I. History

LOVE, Inc. (Love Of Vietnam Expressed) is a Christian inter-denominational social service/relief mission.  In 1981, the mission began, serving Vietnam, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants arriving into the Pensacola, Florida area. LOVE (called S. E. Asian Ministries at that time) sponsored many families into the Pensacola area, working with many different churches to resettle Southeast Asian refugees.

Mr. Reggie Coward is LOVE's Director in Vietnam. "Mr. Reggie" is a retired math teacher.  He taught mathematics from 1960-2000. He holds a B.A. Degree from Elon College(1960), a M.A.T. Degree from Duke University(1972), and received a M.Th. Degree from Liberty Bible College(1981), the same year he began to help in the resettlement of  S. E. Asian refugees.

Reggie was saved in 1972 and directed a coffee house in Norfolk, Va. called "The Way INN", an outreach to troubled teens into drugs and gangs, until 1979 when he moved to Pensacola, Florida to study at Liberty Bible College. While teaching, he also sponsored a Christian Club called Brothers And Sisters In Christ, or B.A.S.I.C.

"Mr. Reggie" worked with World Relief Commission in the mid-eighties finding sponsors and helping in the resettlement of many families. The goal was always to help families and children. In 1996 he was asked to start an inter-denominational church and pastored until he moved to Vietnam in August, 2000.

His first trip to Vietnam was in 1998 and he returned again in 1999 providing aid to many. Aid included schooling for a deaf-mute child and help to an orphanage for mentally and emotional handicapped in Saigon, as well as aid for the leper village Nui San in Nha Trang, and many street children and poor in Danang. The work in Danang included funds for another orphanage, houses for the poor, digging wells, providing heart and other operations, wheel chairs, etc.

Beginning in 2001, L.O.V.E. was incorporated and found a Vietnamese partner as required by Vietnamese law. LOVE chose the Street Children Program of Danang (SCP) as its partner because of the sincere love its members had for the poor, and it's experience - they have worked with street children since 1991. They operate 5 children’s homes (called families). Each cares for 30 children. Here they have a mother, a father and 2 cooks. They are loved, trained, clothed, fed, have a bed, go to school and have help with homework. SCP has its own vocational center at 3 locations, night school, and other programs.

This was LOVE’s first full year working in Vietnam. We provided scholarships for 90 children, sponsored 2 medical teams and provided other medical and financial assistance. A small but needed beginning.

From 2002 to now, with the prayers and financial assistance of many of you, LOVE was able to help more and more children and poor families. It was in this year that our first student house was started. Now in 2006 we have 4 student houses providing free housing and spiritual over sight to 32 university students from rural areas around Danang, Quang Nam and other Providences.

In 2006 seventy-five children are being sponsored, keeping LOVE busy with translating letters between sponsors and children in addition to our scholarship, medical/emergency, feeding, and student housing programs.

Year 2007 begins the 9th year of work among the most needy children in the Da Nang, Quang Nam areas of Vietnam. LOVE has Mr. Reggie and his wife, Tran Thi Bao Chi, a Vietnamese Christian national, and 2 other full time employees, both Vietnamese Christians, in the city of Danang working among youth and children, the poor, the sick, the handicapped, and those with no one, living on the streets.

Our goal is to expand our scholarship program to 150 children and add a 5^th student house while maintaining our other programs.

Student Homes: LOVE now provides 4 homes for poor Christian students who come to Danang from families in the countryside. Here the students get free housing, Christian fellowship, and learn and grow in a Christian family setting and receive training by local churches to serve God.

Sponsorships: With your suggestion and encouragement, LOVE began a program where you can now sponsor a child, communicate with the child and family, and follow the growth and progress of the child.

II. Summary of activities
(All activities below are directed by Reggie and his wife in association with the Street Children Program of Danang)

We now provide scholarships to nearly 300 children. This provides school fees, books, paper, pens, pencils, clothes and food. Most are in elementary school and all are from very poor families. They are referred to LOVE by the school, SCP, local governments, and local churches. Each child is monitored as to health, attendance, behavior, and effort.

We provide rice to nearly 50 families every month, a lunch program for 12 poor and handicapped women in a vocational training/commercial class, and medical/emergency assistance to hundreds more each year.

We plan to add even more children in the next year.

We hope to sponsor 2-3 teams to come each year. This year already we have had one dentist come and several individuals and a church group are coming this summer.

We serve families in Thanh Binh, Dai Loc, Thanh Quyt, Tien Phuoc Districts of Quang Nam Providence;  Quang Ngai Providence; and all Districts of Danang. We also have 4 special education and/or university scholarships in Saigon and Nha Trang. Nearly 300 families receive regular assistance and hundreds more receive emergency or medical assistance each year.