Dear Friends and Fellow laborers,
We need your fervent prayers on two accounts.
First, we have some serious problems getting our young people over from Myanmar (Burma). There always seems to be problems with visas, etc.
In order for us to bring our young people (Burma Nationals) to Thailand we must acquire the appropriate visa. For our Burma students to stay and study at Legacy for three years, they must return home each year and then get another ED visa (Educational visa) for another year. This is time consuming and expensive when one adds up travel expenses and more visa costs. But this is the Thai law and if we want them to continue their studies at Legacy, we must comply with the rules and regulations of the Thai Immigration Bureau.
We sent Htoo Mya (Tommy) Shwe back to get another ED visa so he could return and continue at Legacy for his final year. When he went to the Thai embassy in Rangoon, they refused to give him a new ED visa, citing that he had been studying in Thailand long enough. Now we must bring him back on a tourist visa (30 days only) and send him to Laos where hopefully the Thai Embassy there will grant him another one year ED visa. This all takes time and money, and there is no guarantee the Thai Embassy in Vientiane will give him a visa.
Koin Yee, one of our COG girls is also waiting in Rangoon to get an ED visa. They have now said that they require more paperwork from the language school she will attend to learn the Thai language (a requirement for the ED visa.) We sent the paperwork and now we must pray she gets the visa so she can come to Legacy.
Legacy is not registered with the Ministry of Education. Instead we are registered with the Ministry of Culture. We can teach young people from Thailand and surrounding countries, but because we do not have a Ministry of Education registration, we are not on the list to receive ED visas. The red tape is endless.
Two others also had problems. Adja Shan and Moe Paley, both graduates, are returning to Legacy to help with translation of written material and translation of sermon videos, etc. I contacted the Thailand Foreign Ministry in Bangkok and requested a Non-immigrant, “O” type visa so they can get a required Thai work permit to serve in Thailand. The Foreign Ministry kindly forwarded the required paperwork to the Thai Embassy in Rangoon. However, when Adja and Moe Paley went into the Thai Embassy to get the visa, they said they could not give them a visa unless they already had a work permit. The problem is that the Thai government will not issue a work permit until you have the appropriate visa! It is a Catch 22.
So, we had to contact the Thai Foreign Ministry and explain the problem and then pray real hard. Lo and behold, the officials at the Thai Embassy in Rangoon said they went back and reviewed the paperwork sent from Bangkok and, even though the print was “unclear”, they would go ahead and issue the visas. God stepped in.
Now we must pray for Koin Yee and for Tommy Shwe. Please send up supplications for them.
The 2nd Problem we face is that our donations are way down. Most of our donations come from America and the economy at home is not in good shape. We need your URGENT PRAYERS that God provide our needs. We seriously need His gracious intervention at this time. We have the Feast coming up and always the day to day expenses of running a school to train young people in God’s Way of Life. It has been a real lesson in faith for us. Gloria and I have been working for the King of Kings in Thailand for 15 years now. It has almost always been a hand to mouth budget. We must pray time and time again for God to intervene to supply our needs. Rarely have we ever seen a surplus. Usually that gets eaten up rather quickly.
So, please help us by sending up some extra prayers to the Almighty asking Him to provide the necessary funds so we can continue the work of educating the young people God sends us from Thailand and Burma. It is His Work in this part of the Earth and these nations desperately need the Gospel of the Kingdom preached to them. It will be the young men and women we train that will be carrying that true Gospel to families and friends, and then spreading it out to the far corners of their countries. Legacy Leadership Training Center is a necessary part of preaching the Good News to those who are blind and broken hearted.
Jesus said:
Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Please pray for us.
Serving the Lord Jesus in Asia,
T. Leon Sexton
