Northern Thailand is home to marginalized hilltribes who settled there largely to seek refuge from oppression in Burma and China. The Seed of Hope project provides a dormitory that houses 33 hill-tribe students from remote villages in Northern Thailand.  The purpose of the dorm is to provide a safe place for the students to live while they attend Thai public school and to take steps to receive Thai citizenship if not yet acquired.

The story begins when Ryan and Rebecca Stowell along with their two boys, Tyler and Caleb, moved from their small town in Colorado to Thailand in 2012 to help manage a conference center.  They became friends with a local couple, Lawpa and Bairak, who were housing 24 hilltribe students so they could receive a basic education.  Stowells could see that this couple’s hearts were for the marginalized people of Thailand.  Lawpa asked the Stowells if they would consider helping their ministry, and after much prayer, the Stowells and Lawpa's family started the Seed of Hope project under the Family Connection Foundation in February of 2015.

In recent years Seed of Hope has expanded its endeavors to include farming as a way to provide food for the dorm, lifetime vocational skills for students, and scholarship money for SOH students.  In 2021 Ryan and Rebecca changed to business visas, handed off their directorship roles to Thai leadership of the dorm and started Seed of Hope Coffee Co., Ltd. with Lawpa and Bairak to market the coffee beans grown in mountain villages by the families of the kids attending SOH dorm.  As this business partnership develops, it is already paying dividends, both financial and relational!