Sister Christine My Hanh Truong was born in Hue, Vietnam. She is one of seven children. Her mother passed away when Sister Christine was 16. Her father was imprisoned for his teaching as a province leader of a Catholic Youth Program. At the age of 17, Sister Christine left Vietnam to go to Singapore to become a Catholic nun with the Good Shepherd Sisters.
After taking oaths, she went back to Vietnam to work with poor women, prostitute, widows in Saigon's streets. A week before the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Sister Christine escaped to the United States with 160 handicapped children. She didn't stay in the US for long. In the year 1978, she was assigned to the Aberdeen section in Hong Kong known as Marycore as a group counselor for troubled girls. While she was in Hong Kong, she learned to speak Chinese.
From 1980 to 1982, she attended Keele University in England. She graduated with a Masters in Social Work. After graduation, Sister Christine work as a group counselor for teenagers with family problems in Kowloon, Hong Kong from 1982 to 1988. Later on, Sister Christine was a speaker for the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department, a counselor for women prisoners, and a Deputy Director of Pastoral Care for Refugees from 1989 to 1991.
She was the spokeswoman for thousands of boat people detained in the overflowing refugee camps. As a familiar figure in the camps, Sister Christine gave strengths and hopes to thousands of disheartening people. She became their leader and continuously challenging government policies dealing with treatment of refugees, especially the policy of forced repatriation. She recalls one particularly violent protest when adults committed suicide and over thousands of children went on a hunger strike.
From Hong Kong, Sister Christine came to the District of Columbia in 1991 to become the youth and family bilingual counselor for the Metropolitan Washington YMCA. In 1992, she came to Atlanta as a youth and family counselor for Save the Children, which helps support children in developing countries. Sister Christine also becomes a consultant for St. Joseph's Hospital's multicultural services.
Sister Christine recognized the needs to help the poor among the growing numbers of Asian immigrants and refugees in Atlanta. She founded Good Shepherd Services of Atlanta (GSSA) in 1993. Today, Good Shepherd operates outreach centers both in DeKalb and Clayton counties. GSSA reaches out to the poor, counsels families and youths at risk, offers translations, conducts DUI, citizenship classes, promotes cultural enrichment, and provides elderly services.