BraveMen S4E123: Nick Caine - Ending Human Slavery

My friend Nick Cain is one of the most remarkable men you will ever meet. He and his wife Christine Cain years ago in 2008 co-founded the movement A21. It's a radical hope that the cycle of human trafficking can be broken. They reach rescue and restore. Those are the three things. Reach rescue and restore. A21, you may have heard about them, dealing with human trafficking, going and helping the most vulnerable coming out of Ukraine and all that sort of mess going right into the middle of the toughest areas where human slavery still happens today. You'll hear some amazing stories from Nick Cain today and you'll meet a man who actually speaks what he lives, what he speaks. He talks about the important things and he does something about it. And Nick Cain is one of those men that you say, okay, that's what I want my boys to be around. That's what I want my sons to see because that's a man who's standing up for others. And his wife Christine Cain, some of you have heard her or seen her on different programs, preaching on some of the world's largest stages. But how does Nick navigate all this? This is a CEO of A21. And then with the equipment and power ministries, how does he navigate that? How does he keep his edge? How does he not get beaten down by, you know, the stuff that's happening in the world today? It's really easy to get negative and Nick and Chris are not that. They believe that everything they do makes a difference. I can't wait for you to meet my friend Nick Cain who is the CEO of the A21 organization and Chris Cain is wife, but you'll meet Nick. It's a radical man who literally every single day, 25 hours a day is working on making the world a better place. And this is how it happens. Like I said, I want our, I want our sons, our kids, my grandsons to be a man like Nick Cain, remarkable man. Remember all the tools you need for the cycling young men, for the discipleship of men, for raising up great dads is available. Let's see him in dot men. Christian men's network dot men and all the tools you need are there. Brave men is a ministry outreach of the Christian men's network worldwide. Over 100 nations and almost 800,000 men every single month going through materials that help them become better men. And speaking of better men, you're going to meet Nick Cain today on Brave Men. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. I'll try you with Nick Cain in 2008, a few ordinary people set out the duty and possible. That is a abolished slavery everywhere forever. And I love this line you have on your this commitment, Nick, this mission on A21 to see a world where women are no longer sold for sex, where men are no longer sold for labor and where children are no longer taken from their families and exploited. Nick, your co-founder of A21 and CEO and then you and your wife Chris have had empower and equip and empower ministries for years. And then A21 got birthed in 2008. Stopped a abolished slavery. I mean, somewhat of a big goal, right? What's the problem? Tell me that kind of a capsulization of the issue trafficking we hear about it. I don't know that we really know that much about it. We hear about it. We don't know much about it. Well, ultimately trafficking comes. Trafficking involves the forced exploitation through fear, and coercion for neither labor or sex. So it doesn't actually necessarily involve movement. So trafficking is kind of a terrible word or inadequate word to describe the problem. So slavery is a better word than modern day slavery is a better definition in my opinion. And it comes from when someone's vulnerable through poverty, through all sorts of different things, it could be their down on their luck, it could be poor, it could be as simple as sort of trusting somebody too much, then they're vulnerable to exploitation. And there's a lot of people in the world today who are looking to exploit people. And that is for sex and for labor. And there's more slaves on the planet today than there has ever been in the history of the world. Really? There's more people indentured in slave today than ever in the history of the world. Ever in the history of the world? Over 40 million today. Over 40 million. My God, man. And that can be like, for instance, there was a couple out in the Los Angeles area. I remember reading in the newspaper. It seemed to me it was the end of last year where they actually got busted because they had kept some housemaids essentially enslaved. Yep. Totally. We had some in Orange County. They couldn't go anywhere. They were locked in a room. They had to do all their work. They weren't paid. It was kind of like, hey, we're going to feed you, but you're stuck. Yeah, absolutely. And we've had, we've had, we do aftercare here in the US in Dallas and in the Carolinas. And we've had numerous forced labor cases of slavery right here in the US that we've been intimately involved with. It's from caring for the people to helping the law enforcement with the prosecution of the traffickers. And it's common. Like last couple of months ago, our team were involved in a bust. And it involved dozens of victims of forced labor. And it's just shocking when you see it. It's always, we all understand it. Over there, wherever there is. But your American Imanazzy live in the US now. So we think of over there as Africa, Asia, South America. But it's just as prevalent here in the US. And in fact, there's more money here in the US. So we're as likely or more likely to look for ways to minimize labor costs and maximize profit as anywhere else in the world. You know, the stories. And I want you to give me a couple stories. Now, you've got, you know, as a A21 as an organization, you're operating around the world. You've got centers in 14 countries, 19 locations. Is that right? Yeah. And these are places where you're helping restore people, bring them back to right thinking because they've been exploited, warped or thinking is jacked up. I mean, and so essentially a lot of what the forced labor thing is amazing to me, because I don't think of that normally when I think of human trafficking, I think of sexual the stuff. And but that, all of it's bad, all slavery, over 40 million people. And you guys, A21 is out after to abolish that. Tell me some of the things that you've seen some of the stories. You've had some amazing stories. I heard I remember one in Sofia where a girl where some girls were actually rescued from human traffickers that were taking them across Europe. Yeah. We've had all sorts of stories. And what probably starting at the beginning, our first office was actually in Greece. And our first case was one that really shocked me, the same way that the concept of forced labor shocked you. But a Bulgarian couple had been recruited and promised that they could work for this farmer and that work. And then they'd be able to go home to see their kids on weekends. And it'd be great. And when they got to this site, they had all their ID taken. They were well away from anywhere that they could get away from. And he was forced to work in the fields. And she was a domestic servant and raped pretty much every day. And then at the end of the day, they would lock them up in a shed with the dogs and they'd feed the dogs. So if they wanted to eat, they had to fight the dogs for the food. And that shocked me just because of the fact that it was, again, I like you at that stage thought of human trafficking as just as sex slavery. But to see it like that's old school slavery, very present in a very civilized European country that we would go to for holidays. We've had an 18 month old in our care in Asia with a fractured pelvis because she was being pimped out by her mother. And the story is like that that just shocked you. And people here in the US who had come looking for a better life thought they were doing the right thing and ended up trafficked. Today, we've had the team, we've had two survivors rescued today. Both of those were for sex trafficking, one in Bulgaria and one in Greece. And it's just amazing when you see it day by day. I always say I think I've seen as low as humanity can go and humanity steps up pretty much every day to surprise me. In a bad way, 821, you've won the Hero Award United Nations Women of Peace, Mother Theresa, Memorial Award, Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts. So obviously, you've really got really blessed your work with this organization. And you've styled 821 in such a way to be able to work with world governments, to be able to work with local community organizations. And then, of course, your wife, Christine Cain, many of us know or have seen or watched on television or been in some place where she's spoken. And she and that's equipped in power ministries where where she goes out and does speaking like that, like she does at Mariners Church in Orange County and other places across the country and has done here at Gateway and other places. It's an amazing remarkable ministry. Where did the two of you meet? We met at Bible College. She came in to do a lecture on community-based evangelism. She was a guest lecturer. The evangelism lecturer had something else on that day. I think it was probably a fishing trip. And he convinced. God-ping. Yeah, it was absolutely. And Christine came in and everybody had known Christine Karyofflis or Christine Karyonolot because she was loud. She was passionate. She was zealous. And she came in instead of being dressed as a community youth worker. She had been to some meeting and she was a bit dressed up. And I sat there in rap detention at every minute. You were in the class. I was in the class, fell in love with the teacher. I will say we were both over 25 at the time, just a sake of clarity. And so I went and chased her down and said that I just so entranced by the community-based evangelism. I'd love to learn more. I think we're back community-based. Good for you, man. You got to have an opening line. It's got to be something like that. I do remember Christine, the Lord really gift her as a young lady and of course she came through on the story which she's given. But I remember the first time I saw her, she was assistant youth director of youth alive. And which was a huge national youth ministry in Australia. And I remember being at a football stadium with 20,000 young people and with different groups and all that sort of thing. And if I'm not mistaken the next day we went out to eat and you sat at one end of the table and she was sitting at the other end. And it's like you had just sort of started eating right back then. So it's interesting. It's amazing to see what's happened in your life since then. Yeah, it's been quite a journey. The Lord's been very good to us, better than we deserve. Yeah, well, maybe you, I mean Christine probably deserved it. Yeah, well, absolutely. She's in fiber. And you've got, yes she is. And then you've got two daughters. And so you guys met. And then but where does this? And then always she had a pulpit gift. You have an admin CEO gift. And it just jelled work together, right? Always it never had to eat problems you married. So that's awesome. But sure has been a little iron sharpens iron moment. Yeah, we have different, we're, we have about as different personalities as it's possible to have. And so we disagree on on how to handle certain problems. And she's Greek. So everything is handled at sort of a level of level 10 intensity from you, please pass the salt to what? Why are you doing that? Why haven't you fired that person? Why haven't you hired that person? So I have a Lord puts people together is amazing. Yeah. And we work really well together. And if we keep it right, then she writes teachers, lovers and mothers. And I take care of sort of the day to day of things. And that way we keep her head fresh and focused on what she needs to do. She's getting a word from the Lord for people. And I do with the problems. So it's a great team. And we fit together really, really well. It's love being with each other. We we've spent been married for 26 years and spent most of it pretty much within the same room. I think I think actually, you know, because every so often we run in each other different places. I think the last place was in Barcelona, Barcelona. And yeah, Christine was speaking there. And we're all running each other. And it's just amazing to see the ministry and the gift that the Lord has given to the two of you. But it comes with some sacrifice and hard work. Nothing just happens. Nothing just happens. How did A21? I mean, I remember the story. If I'm not mistaken, the story of Christine was walking through the airport. Is that right? Yeah. And if you saw a missing poster, posted for a missing kid. Yeah, for a missing child.