Tran’s father was a French teacher and her mother owned an ice cream factory. Fortunately, an uncle had worked for the U.S. State Department was able to arrange for 25 members of her family to leave Vietnam just hours before the fall of Saigon. They were among the first 300 Vietnamese War refugees to arrive at Fort Chafee, Ark.

What brought you from rural Fort Chafee to the space industry in Houston?

"My uncle visited us at Fort Chafee and was sickened by the living conditions there for refugees from the war. He drove 11 of us in his car to Missouri where I completed high school and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Missouri. My parents moved to Houston. And I earned an MBA from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. I work as a consultant for NASA contractors, which is fun, but I knew I needed to do more to fulfill the love in my heart.

Why did you to begin committing yourself and resources to abandoned children?

My parents were devout Catholics who left North Vietnam in 1945 to practice their faith in the South. Thirty years later we came to America so that we all could practice our faith that teaches to have charity to the weakest among us. It’s the oldest and the youngest in our world that is the weakest that need our love, compassion and our charities.

The Sunday before Christmas Day, 2002, I saw a little Asian girl in a pretty dress sitting a few rows in front of me at church. She kept turning around looking at me. She seemed happy and at ease. I noticed her look over to a Caucasian lady who stood beside her and reach out to hold her hand. The girl was obviously not her biological daughter. I realized that the girl was adopted. The lady kept looking over to the little girl, to make sure she was doing all right. The sight of such love and tenderness between two unrelated people touched me deeply. I couldn’t stop looking at them. I admired the mom for having genuine love and affection for a daughter who isn’t her own blood.

I was happy for the little girl for having found such love. Suddenly, sadness came over me. I started thinking about all the little girls and boys in orphanages who aren’t so lucky. They don’t have a mom or dad to love them, to kiss them good night, or show them affection. I had been praying for God to let me know the true meaning of Christmas.

Tell me the story of how you started Messengers of Love?

I met two nuns who came from Vietnam. My friends and I helped them organize a fund raising event. I asked the nuns if I could sponsor two girls and they found two little girls for me. Linh was three and Huyen was one. I received their pictures and I immediately fell in love. Linh always had a smile on her face, but Huyen was sad. Huyen was abandoned by her mom at birth and was raised by the nuns. She rarely smiled.

Linh’s mom died when she was 10 days old. There were 25 children in the orphanage. I didn’t want any to feel left out so I sponsored three more and asked family and friends to sponsor the rest. We started sending money monthly to buy food and other essentials and I made sure we addressed their emotional needs. I wrote letters and sent gifts for holidays. I felt by our gifts and personal attention they would feel loved.

Have you returned to Vietnam as part of Messengers of Love?

I travel to Vietnam as often as I can to visit the children. The bonds we have developed and the love we share is priceless. I started Messengers of Love to find additional support to expand the number of orphans we can help and give more children the feeling someone cares for them. Thanks to local support and generosity we add orphanages to our support list each year. We now provide long-term sponsorship for three orphanages.

In Christmas 2007 and Tet 2008 we gave gifts to more than 3000 children including orphans from 10 orphanages and children from nine poor villages. We built homes, remodeled school and orphanages and provided scholarships.

We have remodeled schools in Hue, built dining halls for three rural schools and provided full scholarships for 28 students. We helped dig wells to provide clean water systems in villages close to Thua Thien. We also bought school uniforms and provided one acre of cashew trees to a poor village near Kontum. We recently sponsored two children to come to the USA for surgery.

What is your ultimate dream for Messengers of Love?

Through our sharing and caring, we bring happiness and peace to ourselves and make a difference in lives of others. We dream someday that there won’t be any more orphans left unloved. We hope those reading this will call 832-647-7233 to help fulfill our dream.