Nobody likes funerals, but I went to a funeral recently which really blessed my heart. Pastor Sakaun is a national pastor here in Cambodia who was led to Christ about 12 years ago by my good friend, Missionary Rodney Ruppel. You can read a bit of Pastor Sakaun's testimony here.
A couple of weeks ago Pastor Sakaun called me and told me that he had just gotten word that his mother had passed away. Of course, I felt sorrow for his loss, but even more so because his pastor (Bro. Ruppel) had just left for the United States for furlough and was not there to encourage him. He told me that the funeral would be the next day, which was a Saturday. I decided to take a van load of our church folks to the funeral to try to encourage this sweet family, and several things really challenged me.
The first thing that moved my heart occurred before we even arrived at the funeral. We had directions to the village, but did not know how to get to the specific house. I had been told to call when we got to the front edge of the village and someone would come out and lead us to the house. Usually it is not hard to find a funeral or wedding in a small village, because of the portable tent that is set up in the road for the event and the monks chanting over a very loud speaker. As this was a Christian funeral, we knew we wouldn't hear the chanting monks, but I thought perhaps we would see the tent. As we pulled up to the village we noticed the area was thick with trees; thus, we did not see the funeral tent. I pulled to the side of the road to call and ask where to go, and suddenly I heard a beautiful sound wafting through the village - the song "I Need Thee Every Hour"! I turned around and looked at our church people and smiled. "I guess we don't need to call after all." We followed the song straight to the funeral!
