5 minutes with Rose ...

Tell us a little about you I was born in Kenya and grew up there. My parents sent me to Australia to study. The plan was for me to get a good education, work for a little while then go back home. I haven’t got around to the “going back home” bit. I work full time helping academics manage their funding so that they can achieve their teaching and research goals. And I enjoy what I do. What's your favourite bible passage & why? Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. I struggle with forgiveness. I struggle to forgive those in my life who hurt me and I struggle to believe that God would forgive my sin. I learnt that verse by heart really early and love that whether I am disappointed in someone else or myself, I have a reminder that God has forgiven me and therefore I can forgive others. How do you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus? Different ways in different seasons. Lately I’ve been reading the bible while having breakfast before work each morning. But I also find that my Christian friends help as well. Nothing like a kind word or well-timed rebuke to remind me to look to God. What would you like the next generation of Christian women to know? God never promised that the Christian life would be in line with the world around us. So rather than looking on in despair as society gets more secular, we should trust God to help us navigate it in love and grace. I believe that we should try not to hide from the world by surrounding ourselves exclusively with Christian communities or only befriend non-Christians in a bid to evangelise them. People can see through insincerity. If we love others for who they are and they learn to love us for who we are (whether in spite of or because of our faith), there is room for God’s love to grow. I learnt one of my most memorable lessons about God’s love from a friend who is one of the staunchest atheists I know personally. What's one thing that you love about your local church? My local church is very friendly and welcoming. The congregation is quite small, which helps people recognise new people and make them feel welcome. There is also a feeling of doing life together beyond the Sunday service, collaborating with other congregations in the area and reaching out to the local community in practical ways (rather than just inviting them to church events.) What did you learn about God at a time in your life you found hard? I learnt that He is true to His word when He says that He will never leave me nor forsake me. In most of my darkest moments, the hardest thing has been loneliness. But each time, I have had a clear assurance of God’s presence with me – even when the problem was that I was doubting His very existence. What are you passionate about? I love to encourage young people to read. Invite me to a kids’ party and my gift will be a book. My nieces learnt a long time ago that any visit from me will be accompanied by new books for them to read (and therefore no excuse for them to tell their mum that they are bored.) What do you do when you rest? I love to read. I try to read a little every day but there are few things I enjoy more than having the time to lose myself in a good book for hours at a time.