 “Faith-Driven Success and Leadership”
39:48 Post-Abortion Support and Encouragement
42:49 Forgiveness Journey and Healing Resources
Connect with Robin!
You can connect with Robin at robingerblick.com where you’ll find her book, social media links, the Exodus Women’s Retreat, and more! She’d love to hear from you and continue the conversation!
What Threatens to Steal Your Joy?
Check out Surrender the Joy Stealers: Rediscover the Jesus Joy in You 6-week Bible study rooted in John 15. You can find more info at https://dorisswift.com/book/
Let’s Stay Connected!
Find my free resources including Fear Fighting Bible Verses, Simple Tips for Sharing Your Faith, Surrender the Joy Stealers, Step Out of Your Doubt and Into Your Calling ebook, and more on my dorisswift.com homepage!
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Thanks for Listening!
I hope this episode encouraged, inspired, and challenged you to cultivate community, live and walk in the value and worth God gave you, and take action where your passion, compassion, and conviction intersect.
If you’re looking for a speaker for your next women’s conference, retreat, luncheon, or workshop, reach out and connect with me on my speaker page at https://www.womenspeakers.com/florida/edgewater/speaker/doris-swift
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Stay tuned for more amazing content and remember to check the show notes for all the links mentioned.
Thank you for being a part of our community. We are grateful for your continued support and encourage you to embrace the unique gifts that make you magnificently you.
I hope you’ll join me next time when I talk with another guest who is taking action where her passion, compassion, and conviction intersect …
Until then friend, have a blessed week, and I’ll talk to you soon.
With love and joy,
Doris
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Transcript
Doris Swift [00:01:53]:
What is threatening to steal your joy? What is it that feels so heavy right now that you could barely stand? God has a plan, and his plan is to surrender it. Surrender it to him. It might be a prodigal. It might be a relationship, a marriage, something with your job. So many things. We have so many amazing blessings, but there are so many things in our life that threaten to steal our joy. I’m Dora Swift, author of the award winning six week bible study, Surrender the Joy Stealers Rediscover the Jesus Joy in You, And it helps women rediscover the overflowing, ever present Jesus joy within that fills, empowers, and ripens the fruit that God produces in our lives. Using personal and biblical stories, I share how you can identify your joy stealers, surrender them to God, reawaken the joy within, and share the joy with others.
Doris Swift [00:02:56]:
You can do it on your own or with a group. Check it out, friends. Surrender the Joy Stealers. Rediscover the Jesus joy in you. It’s available on all the online retailers. It’s time to take your joy back. Welcome back to the show. Today, I’m excited to introduce to you my friend, Robin Gerblick.
Doris Swift [00:03:17]:
She is an award winning author. She’s a biblical life coach, a certified personal trainer, and Pilates instructor. Hello. I’m impressed with that. I need more of that in my life. And I just love that she’s a lover of life and the living water. That’s amazing. And she has so many things going on, wonderful ministry work that she does.
Doris Swift [00:03:40]:
She has, a retreat, the Exodus Women’s Retreat, and we’re also gonna talk about her book, Giving Up Grace, a Spiritual Rebranding of the Soul. And you’re gonna wanna hear all about that. And I would love if you would share a little bit more about yourself, Robin. Welcome to the show.
Robin Gerblick [00:04:01]:
Thanks so much, Doris. I’ve been looking forward to this. We’ve we’ve had a few schedule changes, and I’m excited excited to be here. So thanks.
Doris Swift [00:04:10]:
Thank you. And, yeah. So you are married to your best friend, which I love, and, and you go between a couple of different states. We were talking earlier, Arizona and Idaho. Right. So those of you who are listening, I know I have some listeners in those states. So, Robin, I would love if you would share a little bit about your story, however the Lord leads you, and how you’re taking action where your passion, compassion, and conviction intersect.
Robin Gerblick [00:04:39]:
Yeah. That’s perfect. As we were talking about about earlier, I I just love that because that’s how how God uses us, and he calls us. And I love the scripture that you that you use, in your notes. It’s I’m gonna remind myself, but I think it’s the Ephesians three twenty. And I just love that because God is able to do so much more than we could ever possibly imagine and all the glory to him. But what I really love is it’s never too late to use your story. You know? God can always use it.
Robin Gerblick [00:05:17]:
And I I think for me, I always felt like I was late to the party. I’m a lot older than people think, and I just I just think it took me so long to well, it took me a really long time to find Jesus, number one, and then to find healing for my, my abortion journey that I had, my inability to have children because of that. It it just took so long that I I felt like like, god, are you ever gonna once I found Jesus, I’m like, are you ever gonna use me? It’s like it just seemed to go on forever. But, yeah, my story is is hard, and, I have these three words that describe it. So there it’s real, raw, and redeemed. And I know my life was just so upside down and hard when I was younger, but that started with an abortion when I was 19. And and I truly thought I was gonna marry that guy and have, you know, the family, the white picket fence, the station wagon, the 2.5 children, but that, it didn’t play out that that way at all. He he didn’t want anything to do with me.
Robin Gerblick [00:06:35]:
And, so that sort of started my what I called my forty year wandering in the desert like the like the Israelites, you know, searching for manna and living water and anything really that would fill the the spot that Jesus was meant to fill. But when you don’t know Jesus, you can go in a lot of a lot of different directions, which is what I did. And, you know, I I I wanna say I don’t have any regrets because God does use every bit of our story for his good and his glory. And if I had it to do over again, I well, there are certain things that I definitely would do differently. But, but what he’s given me now on the end of the redemption side is just so so amazing. And I think that’s where our our passion and compassion and conviction collide.
Doris Swift [00:07:37]:
Yeah. So true. And I love your your words, real raw redeemed. It’s just something that is is a powerful statement, and I know that a lot of us can really relate to that and how you talked about a forty year wandering. So things started to really spiral in your life when you were 19 then, and things didn’t look quite the way you thought they were gonna look, which oftentimes in our life, things happen and it’s not what we would have planned. And we might say, this is not my story, God. What, you know, what is this all about? But what was the circumstance at the time when you, you know, found yourself pregnant and was it something that others in your life were encouraging you to do? Or how how was it back then as a 19 year old girl?
Robin Gerblick [00:08:35]:
Yeah. And back then, when we’re talking, was, like, nineteen seventy three. So that was just when, you know, Roe v Wade was coming on the scene, and I was also on birth control when I got pregnant, which is a big misconception that a lot of people have and that the abortion industry would love to, you know, think have you think otherwise. But but, really, there’s quite a few women that do get pregnant on birth control. So you think you’re doing the right thing and and really you’re not. And I didn’t everyone, including my parents, wanted abortion for me. I didn’t know what I wanted because I was too young, too immature. I I I was just scared.
Robin Gerblick [00:09:27]:
You know? I was really scared. I just saw I was in just started college. I I saw everything going away, you know, all the dreams, all the goals, everything. And, again, you know, I didn’t I didn’t know Jesus, so there was a huge component missing in in all the decision making and and really what my heart would have wanted. And it’s funny because now I call myself this will bug you, but I call myself, pro choice because always have to say because. Right? But because women do have a choice. You know, we can choose to have our babies, or we can choose to give them up for adoption. And so my regret would be that I that I didn’t have my baby and give it up for adoption because today, I would know my child.
Robin Gerblick [00:10:23]:
And so, you know, that is a that is a choice. So women that think, you know, that they don’t have a choice, they really do. And and so I I had no counseling. There was no, well, let’s just say there was no compassion. Right? There was there was no no compassion for anything that I was going through. It was just like you’re gonna you’re gonna do this. This is the way it’s going, and that’s it. And that really was it.
Robin Gerblick [00:10:53]:
Mhmm. So that, excuse me, you know, did start my my forty years of wandering. And, you know, that led really of women in my generation that, you know, we were sort of the free love generation growing up anyway. So it led to a lot of, a lot of failed relationships with men, failed marriages where I felt like sex equated to love and love equated to sex. They were one and the same. And, of course, now today, we know they’re not. Right? But but back then, you know, it was all I could think about. If if a man paid attention to me and wanted to have sex with me, then, okay, that’s good for me.
Robin Gerblick [00:11:39]:
Right? That means he must love me, not understanding the love of my heavenly father and and how he loves me as his daughter. That that didn’t come into the equation back then.
Doris Swift [00:11:53]:
Yeah. And because at that time, because you didn’t know Jesus and you didn’t really know everything that was true really about you, you know, who you really were. Your your true identity, you didn’t really know that at the time. And so, yeah, equating sex to love and just to feel wanted by someone, you know, wanted Yes. In that way, wanted it all, you know, and to just walk the path that just continually brought the destruction of where that was taking you. So when you found Jesus, like, what was going on in your life right before you met him? Because usually there’s something interesting right before we meet Jesus in our life. So what was going on in your life, Robin, when that was
Robin Gerblick [00:12:43]:
Yeah.
Doris Swift [00:12:43]:
Was almost, you know, when you made that that decision?
Robin Gerblick [00:12:48]:
That’s so true. And it, it really was a divine appointment with with God because I was I was in a place of sheer desperation, really. And my grandmother talked about an event. Yes. My grandmother had just passed away. And at the time, I was dating a guy who great guy, but he had custody of his four children. And so me wanting children and not being able to have children, you know, I thought, oh, this is the perfect relationship. But as I was realizing, I I can’t have a perfect relationship until I have a relationship with Jesus first, which is the direction he was leading me, but I just hadn’t recognized it yet.
Robin Gerblick [00:13:32]:
So I had all this stuff, you know, going on in my head and in my heart, and I I just I took a walk down below where I lived, and we have a a beautiful, like, stream or river down there. And I just sat on a rock, and I cried out to god literally. I I I I just said I can’t I can’t do it. I can’t do life like this anymore. It’s just not working for me, and I need help. I need help. So I was crying out to the god that I didn’t know, not knowing that he would answer me, and he did. Wow.
Robin Gerblick [00:14:09]:
And he answered it. Oh, I did. He, you know, he gave me this, lightning bolt experience that was you know, in our in our culture, you know, we believe that seeing is believing. But that day on the river, I found out that believing is truly seeing because he gave me all five senses in in the in the sensory experience that was supernatural, where I could I could see my life laid in front of me. And I could see the the man that I was with and his four children, and god was very, very clear. This is not the one. I’m the one. I’m the one.
Robin Gerblick [00:14:50]:
And until you figure that out, there’s not gonna be the one. It’s gonna be me. And so
Doris Swift [00:14:57]:
have. Yeah.
Robin Gerblick [00:14:58]:
It was it was a huge, a huge thing. I mean, I I ran back up the hill to my house. I called I called that guy, and I said, you’re a great guy. I love you. I’m you’re a a great friend. I love your children, but I can’t be with you. I I mean, like, it ended that quickly. And probably within, you know, like, a few weeks, god brought me the my best friend, the man I’m married to now of thirty two years this year.
Robin Gerblick [00:15:31]:
And, you know, god, he had this all all planned out ahead of time, and all I needed to do was receive. I needed to receive Yeah. His grace. But, there’s if you if you don’t mind, this might go a little off off where we’re talking right now. But but the reason that the book is called what it is is really because it all came back to that moment on the river. And god you know, talk about passion and conviction and all of that, but god gave me the whole vision of the book ten years before I ever actually published it. But but the name giving up grace, people, you know, they ask about that a a lot because they’re like, what do you mean giving up peace? Why would you give up? You know, god you know, they just assume god’s grace, and it is part of god’s grace. But I said, well, sometimes you need to be lost in order to be found.
Robin Gerblick [00:16:39]:
And sometimes, you need to give up the grace that you don’t know in order to get the grace that you really need. And in my case, I gave up my unborn daughter, Grace, in order to receive God’s grace. That was how he he had it planned all all along. Mhmm. And the spiritual rebranding of the soul came it it didn’t, I can say it didn’t come exactly that day because my now husband and I found Jesus together, our relationship with Jesus. Jesus came into my life that that day. But but what happened during that is a spiritual rebranding is what happens to us when we find Jesus. You know, we all of a sudden are a new creation.
Robin Gerblick [00:17:27]:
The old things have passed and the new is here. And that’s what he did to me. He just rebranded my my soul, and I’m a new creation in Christ. And then it’s like once all of that came to be, then my husband, my now husband and I, you know, it was just such a beautiful divine just a divine moment.
Doris Swift [00:17:54]:
Wow. That there is so much to unpack right there, you know, with all that you had just shared. It’s amazing. And I love how you said believing is seeing because that makes so much sense. And just the things how kind of God just put on your heart, the person you weren’t with wasn’t the right person, you know, for you to marry. You know, that wasn’t the one you were meant to be with. And so when we seek the Lord first, we can trust that we’re not gonna miss what he has for us. Like, if we try to do things on our own and we don’t go to him, or maybe we might not know him yet, and maybe someone who’s listening right now is listening because there was something in your story they needed to hear.
Doris Swift [00:18:51]:
And I love the fact that this happened in front, like, sitting by a river. What a beautiful place. You know, when we’re outside and we we just can see all the beautiful things that God created. So we can’t deny there is a creator because of all the beautiful creations and you’re out there and you’re by the water. You know, it didn’t have to happen in some, like, conference or church service. You know, it was something personal between you and the Lord and that you were humble to ask for help. And, really, that’s all it takes, you know, for us to just say, Lord, I need you. And it’s like, you know, he’s probably like, well, it’s about time.
Doris Swift [00:19:37]:
You know, you realized. But but you believed there was a god. Right? So you knew I mean, you weren’t sure who you were talking to, but you always had believed there was a god, or how were you kinda brought up? Was that something that you had always always believed?
Robin Gerblick [00:19:52]:
Right. No. It wasn’t. So I I did not grow up in a Christian home. My parents were wonderful. I had, you know, just a great a great childhood, but we didn’t we didn’t go to church. We were called the CEOs, Christmas and Easter only. And so that was my
Doris Swift [00:20:13]:
Or the creaster.
Robin Gerblick [00:20:14]:
Yeah. There we go. But, yeah, that was my my introduction, I guess, to religion. And when I was in junior high, I did attend, youth group for a while. But but what I saw there and I don’t, you know, I don’t know. This was just my young perception of it, but it seemed so hypocritical at the time where where I’d see people that were that were being Christ like during on Sunday, let’s say. But then during the week, they were completely different and not living what they said they were living on Sunday. And so it I I don’t know.
Robin Gerblick [00:20:56]:
I had a lot of disillusionment there, so I quit going. But but I always believed that there was a god, and and in the book, I talk I talk a lot about that, about growing up and how god was present during all stages of of my life. It’s just that I didn’t recognize it. You know, he has so many characteristics of of his grace that manifested themselves throughout my life. And I just, my eyes weren’t open until the day on the river. And then there were so many incredible incredible supernatural events that that god just, you know, like, you are gonna know that I am who I say I am. Right? I’m I’m gonna show you.
Doris Swift [00:21:47]:
Yeah. And you just and you asked. You were like, please, Lord, you know, help me. Yeah. And you like you said, you were at a point of desperation, and sometimes that’s what it takes to be at that point and to experience that very warm, loving, powerful presence of God. Because there’s so many that might go through life just kind of complacent.
Robin Gerblick [00:22:11]:
Mhmm.
Doris Swift [00:22:12]:
Even believing, you know, knowing Jesus, believing Jesus, but never having, like, some kind of experience like that. And, you know, sometimes it just takes being at the lowest parts of the valley, you know, in the pit, basically, to see, you know, that God is there. And like you said, believing is seeing. And so when you because you were talking talking a lot about what happened after you had had your abortion, so then when did you find out that this caused, a a physical issue with you not being able to have children? That was that was the the cause of that?
Robin Gerblick [00:22:52]:
Mhmm. Yes. And, unfortunately, in the abortion that I had when I was 19, while it was my first, it wasn’t the last. And so I I have been married, three times before with my now husband. And so during those relationships, even though they were not, good, I I call them there were so many spiritual red flags. But, again, prior to that, I didn’t I didn’t know Jesus. And so, all of these things came up, but in my heart, I still wanted to have children. And so as my life progressed with these relationships in, going through infertility treatments and things like that, come to find out that there was just too much damage from the abortion, which is another kind of a a lie that we hear from the abortion industry is that, you know, they’ll say, oh, yeah.
Robin Gerblick [00:23:51]:
You can have multiple abortions and still get pregnant, which is true. But but they’re not telling you the other part is that there are serious consequences, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of that that that take place and may not take place right away afterwards. But Yeah. But as you as you live out your life and you start feeling the the emptiness or the bitterness spirit or spirit of offense or spirit of unforgiveness arising in yourself, you have to ask yourself, what is it that’s manifesting in my life that’s causing all of this? So I I went through all of that, but but through that, I found out that I couldn’t have children. There was just too much, damage done.
Doris Swift [00:24:41]:
Yeah. And as you were talking, because I, you know, I was thinking back, I volunteered several years at a faith based pregnancy center, a crisis pregnancy center, you know, where and it you know, it’s still, a ministry that I support today, and women can come in and get a free pregnancy test and, you know, and and there were a lot and still are, of course, women who come in who come in abortion minded and not really understanding or knowing all the facts and all the information that they really need in order to make, you know, an informed decision about that. And I you know, if and if you go to, you know, planned parenthood or something, they’re not gonna tell you that side of the story at all. And so, and we did have also and it’s still you know, the pregnancy centers do have the abortion recovery because statistically, if you’re in a room with, I don’t know, so many women, I I think it’s one out of every four. It might be one out of every three or two now that have experienced that in their life. And to be able to go forward for with the healing and to know that they can be forgiven and set free. And and part of that program at the end is to name your child. And you talk about your baby girl, Grace.
Doris Swift [00:26:08]:
Right? Yeah. Tell us how you came up with how did that happen with naming her?
Robin Gerblick [00:26:13]:
Yeah. That was, it’s such a good story. This is, you know, fast forward, you know, years later because I’m I’m now married to my wonderful husband, Jim. And and, I was speaking, for a woman’s group in Portland, Oregon, and there was, the director of the crisis pregnancy center was in the in the audience, and she asked if I’d like to come back to her. They just redone or redecorated. And I said, oh, sure. Yeah. I’ll I’ll love to come.
Robin Gerblick [00:26:44]:
Love to see it. So I walk in the door, and on the wall, there’s this chart of baby fetuses and all their stages of development. And I just lost it because I’ve never seen that before because I nobody ever gave me any counseling. I never got I mean, I it just I I literally just lost it in in her office and started crying uncontrollably. And she came and put her arms around me and said, honey, have you not have you not ever addressed your abortion and the grief and the trauma? Because it is trauma, and we have a certain amount of PTSD that that follows that that, you know, people may or may not acknowledge, but I hadn’t acknowledged it until that moment. And she took me in her office, took me under her wing. We were there for over two hours, and she counseled me and walked me through the different, the different stages that that we go through, you know, from from like, first of all, do I even need healing to to relief? Oh, great. I got it done.
Robin Gerblick [00:27:59]:
You know, now I don’t have to worry about it. I can get on with my life to denial. Oh, really wasn’t a baby. It was just a clump of cells, you know, to the anger, to the bitterness, to the forgiveness, all all the stages. And so she’s the one that suggested. She goes, well, have you named your child, your unborn child? And I said, no. That I mean, that would have never occurred to me. But that day, that then and there, I I named her Grace because really no other name would do.
Robin Gerblick [00:28:33]:
And Beautiful. And and then beyond that, when I left, when I at the time, I thought, oh, it was kinda creepy in a way that she gave me a a baby fetus doll of 10 because that was how far along I was when I aborted the first time. And the first time was so different than the second time, but, but she gave me this little doll. And for years, I didn’t know what to do with with the little doll. However, once that healing process started, I took Grace, and I have this beautiful, beautiful box that she’s in. And she lies on a a bed of cotton, And she’s surrounded by all the things that would have saved her life and would have saved my life had I known. There’s my mother’s cross, my grandmother’s cross, letters that I have written to her. There’s a rock in there that you know, heart shaped rock that has her name Grace on it.
Robin Gerblick [00:29:40]:
Just all of these things that, you know, like I said, that would have saved her life and would have saved my life. But interestingly enough, last year, I just started taking Grace with me on speaking engagements. And I want Yeah. Yeah. I want people to see the the evidence of of a redeemed life and that there’s hope no matter no matter what you’ve gone through. And I love there’s a if I can find it. There’s there’s a a quote that I that I just love, and I’ve I’ve come across this fairly recently, but it it’s so it’s so perfect for this. But it’s by, author Tim Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.
Robin Gerblick [00:30:33]:
But he says the idea that there is nothing in the human experience that God himself has not suffered even losing a child. I mean, when you when you think about, you know, like, all the things that we’ve gone through and and abortion, obviously, is just one, you know, one teeny thing. But but when we realize that that god and Jesus have walked through, there isn’t anything they haven’t walked through that we walk through or potentially walk through. And how Yes. How beautiful and sustaining is that for us, for our hope, you know, our hope in Jesus and for understanding his grace. That’s that’s his grace. He I mean, he showered me with his grace, which is why I had to write a book, talk about conviction. He said, you’re gonna write your story.
Robin Gerblick [00:31:32]:
Well, I don’t really wanna write my story. Well, guess what? You’re gonna be obedient. You’re gonna write your story. And now my life is like an open book. It is an open book. So
Doris Swift [00:31:43]:
Yeah. Wow. Beautiful. How, you know, the just the the picture in our minds of being showered grace upon grace and then writing that book to give him glory and share your story. Because it’s when the time is right and when God calls us to share our story, it’s it’s vulnerable, you know, for people to do that. But when we see and we know that the the word tells us that we can encourage others and comfort others through things because we have been through them and comforted by the comforter. And someone recently had had said, I think it was Abby McDonald we were talking, and you need comfort because you’ve gone through something. So if you don’t if you don’t go through anything, which life you know, of course, Jesus said in this world, we would have trouble to take heart.
Doris Swift [00:32:41]:
He’s overcome the world. But if we didn’t have a need for a comforter, we would never be comforted and know what that means. And then to be able to use our story of where we’ve been to comfort others and bring that hope to others, which is what you’re doing with your ministry. And and you have this also this retreat. And so how did that come about?
Robin Gerblick [00:33:07]:
Yeah. And that’s that’s totally, a god a god thing too. And back when, I used to be a competitive, bicycle rider, a long distance bicycle rider. And I went to a bike racing camp in in Napa Valley in the hopes of getting a job with this woman that put on these, bike racing retreats, camps, whatever. And that was the reason that I went there. And one of the one of the exercises that we did there was finding your heart’s desire. And prior to that, I have to backtrack on that, we had the first day of riding. It was it was record heat in Napa Valley, and it was, like, a hundred and five.
Robin Gerblick [00:34:02]:
And our first ride was up this ridiculous hill, hill climbing, like, right out of the gate. And I just I just bonked. I mean, literally, I bonked. I had to have the support van come and get me. I had heat stroke. I it was terrible. It was terrible. So I never got to do I never got to do any more riding on the five day five day retreat.
Robin Gerblick [00:34:25]:
But I did go and do her exercise of the heart’s desire, which I found was, kind of a little bit of hocus pocus. You know, it wasn’t it wasn’t my belief system. It was, you know, more of a universal and kind of
Doris Swift [00:34:43]:
Kinda like new age type thing.
Robin Gerblick [00:34:45]:
Kind of yeah. Like new age y thing. And and I just thought, okay. Well, I can I can ignore that part? I can still try to figure out what my heart’s desire is. And through the exercise, I found that my heart’s desire was leading women to Christ in a wilderness place just like the Israelites were in the desert. And and so during that exercise, she came up to me and she says, you know, Robin, she said, I I, I don’t really see you as a fit for our our company. She said, but what I do see is you starting your own retreat organization and leading women, you know, as you see god leading you. And and she said, but you should go home and make a vision board and, you know, have her you do it.
Robin Gerblick [00:35:40]:
You know, pray to your God. And so I’m like, that’s a great idea. So so I did, and and God just showed up big time. And, again, he gave me the name, and he said, you need to call it Exodus. And I’m like, oh, okay. And so, you know, I thought that’s a great name. Second book of the Bible. Okay.
Robin Gerblick [00:36:02]:
I’ll take it. And and so the that started. And in this this year, we celebrate our twentieth year of Exodus women’s retreats. Wow. Twenty years.
Doris Swift [00:36:16]:
That’s awesome.
Robin Gerblick [00:36:17]:
And and it’s
Doris Swift [00:36:18]:
Twenty years. Mhmm.
Robin Gerblick [00:36:20]:
Yeah. It started out, you know, very, very slow, and and I have to say I was, you know, discouraged in the beginning. We weren’t associated with any church. We were just associated with Jesus. And and I thought, oh, this will be a piece of cake. I’ll just go and talk to women’s ministry directors. They’ll love it, and they’ll sign their girls up. Well, that that didn’t happen because they didn’t know me from from Adam, and they didn’t know what my spiritual beliefs and convictions were.
Robin Gerblick [00:36:51]:
And it took me a a few years to understand that. And then once we got a website and started going online and people could find us, it just it really, really took off to where it it’s just in incredible now, and we keep asking ourselves, like like, when are we gonna when are we gonna retire? You know? Because I still have some of the same team members that I started with twenty years ago. But god’s not done with us yet. And I’m telling you, this my team talked about, you know, passion and and the whole conviction thing. And it it like, the first year that we did the retreat, we were super small and nothing like how it is right now. But, but the second year of the retreat, I heard god say loud and clear. Right? He said, how do you expect to be the leader of Exodus if you’ve never read the book of Exodus? Oh, yeah. That was like a you know, when like I said, when he shows up, you know, he he can show up really big and but it was like he was sitting right next to me and saying, you know, how how do you expect to lead when you don’t you don’t really know the story of Exodus? So I took a year off, and I studied the book of Exodus.
Robin Gerblick [00:38:13]:
And then I realized, you know, why God gave me the name for it, you know, because it was our it’s our spiritual journey into our wilderness seasons, and everybody has them. Right? And so what better way to get out of your wilderness season is to be in a physical, beautiful wilderness. So the retreats, they’re always done. We always do them on water, some kind of water. Sometimes we have to count a pool as water, but most of the time, we’re we’re in, very remote places that are hard to get to because, what the Israelites went through wasn’t easy. You know? They’re they’re forty years of of wandering. You know? But but, you know, what Moses did was to get away. You know? He he he went out into the wilderness.
Robin Gerblick [00:39:05]:
He spent three days in the wilderness seeking God and seeking God’s face. And so that’s what we do. It it’s just so cool.
Doris Swift [00:39:14]:
Wow. That is so beautiful. And I love that you took that year off to study Exodus. You know, how God directed you to it. Because it’s like, once you went through that book and you really, really, like, immersed yourself in that, you know, it it just it would seem would bring so much more meaning to what you were doing, you know, and how it all connected and related and how God gave that to you in the in the first place. So wow. That is really fascinating. I’m so glad that we talked about that.
Doris Swift [00:39:48]:
And I would love, Robin, if you would share maybe if you have a last, encouraging thing you wanna share with who is listening today because we might have, you know, someone who is listening that is struggling right now. Maybe they are post abortive and just, you know, things are manifesting in their life, things are happening. Because, oftentimes, I’m going through even counseling, because I do lay counseling and all. Just there are so many things that happen in a woman’s life and she may not realize, because I think you kind of alluded to that too. You may not realize that it’s connected to something in your past, which could have been maybe an experience with abortion or, just, you know, the wilderness as it is. You let like you said, there are seasons of wilderness that people go through. And so, if you could just share a word of encouragement right now, maybe one step forward that they can take, and then how the listener can connect with you and find out all about, you know, your book, your ministry, your your coaching, and this amazing retreat.
Robin Gerblick [00:40:56]:
Well, thank you. Thank you for that opportunity too. But I I think the biggest component, of all of that is is finding forgiveness. Like, we can’t we can’t really move forward until we find forgiveness. And when if you know if you know Jesus, then you know that you’re forgiven by him, but there’s also the component of forgiving ourselves. And so many people, you know, hide under the guilt and shame that, you know, oh, I’m I’m just not good enough. You know, I’m not enough. I hear that all the time.
Robin Gerblick [00:41:34]:
I’m just not enough. Why would Jesus? Why I mean, you know, maybe he can forgive me, but I, you know, I’ve done so many, you know, horrible things, whatever whatever it is. But but there’s another one of my favorite quotes is by is by author Adam Ramsey, and it says, Jesus is not disillusioned with you because he never had any illusions about who you were in the first place. He
Doris Swift [00:42:02]:
Wow. Right.
Robin Gerblick [00:42:03]:
Right? Like, he he created you before before you were even born. He saw you in your mother’s womb. He gets it. He knows you. He knows your heart. And when when I read that, I was like, oh, yeah. Well, why am I putting if Jesus isn’t putting that that kind of thing on me, why am why am I putting it on myself? So, you know, I think whatever whatever it takes for somebody to walk through the the healing of forgiveness, and I’m sure you’ve heard the, you know, the thing is like, unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting, you know, the other person to die, but you’re the one drinking the poison. You’re the one that’s poisoning yourself.
Robin Gerblick [00:42:49]:
And so, you know, I went through and that may be something for another another time, but my whole forgiveness journey is is huge. But, I think women need to know that back when I had my abortion, there there were not the resources out there today that or then that are, available today. And there’s just there’s so many things. You know? Even even our our church, you know, does a a which I’m actually leading right now, a post abortive trauma healing class. And, you know, so I think, you know, church is a great place to to start. You know, there’s a whole Christian counseling network out there where you can find, you know, Christian counselors that that deal with, you know, all kinds of wilderness experiences. And and then just seeking God’s word, you know, because his word is the is the ultimate, you know, the ultimate saving piece of our of our life. And and it allows us to understand the character and the nature of God through his grace and his word.
Doris Swift [00:43:58]:
Amen. Thank you. That is so encouraging. And I’m sure that someone listening right now really needed to hear that today. And I would love, Robin, if you could share with the listener how they can connect with you, may maybe any resources that you have that you’d love to to share about?
Robin Gerblick [00:44:15]:
No. I think if they just go to my website, which is, easy. It’s just robingerblick.com. And on the website, the the the book is there. There’s a link that goes to our Exodus Women’s Retreat page. There’s also a resources page, for different organizations that I that I feature, like, each month. So it’s kind of a one stop shopping kinda thing. So that that’s probably the best way to connect.
Robin Gerblick [00:44:48]:
And if you need prayer, there’s you know, you can just drop me a note, and I’ll be happy to pray for you or whatever your situation is.
Doris Swift [00:44:58]:
That’s amazing. And I’ll put that in the show notes so the listener can find you. And like you said, it’s easy. Just your name, Robin Gerblig. Yeah. And it’s easy to it’s it’s spelled just how it sounds, so that’s easy. And I would I I really enjoyed our conversation today. It was so great to have you on, and I would love to have you back on sometime because I think there are some things that we could really continue to talk about, and that would be really great.
Doris Swift [00:45:26]:
Yeah. I would love that.
Robin Gerblick [00:45:28]:
Yeah. Thank you so much, Doris, for the opportunity. It was my pleasure. I loved it.
Doris Swift [00:45:33]:
Thank you. And and thank you, friends, for listening today, and I hope you’ll join me next time when I talk with another woman who’s taking action where her passion, compassion, and conviction intersect. Until then, friends, have a blessed week, and I’ll talk to you soon.
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