Wichita ? Top-flight pilot. Generous father. Loving husband.

Relatives and friends of Martin Burnham heaped praise on the slain missionary during his funeral Friday, one week after the bloody Philippines rescue attempt survived by his wife, Gracia.

Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. Sam Brownback and other dignitaries attended the service at Central Christian Church, where a large floral arrangement lay over Burnham’s casket.

Somber piano music and a slide show started the funeral. Gracia Burnham later bowed her head as Pastor Joe Wright led the audience in prayer.

Rev. Galen Hinshaw, Martin’s uncle, read letters written from Burnham’s relatives to him. One came from Burnham’s daughter, Mindy, who wrote that he often sang to her, playfully inserting her name into the song’s lyrics.

“My dad was the most generous person I have ever known,” the 12-year-old wrote. “Even though we weren’t a rich family, any time I would want or need anything, he did his best to get it for me.”

The Rev. Oli Jacobsen, chairman of the New Tribes Mission executive committee, spoke for about 10 minutes, said Burnham was the mission group’s top pilot and recalled Burnham as “kind and gentle, but he was no weak person.”

“He always took time to hike to missionaries’ homes, even though it was often quite a distance, to spend some time with them,” Jacobsen said.

The Rev. Clay Bowlin, who attended Calvary Bible College in Kansas City with Martin Burnham in the early 1980s and was Burnham’s requested speaker should he die as a hostage, recounted their time together as students and Martin’s career as a missionary pilot in the Philippines.

“Lord, 23 years ago, when my brother and I were in college together, you were with us then, and you’re with us now,” he said.

“His great gift was for encouragement,” Bowlin said later during an emotional 30-minute sermon. “He put others in front of himself.”

Hundreds came to Thursday’s four-hour long visitation for slain missionary Martin Burnham most who never met them, but were touched deeply by the couple’s unwavering faith amid the hostage ordeal.

“Their strength, their belief in God it makes you appreciate people that try to make the world a better place,” said Rose Hill resident Rhonda Davis as she left the funeral home.

A flower arrangement on the open casket identified Burnham still wearing the beard he grew while he was held hostage in the Philippines for more than a year as a husband, father, son, and brother.

Martin Burnham was killed during a firefight between the Philippine army and Abu Sayyaf rebels holding him and his wife hostage since May 27, 2001. Gracia Burnham was injured but returned home Monday to Rose Hill.

His parents, Paul and Oreta, and his two brothers, Brian and Doug, visited with people who filed into the sanctuary at Smith Family Mortuary in Derby.

A nearby television played slides of him and his family and their mission work in the Philippines.

Friday’s service was expected to draw more than 4,000 people and be followed by a private burial at the Rose Hill Cemetery. The public was invited to a luncheon afterward at the Rose Hill Multipurpose School Facility.

Also expected to attend the funeral were the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Francis Ricciardone, along with the Philippines ambassador to the United States, Albert del Rosario.

In the weeks before his death, Burnham asked his wife that his funeral feature a sermon by Bowlin, a Kansas City pastor, and a special song, “Ashokan Farewell.”