Deacon Joseph Nhat Tran was born in Nam Dinh, Vietnam. After 1954 his family moved to the south and resided in Saigon until April 30, 1975, the critical moment that Vietnam was no longer free but under the Communist regime. That is when his family migrated to America. While residing in Chicago he obtained an Associates degree in Electronics from DeVry and moved to Houston for work in the electronics field. He married Phyllis Nguyen in 1986. They have raised five children. He was ordained a Deacon in 2003.