“I was only 15 years old, but I drank more than anybody else,” explained Newport Beach resident Becky Tirabassi. “Before I turned 16 I was blacking out and passing out every time I drank. By 16, I dropped out of all my sports. My grades dropped and my friends changed. I smoked dope, cigarettes, and drank. By the time I went to college, I drank every day. One night at a rugby party, six boys tried to rip off my clothes. According to a report by the National Institute of Justice, 90 percent of girls who’ve been assaulted know the person, and 89 percent of the girls who are assaulted have been drinking. Sexual assault and problem drinking are often connected.”
Tirabassi spoke recently to 200 women of all ages at the yearly breakfast of Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the Balboa Bay Resort.
“Becky Tirabassi is a well-known author and speaker. Her most recent undertaking is being co-pastor with her husband Roger of Viewpoint Church, where I am fortunate enough to go,” said Jenn Darrow, Newport Mesa Area Representative with FCA. “Becky is a dear friend and has an absolute heart for women’s ministry and for student ministry. We couldn’t think of anyone better to speak at our FCA breakfast than Becky.”
Fellowship of Christian Athletes is an interdenominational Christian sports ministry whose vision is “To see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.”
It is the largest volunteer based Christian sporting organization in America and is committed to represent its four Core Values of Integrity, Serving, Teamwork and Excellence.
Tirabassi said she dropped out of college and moved to Pebble Beach where an uncle lived. She was controlled by alcohol and was so burdened by guilt and shame that she became suicidal. While awaiting sentencing for an alcohol related accident, she felt compelled to drive to a church, only to find it empty, other than a janitor in the basement.
“The janitor prayed with me,” Tirabassi said. ”He prayed with me to ask Jesus to come into my heart. It felt like I was a muddy, dirty girl getting a hot sudsy shower. He told me the Bible says, ‘When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a new person inside, old things pass away.’ I’d never felt so loved and forgiven. When someone loves you when you don’t deserve it, and forgives you when you don’t deserve it, you will follow that ‘Someone’ all the days of your life.”
“I wish as a student I would have understood more about FCA and the gospel,” she continued. “If only one coach had seen my struggles and my potential, and invited me to FCA, instead of getting mad at me. But God was so good to me. When I prayed that prayer, God took away the desire for alcohol and gave me the desire to help change culture for the young generation.”
Tirabassi became a Campus Life/Youth For Christ club director in Ohio, where she met and married Roger Tirabassi. Roger was the executive director of Cleveland YFC/Campus Life, a high school ministry similar to FCA.
Today Becky and Roger are co-Pastors of Viewpoint Church, which meets Sundays at 5 p.m. at the old city hall on Balboa Peninsula.
“I believe God wants to change the culture for the young generation,” Tirabassi said. “We need to speak truth into them, to help them live above the culture to know they are called and loved by God.”
For further information, visit fca.org or viewpointchurch.org.
Cindy can be reached at cindy@onthegrow.com.
