LIFE-CHANGING RESULTS
Accelerating the Spread of the Gospel
Seven Outcomes in action
Impacting Brazil since 2006
Often, people ask the ILI Team, “What is the long-term impact of ILI’s History Makers training?”
For History Makers alumni, Konrad and Gizah Janzin, life changed forever after they were equipped with the Eight Core Values. In 2006, shortly after launching History Makers, ILI’s track for young leaders, the second training event was held in Curitiba, Brazil. It was at this History Makers Journey that Konrad received the God-given vision for his life. He gained clarity and set SMART goals to accomplish the vision of starting a school, where today, God is moving and active!
Currently, teachers and faculty are working to teach, grow, and change the lives of 140 students!
After seeing how God used the History Makers training in Konrad’s life, his wife, Gizah, eagerly accepted the opportunity to attend a training in 2007. God used that week to begin birthing a vision in her heart that would eventually impact thousands of women. Gizah now leads a movement called “Fly Butterfly,” helping women find their identity in Christ and teaching them to embrace who God made them to be.
Konrad and Gizah continue to stay plugged into the History Makers movement, serving this past July at another training event in Curitiba. Praise God for History Makers who are making a generational impact!
From prisoner to equipping leaders
Nairobi, Kenya. Chris found himself in prison, guilty of a crime. After several years behind bars, a presidential pardon allowed Chris to be released back into society. Shortly after, he made a life-changing decision and put his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Chris then accepted the invitation to attend an ILI training event. During the conference, he discovered God’s vision for his life. He saw a need, and deep in his heart, he felt a personal connection to the great harvest field that exists in Kenyan prisons.
So in January 2019, Bishop David Thagana (ILI Kenya) and Joy Griffin (ILI International Director) joined Chris to teach at a maximum-security prison which houses 800 inmates, 120 of whom are convicted murderers.While conditions in the prison are grim, 70 people crammed into a room to sit on the floor and participate in the training. After graduation, the chief warden granted permission for the team to preach to all 800 prisoners. God’s power moved as several responded to the invitation for salvation.
One graduate testified how the session on Intimacy with God truly influenced him. “I came in here as a convicted prisoner. When I get out, I will leave as a Christian leader, and I will spread everything I have learned to everyone I know!” The majority of inmates in Kenya live with no shoes and only rags for clothing. Along with leadership training, all 800 inmates were also provided with a pair of sandals, pants, and a shirt.
REACHING THE UNREACHED, 1,100 BAPTIZED IN ONE DAY
When I encountered the true, living Savior, my heart was undeniably transformed. I knew as I grew in my newfound faith, I needed to travel extensively to different parts of Ethiopia in obedience to God’s call to share the Gospel. When I attended an ILI conference in 2005, God filled my heart with a passion for the harvest, and I began mobilizing people to reach the 31 unreached people groups in my home nation.
One focus became the South Omo region, where we organized a team to equip indigenous workers and mobilize hundreds of university students for mission outreaches. Through God’s power, 1,100 people were baptized on a single day in South Omo! Then, among the Doni area people, 270 were baptized on another day.
Mezgebu Tsemru is the president of Church Multiplication Gospel Mission in Ethiopia and a leader for ILI Africa. He is joined in ministry by his wife, Nigest, and their three children. Mezgebu’s constant focus is creating a multiplying, discipleship movement of self-reproducing churches.
THE PATH SARA NEVER EXPECTED
Growing up, my dad was a pastor who expected me to follow in his footsteps, but I had different goals. I wanted to be a businesswoman and support missionaries on the side, rather than be one myself.
All of that changed when I experienced History Makers. While planning what to do on my university’s fall break, I heard some friends were organizing a Christian conference. I decided to attend. I didn’t set my hopes high, in fact, I expected the event to be “just another conference.” I was shocked. History Makers was unlike anything I had experienced. This wasn’t just a matter of absorbing lessons, but we actually put them to practice immediately. We even went out and evangelized on the streets!
I knew I had to share this training in Macedonia because I love raising up leaders who have a motivation to live for Christ. History Makers opened my eyes to the vision God placed on my life, not in the business world, but to pursue Him in all that I do.
Sara is from Macedonia and attended the 2018 Europe Summit in Spain.