Our special ministry: In Vietnam, like many other developing countries, many young ladies move from their rural homes to the city center for the promise of jobs and new life. However, most of these young ladies find that the reality is not as promising. And they find themselves vulnerable to different types of exploitation and find themselves pregnant as a result. Due to the extreme "shame culture" ("losing face") in Vietnam (and rest of Asia), they have hard time returning home and most find themselves aborting their babies. Our ministry involves teaching/counseling/supporting these young ladies and some of them decide to have the baby. However, due to their situation in life, it is very difficult for them to raise their child and get an education or a job at the same time. This was the beginning of Sunflower Orphanage as many of these young mothers wanted to entrust their babies to our care. Accepting one child led to 56 little children within a year and currently cannot accept anymore due to our facility, staff, and financial limitations.

Our other special ministry involves giving proper burial for those babies that have been aborted. We regularly visit hospitals and clinics where aborted babies are thrown out and we carefully collect them, cremate them, put them in a small jar, name and number them, and bury them in our grave yard (as pictured above). When you visit this grave yard and see thousands of these little ones buried and see the direct contrast of what it can be as you see little children running around at our Sunflower Orphanage, we can see the true value of our ministry.

(Note: Picture 1 and 2 above - Young mothers often live with us at our orphanage until they have their babies and most of them give up their babies to us and move on in their lives. In the 4 years of our ministry, only one mother came back and wanted to take their child - which we happily obliged.)

About Sunflower Orphanage:

We started our orphanage at the end of 2007 due to the great need that we faced. At our Sunflower Orphanage, we have take in new born babies from young mothers who are convinced that this is a better option than aborting their child. We currently have 56 infants in 2 locations. New born babies and weaker babies are in city center (which is near a hospital) and little older and healthier babies are in our new rural facility. The age of our children range from new-born babies to 5 years (as of March, 2011). It is our hope to raise these babies with Christian care and hope that one day adoption into loving Christian families can be possible. NOTE: Currently, Vietnam government does not allow adoption to most Western Countries including USA. We are hoping one day this will open up as adoption is part of our ministry at this orphanage.

Anthony is Vietnamese native born and raised in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Upon graduating from high school, he entered seminary in Nha Trang. He spent 5 years in seminary before being sent to USA in 1995 for further study. In USA, he finished his B.A. at Iowa Divine Word College and received his M. Div from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

In 2005, he came back to Nha Trang with an assignment to look after social and charity ministry in Nha Trang. One assignment took him to abortion clinic in Nha Trang. His official assignment was called “Justice and Peace Ministry” and he wrestled with “justice” for the unborn children. So, he started to go to abortion clinic and collegected fetuses and gave them proper/respectful burials. But he wanted to do more and not just collect fetuses…he wanted to help the young ladies and also to protect the lives of the unborn babies. One day a friend who was working with him to help bury the aborted babies, encountered a young lady who wanted to have the child but did not want to keep the baby for various reasons. She was a 3rd year student at local university and got pregnant from her boyfriend and faced real life dilemma of facing her parents, her future, and her culture. She decided to have the baby but gave the baby to Anthony to take care of and left. This began the ministry which is Sunflower Orphanage today. Faith and conviction led Anthony to the abortion clinic and it was the same faith and conviction that carries on this very important ministry to this day.

Latest pictures of our beautiful children at Sunflower Orphanage, Vietnam (March 24, 2011). This album includes our latest baby boy 57. Quoc Thien.