As we sat on the floor and sang songs of the hope we have in Jesus, we could smell incense burning beside us. Monks were setting up for the next ceremony, and people walked around us in order to bow to the casket of the one we had gathered to remember. Welcome to a Buddhist funeral for a Christian.

At 86, Yai (grandmother) Suphorn had been the oldest member of our church in Surin. She had become a Christian 68 years before, at the age of 18, and later in life she became an Adventist. She raised her children as Christians and served her community as a Christian. There was no question in anyone’s mind that Yai Suphorn was a Christian, but here we were on the grounds of a Buddhist temple, competing with the surrounding distractions as we attempted to give her a service befitting a Christian.

Even though Yai Suphorn raised her children Christian, the pervasive force of Buddhism in this culture took some of them away from Christ. Yai’s oldest son, a Buddhist, insisted on a Buddhist funeral for his mother. At first I was a little upset and annoyed. They know she was a Christian. How can they disrespect her memory this way? I thought to myself. But, in Thailand, the family makes all decisions about a funeral.

I watched people as they came and lit incense, bowed down to the casket, and prayed to Yai, saying goodbye or asking forgiveness for a wrong done to her. I heard the recordings of Buddhist sermons broadcast over the PA when ceremonies were not going on. There seemed to be very little thought given to what the deceased—Yai—would have wanted. It was all about what the living—Yai’s Buddhist family members—wanted: a chance to make merit.

When ceremonies weren’t going on, we would get together and sing songs and share favorite memories and testimonies from Yai’s life. Over the five days of the funeral, we had the opportunity to share Bible promises and Yai’s hope in Jesus with church members, with Yai’s Christian family and friends, and with many Buddhist friends as well.

This funeral reminded us of the challenges Christians face in such a strongly Buddhist country. It also reminded us of the opportunities we have at funerals to share the love of Jesus and the hope found in Him. We have grown in our understanding of how we can use funerals to reach new people. Funerals are not for the dead, but for the living. We have seen firsthand the need for culturally relevant Christian ways of honoring the dead and remembering their faith and hope while encouraging those who might not share our faith. We want to create a hunger in them for something better—Someone better.

We praise God for the life and faith of Yai Suphorn and the witness she had in life and in death.

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