About From Bitter to Better

Brenda M. Stokes is the daughter of Aubrey and Essie L. Perry (both deceased) of Hampton, Virginia and Everett L. Hollins, Sr. (also deceased) of New York City, NY.  She spent most of her formative years in the home of her beloved aunt and uncle, both educators, in North Carolina.  She holds a BA in Psychology from Hampton University where she was also commissioned as Ordnance Officer in the United States Army. She is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and also holds the degree of Master of Religious Education from Christian Outreach Bible Institute Fayetteville, North Carolina. Upon her retirement from the Army in 1995, Elder Stokes became employed as a Senior Military Analyst and Learning Architect. In 2009, she left corporate America to pursue her greatest passions i.e. reaching the lost for Christ, ministering to women in all walks of life, and serving as Co-Pastor of United Family Worship Center, Hampton, VA, which she co-founded with her husband in 2004 and from which they retired in September 2021.  She is an Ordained Elder with the United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic). In December 2022, she was humbled to release a book, Finding Grace In the 21st Century Wilderness and in January 2023, with very able help of her daughters and 3 of her granddaughters, Elder Stokes founded a 501(c) (3) non- profit, From Bitter to Better, FB2B. She and her husband, Bishop Lewis L. Stokes, Sr. are the proud combined parents of nine children (one deceased), twenty-seven grandchildren and eleven great-grands.