It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In some cases it can be worth even more. Before serving as director for the Global Mission Center for East Asian Religions in the 1990s, Clifton Maberly had served a number of years in Thailand as a missionary. He noticed that people were drawn to storytelling through pictures.

“I was in a village one day with Pastor Mun Luncey, and he said to me, Have you ever seen the painting of the last life of the Buddha? I said, No. He said, Every temple has one. He knew the leader of the local temple. He went to him and asked, Can you show this foreigner your picture of the last life of the Buddha? He came and brought it out, rolled it out. It was 50 meters long. What was most interesting to me is when we rolled it out, the children who came to look at me, they suddenly forgot about me. They went and got their friends and told each other the story from the long picture on the grass.”

For some time, Clifton had been brainstorming ways to make the gospel message relatable to the Thai people.

“I already knew that painting was the main means of memory of stories in temples. Paintings are never worshiped here. People never pray to them. We’re not in danger of idolatry. People’s way of reminding themselves of their own stories was paintings.”

Clifton wanted to commission paintings to tell the story of Jesus. He visited the fine art university, and one of the painting teachers recommended Clifton talk to his mentor and teacher.

“I went to the teacher’s college and found him. I said to him, I have a strange request here. I want to tell a story that hasn’t been told in Thailand before, but I want to do it through Thai art. Not because it has to but because it may speak to the heart better and it will be a talking point, rather than bringing art from somewhere else.”

The accomplished Thai artist agreed. For several weeks, they strategized how to best communicate the story Clifton wanted to tell. They decided to start with a scene depicting Jesus’ second coming, a scene that had never been created in the Thai Lanna art style often seen in temples across the country.

“The painting was there being slowly formed in the heart of their home. There was a big pile of books, Spirit of Prophecy books, a book he had borrowed from the library. That was the main thing in his living room for about 10 months while he did the first painting. Every time I visited him it was there. I thought, Would I put so much effort into telling somebody else’s gospel as he put in telling my gospel?”

After months of laboring over the painting, it was finally finished and placed in the Chiang Mai Adventist Church, located in the culturally rich and historic city center.

“This is the picture of the second coming of Christ. We have portrayed the second coming of Christ many different ways but there is a description in Revelation of the rider on the white horse with his following horses as a picture of the second coming. He’s taken that one literally and made that the arrival of the rider on the white horse.”

“All of that is in this picture. The struggle, the rescue of the people who almost die in darkness that are taken off and the world is left desolate behind it. This is the first painting he painted.”

The Chiang Mai community was very interested in the paintings and would visit the Adventist church to come see them.

“People came every day to look at the paintings. Teachers would organize field trips from primary school, from secondary school, from teacher’s college, from the university. They came to get introduced to the pictures, to see the pictures as a class project. Buddhist monks came to the door and said, We heard you have some paintings. Can you open the church for us to see them?”

“I never had any negative reaction from any of those people. They were all willing to listen to the story from beginning to end. I can’t just bring people from the street and say, Let me tell you what Adventists believe about the end of the world. No one’s going to sit and listen. But with a painting, they just listened like lambs and asked many questions about it. It seemed to open them up to curiosity in a way that talking will never do.”

By contextualizing the gospel for the people of northern Thailand, Clifton and the Thai painter opened doors that may have never opened otherwise. They offered the opportunity for people to see a message of hope that most of them would not have listened to if it had not been painted.

Now, over 35 years later, these paintings are displayed in the library of Asia Pacific International University where many of the students are from a Buddhist background and where the climate control can preserve these paintings for future generations to see.

Please pray for the people of Thailand and throughout the 10/40 Window, where the majority of people aren’t Christian. Despite having different worldviews, using creative means like these create opportunities for connection.

What about mission in your community? Are there ways you can contextualize the Adventist message to those around you?