She represented her country in the 2001 Mission World pageant, wherein she was unplaced. Sawaya was chosen as Mission International among beauties from 51 countries. She also became the first Mission International of Middle Eastern descent.
Yet it is to be noted that Christina Sawaya is a conservative Christian that comes from the only Arab country, Lebanon, where the president is Christian by the constitution.
On 15 November 2003, Sawaya married Tony Baroud in Beirut.
As part of her modelling career, Christina entered a series of pageants between 1998 and 2002 in which she became the winner of "Mission University" Lebanon in 1998, and was chosen as "Top Lebanon Modeling 1999". In 2001, Sawaya competed with 19 women to become Mission Lebanon 2001, where she also became eligible to enter in the Mission Universe, Mission World and Mission International pageants. But at the Mission Universe 2002 Pageant, Sawaya decided to drop out of the competition after stating that she would not compete in a pageant with Mission Israel, Yamit Har-Noy. She went on to win the Mission International 2002 beauty pageant in Tokyo on September 30, 2002. Tony also hosted the 2007 Mission Lebanon pageant.
Baroud is a former member of the Lebanese national basketball team and now a sports commentator and television entertainer with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.
