Ngoc-Hà Pham was born in Vietnam. When she was eleven years old, she fled the country to escape war. For six months, she lived with her family in a refugee camp in Arkansas. She grew up to work as a nurse in the United States. 

“I returned to Vietnam for a visit 20 years after my family had left,” she says. “One day, as I was looking out from a comfortable, air-conditioned hotel room and seeing the harsh poverty of so many people, I asked myself, ‘Where do I feel more at home? How best can I serve and love God?’ That’s when I decided to become a missionary.” She became a Maryknoll Sister and now works as a nurse in China, serving people with disabilities. 

She says that many of her coworkers cannot understand why she would choose to live and work so far from home. “I trust that I am not here on my own and that I am guided by the Holy Spirit.” she says. “I really appreciate being here. It is so much more than what I had hoped for. I believe that from the very beginning God led me here and opened the door for me.”