Conference speaker·Christine Caine·has shone Christ’s light in the world’s darkest places. Now she’s bent on exposing—and abolishing—the $12.3 billion global sex-trafficking industry.·

Christine Caine is only 44, fit and healthy, but she already knows what she wants her epitaph to say. 

She has thought about it and often tells the story of a missionary in the 19th century who was sent with a one-way ticket to evangelize a tribe in the New Hebrides. Eventually, after 35 years, he died and was buried there. His epitaph reads: “When he came, there was no light, but when he left, there was no darkness.” 

“I think, for me, that would be the ultimate legacy,” Caine says. “Wherever she went, there was little light, but when she left, there was no darkness.”

Almost 60 years ago, Bob Finley had a vision for indigenous missions that created the most effective missions organization you’ve never heard of

The most dynamic spiritual awakening in church history isn’t occurring in a glittering American stadium, a booming South Korean megachurch or an African metropolis. Each day in China an estimated 30,000 souls choose to follow Christ, continuing a 30-year boom in conversions that has swelled the ranks of Christians in the nation to more than 100 million.

“Christianity is thriving,” says Freddie Sun, China director for Christian Aid Mission (CAM), a ministry based in Charlottesville, Va. “There are now an estimated 150 million Christians, including Catholics and Protestants.”

The reason, says Sun, a Chinese expatriate who still visits his homeland annually, is native believers are spreading the gospel across their vast nation.

Publisher’s Note: J. Lee Grady has been part of the Charisma family since 1992. Early this year, after 11 years as editor, his role changed to contributing editor, prompting many readers to ask where he had gone. Lee is still a vital part of Charisma, as you’ll read in this article, but he is also embracing a bold new season of ministry. As he does, please pray for him and consider supporting his incredible vision.

—Steve Strang

J. Lee Grady, the former award-winning editor of Charisma, travels the world today rallying women to bravely serve God. What made this easygoing journalist an advocate for biblical equality? 

Former Charisma editor J. Lee Grady spent the first half of his career sitting behind a desk. Today you are more apt to see him behind a pulpit—challenging the abuse of women in a Third World nation. 

How did this mild-mannered journalist become a passionate crusader for justice? Ironically, Grady says, it all started with letters from readers of Charisma.

“Any time we ran a story on a high-profile teacher like Joyce Meyer or a female pastor of a church, I’d brace myself because I knew what kind of letters we’d get,” says Grady, who began his career at Charisma as news editor in 1992 and served as editor from 1999 to 2010. “Dozens of well-meaning people would write letters, citing Scriptures taken out of context, to attack the notion of women being allowed to minister in church.”

P.P. Job paid a high price for preaching the gospel when his two sons were martyred. But Today his adopted daughters—504 in all—are a legacy of his faith in Christ.

“Girls are not wanted in India.” The Rev. P.P. Job says this as a matter of fact, without a hint of irony in his weathered brown face, and then rattles off a string of statistics to prove his point. Each year, he says, 5 million baby girls are aborted in government hospitals; last year 25,000 married women were burned alive; every day 1,200 girls go missing, likely unaccounted victims of domestic abuse.

United Nations reports support Job’s claims, as they reluctantly acknowledge the persistence of female infanticide and gender inequality in India even as the nation becomes an economic success story. “When a boy is born there is a dance,” says Job, a longtime evangelist and leader with the religious liberty advocacy organization Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). “A girl is born—it is like a death. Everyone will be weeping and crying.”

Led by Matthew Barnett, Los Angeles’ Dream Center has developed from an idea in 1994 into a hub of more than 270 local ministries now replicated around the world

Joel and Gina Guzman found hope on a hilltop near  downtown Los Angeles. 

 This hard-working couple with seven children and one on the way were laid off within a month of each other. The size of their family made it hard to receive assistance; shelters couldn’t accommodate them. At one point, Gina was even told that she and her children could get help if she would separate from her husband.  

That wasn’t an option. 

On Dec. 7, at 9 p.m. (EST) Matthew Barnett will share his approach to creative ministry and how you can make a lasting impact in your area. Sign-up below to join the call and submit your questions.

Finally, the Guzmans received a two-week hotel voucher. The day before it expired, Joel decided to take his family on a spur-of-the-moment bus ride. They didn’t know where they were going; they just got on the bus. When it stopped at Kent and Alvarado streets, Joel felt his family should get off. They weren’t familiar with the area, but Joel again sensed the way they should go. When the Guzmans walked up the hill and saw the Dream Center, they thought it was a small church outreach and hoped they could at least get another hotel voucher.