Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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When Quang Dinh Tran and his wife, Kim Ha Phan, and their two young children floated away from Vietnam in her father's boat in 1979, they knew what they wanted, but they didn't how, where or if they would find it.

They wanted a better way of life than the one they had under communist rule. They wanted a chance to achieve what their relatives had achieved in their country - a small business and a good existence - before the communists gained control. They didn't know their journey would take them from Vietnam to Indonesia and Singapore, and then to the Germantown Brick Church of the Brethren in Franklin County.

They never imagined they would be able to repay their sponsors with more than mere words.

But last December, the Trans sent their friend Marlyn Sink a big box of cosmetics, cookies and other goodies.

They enclosed an envelope addressed to the church with a token of their appreciation - a check for $20,000, equivalent to one-sixth of the church's annual budget.

Sink knew the money was coming but hadn't told Bruce Huffman, the church's pastor for the past 10 years.

His reaction? I believed the expression is "floored."

Start from scratch

In spring 1980, as part of a refugee resettlement program, the Trans arrived in Franklin County. They moved into a makeshift apartment in the church basement and quickly established themselves as smart and hard-working.

Church members transported Quang Dinh Tran, who now goes by David Tran, to his first jobs at a restaurant and knitting mill.

They drove the family to medical appointments and became their friends.

The Trans were happy to be here, said Kimberly Tran - the former Kim Ha Phan - by telephone on Tuesday, "but we kind of afraid what we going to do.

"We had no knowledge, no English and no money," she added with a laugh.

After 15 months under the church's care, the Trans joined other family members in California.

By 1983, David was enrolled in school and Kimberly was selling cosmetics at a flea market three or four days per week.

In 1987, the couple opened a perfume and cosmetics store in Los Angeles and called it L.A. Fragrance. Later, they opened an Internet business called Perfume Bay. In 2002 they moved the businesses to Huntington Beach, where they live.

At age 25, their son, Quoc, is the buyer for L.A. Fragrance, now a wholesale and retail enterprise. At 28, their daughter, Viet Thanh, runs Perfume Bay.

The elder Trans still go to work, "but we don't take care like we used to." Kimberly said, with another laugh. The kids run the show.

The Trans never forgot the people who welcomed them to this land of opportunity.

"We always remember we had nothing and they give us a home to live and they take care of us," Kimberly said.

The $20,000 is "a pretty nice chunk of change," said Huffman, whose congregation consists of about 275 people from some 80 families.

The Trans asked that the money be used for a special ministry. Church officials are examining several ideas.

Fruit of ministry

Lifelong gratitude from refugees toward their sponsors is not unusual, said Barbara Smith, regional director of Refugee and Immigration Services in Roanoke.

The agency of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond has resettled perhaps 2,000 Vietnamese refugees since 1978 and nearly 4,000 refugees overall.

Smith flipped when she learned the amount of the Trans' donation.

"Oh, my gosh, holy cow," she said. "You don't ever expect that. It's not a payback kind of thing."

When the Trans arrived here, their central goal was "to work hard and raise the kids," Kimberly said.

"Everybody loves perfume and cosmetics," David said. "We did very good."

The gift came without fanfare, and to Huffman, the pastor, it represents something greater than money.

"The spirit of it shows that we never know what we do when we minister to people," he said.