It’s true that God will give His children beauty for ashes in their darkest hour. Such was the case with Mark Canfora Sr., whose 18-year-old son committed suicide in 2005.  

Canfora was devastated when his daughter called him at 2:30 in the morning and said, “Daddy, Marky is dead.” Mark Canfora Jr. had hanged himself in a park in Barberton, Ohio. 

“I met the ambulance at the hospital, unzipped my son’s body bag and laid hands on his chest and asked Jesus to bring him back,” Canfora recalls. “[But] God spoke to me and said, ‘He’s not here  … he’s with Me.’” Out of the seemingly hopeless situation came a ministry.  

“Every year we sponsor the Celebration of Life Festival in the park where my son lost his life,” Canfora says.

Some 3,000 people attended the festival on Easter in Florida, where Canfora now resides. The event has spread also to Georgia and Tennessee. In his book, A Child Died, A Father Cried … and God Answered, Canfora addresses false teachings about Christians and suicide. 

“I have over 2,000 friends on Facebook, and every day someone reaches out to me because they have lost someone to suicide. I let them know God understands their pain, and He loves them.”  read more

In one of the most populated nations in the world, where thousands of children live on the street, Mustard Seed International (MSI) is relying on faith to feed and educate the vulnerable homeless children of Calcutta, India. 

Today MSI is giving 3,000 impoverished children an education at the eight schools the missions group operates in the nation’s cultural capital.

Bengali native Subir Roy and his wife, Eunok, oversee the schools. MSI workers have a shoestring budget of approximately $6,000 a month to manage a staff of 60 full-time and 40 part-time teachers. 

“Our schools meet the immediate physical needs of these poor, desperate children, while also providing them with hope for a more fulfilling and productive life through education,” says Bill Deans, MSI’s president. “We seek to provide Christ-like compassion, kindness and love to a people plagued by abject poverty.”

MSI’s Calcutta schools are based in church buildings; two are mobile operations aimed at children living on the streets. Often, the meals MSI serves will be the only ones the students receive that day. The ministry has also planted churches and built hospitals and children’s homes. 

In order to operate, MSI has to keep overhead costs down: All U.S. staffers are volunteers, including Deans.

“I wanted everything that came in to go to the ministry,” says Deans, who retired from business in his early 50s. “We don’t pay any salaries or payroll taxes. Things don’t get done as quickly as a hard-charging businessman would like, but they get done.” read more

Small-town pastor Steve Willis catapulted to national prominence when he appeared on the ABC miniseries Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution challenging his congregation to embrace a healthier lifestyle. 

The teaching pastor of First Baptist Church of Kenova, W.Va., says health is just as much a spiritual concern as it is a physical one. “What we do with our bodies matters to God,” Willis says. 

He explored the spiritual aspects of health after noticing numerous ailments in his community, many of which he says stemmed from obesity. Around this time a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report was released and dubbed the area the nation’s unhealthiest.

The pastor soon began a sermon series challenging his congregation to change their lifestyles. His church also started the Biggest Loser, an exercise class derived from the hit TV show. According to Willis, participants have collectively shed “about a ton” of weight—apparently enough for several national news outlets and the Food Revolution producers to notice the church’s efforts.

“Just as parents want to set a good example for their children, we’re working to be a good example to churches who are watching what we do,” says Willis, whose endeavor mirrors such Christian initiatives as last year’s Fight of Our Life health tour by gospel artist Kirk Franklin.

While teaching physical stewardship, Willis also plans to team up with Oliver to put a dent in the federal school lunch program’s processed food ethic.

“We’re working on what we need to do next to see this go on a larger scale,” Willis says. “If that means working with people in Washington, D.C., to make some necessary changes, then that’s what we’re willing to do.”

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Winner of the 2009 ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete With a Disability, 36-year-old Jason Lester is proof that a dysfunctional home, physical trauma and personal loss aren’t reasons to quit on life. 

Already a regular on the Ironman circuit, Lester won the ESPN award after becoming the first person with a disability to complete the Ultraman triathalon—a grueling three-day, 320-mile biking, running and swimming race involving the world’s top 36 endurance athletes. 

“I feel honored that He’s chosen me to do what I’m doing,” says Lester, who shares how Christ helped him endure his trials in his upcoming book, Running on Faith. “My hope is that people will say, ‘There is a greater cause and purpose in my life’ and see that God has a perfect plan for them.”

He has good reason for hoping people will believe that. At age 12 Lester was thrown nearly 130 feet from his bike in a hit-and-run. He suffered 21 broken bones, a collapsed lung, and his right arm was paralyzed. Only months later his father died of a heart attack. With his alcoholic mother already out of the picture, Lester threw himself into sports and eventually took up extreme running as a way of hiding from the pain. However, his conversion in 2001 showed him that God had given him athletic talent for a reason. 

“My mission is to inspire others to use their God-given gifts and their calling for their life,” he says. Next up for Lester: He plans to run in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7. read more

Imagine children as young as 4 and 5 years old being forced to work 14- to 16-hour days making bricks, cigarettes, rope and textiles, then being forced to beg strangers for food in order to eat. This is the picture of slavery in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries. 

“It’s a pretty harsh and brutal environment,” says evangelist Bruce Ladebu, founder of the Children’s Rescue Initiative (CRI), which has been purchasing the freedom of these victims. “The children never have any time off. They worked from sun up to sun down.”

Many have been enslaved because of debts accrued by their parents. Armed with guns and money, Ladebu and the CRI team go into these slave areas to purchase children and sometimes entire families for anywhere between $200 and $1,000 per child or family. read more

Before Kevin Cross turned 22 he’d received a bachelor’s degree in accounting, embezzled $300,000 from the government, been blackmailed by the mob and convicted of a felony. But Cross says the excitement of his cinematic life story doesn’t compare to the exhilarating life he now leads in Christ. He travels the country teaching that true riches can be found only through biblical financial stewardship. 

Cross says he spent most of his early years chasing riches. “My god was pleasure, and it was so satisfying. The problem is, it wears off like a drug,” says Cross, who is president of Cross Stewardship Ministries in Roswell, Ga. read more