{"id":57322,"date":"2026-09-18T05:24:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/?p=57322"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:09:52","slug":"impacting-lives-ntobekos-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/impacting-lives-ntobekos-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Impacting Lives: Ntobeko’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite parts of our Arise program is seeing a student’s paradigm shift. I have to tell you about one transformation that took place in our Arise Australia class this spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Angelo Grasso, one of our instructors, drew a circle on the board at the front of the classroom and wrote in the center, “joy.” Around it, in smaller circles, he wrote, “anger,” “fear,” “sadness,” and other emotions. Angelo advised the class to visit those emotions when life calls for it. But joy is where God wants you to live. Not someday. Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ntobeko (pronounced \u201cToh-BEE-koh\u201d) felt her chest tighten as she listened. How is that possible?<\/span><\/p>\n

She thought, “Maybe, to some degree, God cares less about black people.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ntobeko was born in Zimbabwe and raised by parents who lived through its war for independence and its economic collapse in the 1990s. When she was seven, her parents moved their family to the UK, working long hours to give their children a better life. As a teenager, Ntobeko developed insomnia from worrying she wasn’t doing enough to help her family. Through all these experiences, and though she loved God, a narrative formed. In her words:<\/span><\/p>\n

“This life is gonna be hard, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Maybe, to some degree, God cares less about black people. I pictured Him saying, ‘You get to suffer more.’ And I didn’t really know why.”<\/span><\/p>\n

After university, Ntobeko worked as a missionary for many years. She took a job helping train other missionaries. She found herself working sixty-hour weeks, subconsciously trying to make up for the scarcity of God\u2019s love felt in her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

But after years of pouring herself out for others, her foundations began to crack. That burnout brought her to Arise Australia, where she heard Angelo tell her that joy\u2014not endurance or earning\u2014was the life she was made for.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was bewildered. As the program progressed though, class after class bathed her mind in God’s love and a new narrative began to form.<\/span><\/p>\n

“God wants me to show people that life is beautiful and joyous now, and we can get through it, even if it’s hard.” She says that Arise helped her \u201cto realize who I would’ve been if sin didn’t exist. It created this path for me to work with God to restore me. It’s something He has on the table for all of us, but many of us never know.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Ntobeko slept through the night for the first time in years.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After Arise finished, Ntobeko took a job back in Europe. Instead of spending weeks preparing for every variable, she got on a plane without an apartment lined up, and she was at peace. She felt God had her. Within a week, she had a home. She slept through the night for the first time in years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your gift to Light Bearers helps us reach people like Ntobeko who are burning out for Jesus. Like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, they white-knuckle their way through life, not knowing the abundance and unconditional love the Father has for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your gift helps make Arise Australia possible, supporting scholarships for students who couldn’t otherwise attend. It sends literature overseas, produces gospel-centered media, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n

To help reach more people like Ntobeko with the good news, would you consider partnering with us financially?<\/span><\/p>\n

YES, I WANT TO IMPACT MORE LIVES WITH MY GIFT!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite parts of our Arise program is seeing a student’s paradigm shift. I have to tell you about one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":57446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[514],"tags":[518,500,516,504],"class_list":["post-57322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appeal","tag-appeal","tag-devotional","tag-ntobeko-story","tag-ty-gibson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PHOTO-2026-02-09-23-55-02-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-eUy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57322"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58521,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57322\/revisions\/58521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}