53 Youth Events & 5,000 Emerging Leaders Inspire Ripple Effect of Positive Change

When God inspires someone through The Global Leadership Summit, the results can be dramatic.

When this happens in the life of a young person, the results can be life changing.

This truth has been played out countless times through the Youth GLS around the world, and this was certainly evidenced in the story of Bui Van Phong.

Phong is a young man from Vietnam who struggled with drug addiction. But when he came to faith, he not only found freedom in his new relationship with Jesus, but he found freedom from his addiction to drugs. He then wondered what God had in store for his life.

“About 30% of the people in my hometown are addicted to drugs or take part in drugs,” Phong recently shared during a break at the Ho Noi Youth GLS.

During the event, Phong believes God revealed to him a grander vision for his life. “People from my village have witnessed the changes happening to me thanks to God, so I am going to share my story to help them. Like Craig Groeschel said, a story is more powerful than facts. I want to save them from this misery by spreading God’s love and words to them.”

Youth GLS20 Vietnam

Around the world, God has been using the Youth GLS to impact the lives of young people like Bui Van Phong. In fact, as The Global Leadership Summit was taken across the global during the 2019-2020 season, there were 53 Youth GLS events around the world with more than 15,000 young people participating. In every case, lives and communities have been impacted in remarkable ways.

In Nairobi, Kenya, a high school teacher had attended the GLS several years ago and believed that it should be made available to young people in their city. Working with our team in Kenya, she introduced the Youth GLS to her high school. The impact on the students became so widely known, that within three years the Youth GLS had been picked up by ten Nairobi high schools, including three Muslim schools.

Youth GLS19 Kenya

In 2020 plans were in place for a Youth GLS in India, but when the pandemic hit, those plans had to be reevaluated. “We simply decided to use a digital platform,” said Binu Varghese, GLS director in India. “Young people are already very comfortable using digital technology, and we believed they would respond well.”

You do not know how encouraging the Summit and the messages are for me.

And respond they did. When the digital Youth GLS was held in India in January 2021, nearly 5,000 young people took part.

In every part of the world the Youth GLS is impacting young people and inspiring a grander vision for their lives. From India to Australia, from Kenya to Vietnam, and in more and more countries around the world—the Youth GLS is a movement building momentum.

As Bui Van Phong concluded, “You do not know how encouraging the Summit and the messages are for me. Now I am going to continue my mission and dream.”