General News

King Bhumibol in Royal Navy uniform

Seated L to R Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Her Majesty the Queen, His Majesty the King.

Crowds wave and shout Long Live the King as royal boat passes

Leon Sexton’s comments:

This is only the second time in as many months that the king has left the hospital accompanied by the queen to go on an inspection tour of the areas along the Chao Praya River that were affected by the previous flooding that inundated river banks and northern Bangkok.  Even the ancient capital of Ayuttaya was flooded with damage to many of the ancient temples that line the banks of the river.

86 year old King Bhumibol does not stay in the palace, but resides in a hospital under 24 hour medical care.  He had wanted to walk out of the hospital under “his own steam”, but that hasn’t happened yet and he still must use a wheel chair.  However, he is undergoing physical therapy and now can walk a short distance on his own.  All hope soon that he can fulfill his goal of walking out of the door of the hospital un-aided.

Every time the king gets out among the people they are thrilled and mass the avenues to catch a glimpse of His Majesty while chanting, “Long Live the King.”  Nobody pays them like they do in other countries to make it appear to Western media that the leader is popular. The people of Thailand really do what they do from their hearts because King Bhumibol is the stabilizing force in the country.  He is politically neutral and seldom intervenes according to his very limited constitutional powers.  He reserves the right to intervene with his very powerful influence only when it is absolutely necessary to prevent bloodshed or social calamity.

The Thai people look to him as the father of the country and pray for his physical recovery and well-being.  His presence is both electrifying and calming at the same time.

Long live the king.

Leon Sexton from Chiang Mai, Thailand

View on Blogger: King’s journey delights subjects

June 24, 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi gives speech to supporters at Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon, Myanmar on 17 November 2011. Photo: Htoo Tay Zar

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and once one of the most famous political prisoners in modern history, is now traveling the world on behalf of the government and people of her native Burma (Myanmar).  She had been under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years.  Now her political party, called the National League for Democracy, is part of the Myanmar government and recently won 41 of the 43 vacant seats in the lower house of the Myanmar parliament.  The military backed party still controls most of parliament, but her election and the inclusion of the NLD in government signals changes to come.  Until now, Burma has been an isolated pariah state controlled by powerful military leaders.  Those leaders are now claiming they wish to bring democracy to their country and the world is listening.

I expected that the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Myanmar at the beginning of December, 2011 would bring about dramatic change – and it has.   Aung San Suu Kyi’s inclusion in Burma’s government and her second foreign trip abroad in many years (the first was a recent trip to Thailand) will do more to open up Burma than anything else one could dream of.

The nations of the Western world are lining up to roll out the red carpet for Suu Kyi.  On June 21 she addressed the British Parliament at Westminster Hall; the first non–head of state ever to do so.  She is asking the world to help Burma and the world is eagerly agreeing, not least of all because Burma is rich in natural resources that both developed and developing nations lust for.  Since March of this year, Burma has signed nine oil and gas exploration deals with foreign concerns from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia.  These companies will explore for oil and natural gas inland and offshore.  The reserves are expected to be large and easy to extract.  The United States, South Korea and Japan have all signed memorandums with the Burmese government to build hydro-electric dams on the country’s mighty rivers, the Irawaddy and the Salween.  China is presently trying to build a hydro-electric generating dam on the Meka and Melika Rivers in Kachinland which is being opposed by the Kachin Independence Army, one of the largest insurgent armies in Burma.

Oil and natural gas are not the only riches of Burma.  The country is famous for its rubies and sapphires and the rivers run rich in gold and platinum.  Almost all of so-called Chinese Jade comes from the Kachin State of Burma.  China is very interested in Burma because of its rich resources in Rare Earth Minerals needed for the instruments of modern technology and hydro-electric power to feed the exploding economy of Southern China.  Everyone is lining up to get a piece of the action.

What does this mean for the Work of God in Burma?

The billions of dollars of foreign investment will mean increased opportunity for the growing number of church members in Burma.  It will mean jobs and opportunities for higher education.  It will mean roads and electricity going into remote areas.  It will mean a loosening of restrictions on foreigners traveling into remote border areas. It will mean increased communications and travel to and from the outside world.  Most importantly, it will mean that the government must settle its conflicts with numerous ethnic minorities that have been fighting a protracted war with the Burmese government for over 50 years.  This freeing up of draconian restrictions and an exploding economy will increase opportunities to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Great change is in the wind.  Pray for more workers in the harvest fields.  It is important that we train young men and women from COG congregations in Burma to return home and help lead their people in obedience to God’s Way of Life.  We have three new students arriving this week in Thailand from Rangoon to begin classes at Legacy Institute Leadership Training Center.

Writing from Bangkok, Thailand,
Leon Sexton

View on Blogger: Winds of Change in Burma?

Who knew a little grain of rice took so much time and effort to produce!  It is a small grain that is fairly inexpensive and unobtrusive but a staple food in most Asian countries.  In late May at Jet Rye (3-1/2 acres), 30 minutes north of the school, we planted rice the Thai style or the wet patty process.  As you will see below a full days work of tilling the ground, flooding the patties, pulling rice seedlings, and finally transplanting the rice plants in the two patties takes quite a bit of effort.  Plus that is only half of the process!  Several months from now when we harvest the rice we will yield about 300 kg. of rice from the each of the patties we planted.  The school uses more than four times that much during the year so eventually we hope to produce enough rice for the entire year so we will not have to buy any at the market.  Just one of the ways we are trying to move toward a self sustainable farm at Legacy.  Check back in in a couple months to see how we harvest and process the rice for food.

Sunny Say taking a water break and cooling off.

Surachai tilling the ground to prepare the soil.

Channeling water from a nearby pond to flood the patties.

Students starting to plant rice seedlings in the mud.

Several months ago we broadcast rice in this patty and this is the result. Here I am pulling out the young rice seedlings to be transplanted in a nearby flooded patty.

Pulling rice seedlings

Who says hard work can’t be fun!

Transplanting the rice in the muddy patty.

Only one of the students fell backwards in the mud while planting. We all had a good laugh…even the student who fell : D

Halfway done with the first patty. More to come when the rice is harvested.

Posted by: Aj. Abigail

View on Blogger: A New Appreciation for Rice!

(Title: As seen in recent newspaper headlines)


May 30, 2012

Ruins of the ancient Ayutthaya, the capitol of Siam (Photo: Norbert Nagel, 2009)

Monument to Queen Suriyothai (Photo: Heinrich Damm, 2006)

Suriyothai is one of Thailand’s greatest heroines and the theme of a romantic movie that released in 2001 called The Legend of Suriyothai.  A momument to her bravery now stands at the site of the battle.  The king and queen also visited this monument and laid garlands.


Also, it was reported that the king is responding well to physical therapy and now able to walk a short distance unassisted.  This is very good news to all of us.


Leon Sexton

View on Blogger: Thai king makes 1st trip outside Bangkok in years

What I saw before – and after – I ate the nut!

I didn’t know what it was, and he was having a hard time explaining, so he opened it up and I realized it was a macadamia nut. This was kind of exciting for me – I’d never seen the nut in the shell – only in a jar! I ate the nut, which was delicious.

Peto (my student) said that he was not going to eat the nuts, but plant them. I had no idea what the trees look like.

Macadamia Pacman

From that time on, I’d see Peto go back and water his plants. After awhile there were numerous small trees. Peto graduated, so all his trees were moved to the farm and re-potted.

A small macadamia tree.

I did some research online and found that a macadamia tree will begin to bear fruit in about five years. So you can check back then to see the finished result!