Victory Ortigas - Honor God. Make Disciples.

Meet Rose Ann Flores (the girl in the middle…) or Rose, as she is known to us… If you’re attending the 7:00 or 8:30 pm Sunday service, most probably you’ve seen her. People know Rose as someone who’s friendly, bubbly and easy to get along with. Definitely, a people person, one character trait of a small group leader. But that wasn’t so when she was introduced to us…

The very first time I met Rose was December 2007, when she was invited by her former boss Joel Ramos (remember him… I blogged about his dad’s water baptism…) to our Friday night small group with single professionals. “Observe lang ako ha…” as I remember the first thing she said after she was introduced to the group. She was the shy-type person who wouldn’t wanna say anything in the bible study. In fact, when we asked her to say something during the warm-up question, she almost cried and would hide behind Joel in complete timidity. Teary eyed she reminded us, “Observe lang ako…” So we allowed her, and soon she kept coming back to the small group and attended the church service…

Soon, she gave her life to Jesus Christ and was followed up by Joyce Punio using our One 2 One booklet. Then Rose started to share her life with all of us. Seeing her radical change was when she attended our Victory Weekend last April 2008. She was hungry for more of God in her life, and decided to enroll ENLI 1 by June of that same year. She even participated in our annual 7-day Prayer and Fasting this year. That was when she felt the call to disciple young women and volunteered to help out in our youth service.

In our recent Victory Weekend last June 2009, Rose had 2 participants and she introduced to me the ladies that were entrusted to her care… Carmela Ramos and Chie Panaligan…. Yeahsz!!! I was so encouraged to meet them… Woohoo!!! Rose is one of those people who became a small group leader because she was discipled in a small group community and in the large church gatherings. Way to go Rose!!! You’re the… woman!!!

Seeing how God can change lives of people and how He uses people like us to help bring that change in others, is a remarkable experience. That is DISCIPLESHIP (teaching people to follow God, have fellowship and disciple the others…) And because of Rose’s testimony, it makes me wanna continue to reach out to others who need to experience God’s love for them.