Christine Caine on Discovering She Was Adopted at 33 and Faith Through Pain

You’re about to join my conversation with my very special podcast guest, Christine Caine. 

Christine is an accomplished speaker who speaks around the world. She is also a prolific author, founder of an organization called A21 with the goal of helping people who have been trafficked—and she does so much more. She is a force of nature. 

Christine is funny, biblical, insightful, and has so much value to say. See some of the highlights of our conversation below.

How Christine Caine Found Out She Was Adopted 

Greg Laurie: You made a discovery [about your life].

Christine Caine: …I grew up what you would think the normal immigrants experience in Australia.

…But there were people that my parents allowed into our home that they should have been able to trust and were very untrustworthy. So I was, for about a decade, the victim of childhood sexual abuse. And so I was already carrying a lot of shame and a lot of pain, a lot of anger from that. And also from being marginalized. We were very ridiculed for being kind of the immigrant kids.

…And now at thirty three, my brother, my older brother, George, calls me and says, “Chris, I’ve got a letter from the government and it says that I’ve been adopted.”

…I went, “George, don’t be ridiculous… They’ve obviously sent this letter to the wrong person.”

…About ten minutes later, he calls me back, sobbing, and he goes, “Chris, it’s true. They told me the name of my biological mother, my biological father. You know, when I was born, when I was immunized.” He goes, “I’m going to go home and confront mom.”

…I watch the blood drain out of my mom’s face and she starts crying.

…[My mom] goes, “Christina, since we’re telling the truth today, do you want to know the whole truth?”

…So that day, my thirty five year old brother found out he was adopted from one set of parents. I found out I was adopted from another set of parents. And my younger brother was the only biological child. But the three of us had grown up thinking that we were biologically connected.

How Christine’s Faith Prepared Her for Hardship 

Christine Caine: But I do want to say this part. I had come to faith in Christ about a decade before that

 …I was so broken, and because I was so broken because of my past, thank God I had someone that began to disciple me. And what she did, this older woman at the time, said, “Christine, You’re going to have to replace the lies you believe about yourself” (that the abusers had said to me, that the kids at school that had ridiculed me) “with the truth of the Word of God.” Now, I didn’t even realize the power of that, Greg. 

…But I’m going to get back [to] my mother’s kitchen.

…I reached across the kitchen table because my Mum was such a mess, and I went, I grabbed her hands and I went, “Mum, it’s okay.” 

And literally, here’s a decade of renewing my mind by the Word of God. What came out of my mouth? I go “Mum, it’s okay.” Because before I was formed in my mother’s womb—and I said to her, “Whosever [womb] that was Mum, It doesn’t matter… God knew me.” 

…And Greg, that day, every fact that I thought to be true about my life changed. My background, my name, my history, and to this day, I mean… I really don’t know, was I the result of a rape?

I don’t even know if I was the result of a one night stand or an ongoing adulterous affair. But I do know that I’m God’s workmanship and I’m recreated in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand.

So you and I are so similar. Like you, you know you were the result of a one night stand. I don’t quite know what happened, but I do know that beyond all that, a sovereign God intentionally wanted us to be on the earth for such a time as this.

Christine’s Choice to Flourish Despite Pain

Greg Laurie: That’s right. And all of these things, you know, made you into the person you are. You know, God can cause all things to work together for good to those that love God. 

There are bad things that happened to us. What happened to you as a child is a horrible thing. But despite that horrible thing, it caused an iron to enter your soul. It changed you, it affected you, and now you use that instead of something that cripples you, you use it as a tool to help others who are experiencing something similar to it, you know? 

And I think that’s very important. You know, we have a choice as to what we do with pain. It can make us better or bitter.

Christine Caine: …If I bought into the narrative that said, “Because of so much injustice and abuse and pain, you can never flourish. And Christine, if everything was different in your past, or if you were raised in a different neighborhood or went to a different school, or had different parents, then, only then, could you fly.” That to me is its own kind of prosperity gospel. And I’m saying that the gospel is despite. Like, you’ve got someone like a Daniel that was literally trafficked as a fifteen year old.

…If you’re waiting for the system to get better, to think that only then God can bless you and you can flourish, you’re not reading the right gospel, because the gospel is that despite everything God can and can actually give you— well obviously save you—and deliver you, and you could fulfill your purpose. God’s so aware of our circumstances. So if I need my circumstances to change to flourish.

-And when I call flourishing, I’m talking about the peace of God, the joy of the Lord being our strength. You know, the purpose of God being fulfilled. 

Are we saying Paul didn’t fulfill his purpose because he was in a prison, or because he was beaten, or because he was shipwrecked? I mean, we could use that whole argument and go, “Well, you know, because of the trauma in his life, he couldn’t fulfill his purpose.” 

And I’m saying despite the trauma, the testimony is he did. That’s the testimony of a resurrected king. 

Somehow we have almost bought into the narrative of the world, and unfortunately, we’ve made what people did to us or said about us bigger than what Jesus did for us at Calvary.

…I’m not minimizing pain or suffering ever, but I am saying what Jesus did for me at Calvary is bigger than what anyone did to me here on earth.

Hear more of this conversation on The Greg Laurie Show.