Brother Andrew, Anne van der Bijl,
1928, born in the Netherlands. He visited
Communist underground churches in the 50’s
and 60’s and founded Open Doors. His first
book is called God’s Smuggler and has many
testimonies about his work in bringing the
Gospel to Eastern Europe and Russia. I think
his main push now is in the Middle East. His
last book, the seventh, Secret Believers: What
Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ,
came out in 2007.
“I’m a dumb Dutchman, the son of a
blacksmith, and I work for a Jewish carpenter.
I’m just an ordinary guy who has tried to
listen to God’s calling in my life and then
obey.”
In 1968, when the Soviet Union rolled
tanks into Prague, Brother Andrew was at
home watching on TV. He got into his Citroen
station wagon, left his family in Holland,
and drove straight for the Czech border
with his car full of Bibles and tracts. Everybody
was trying to get out and he was alone
trying to drive in.
As early as 1961 he was evangelizing in
East Germany before they built the wall. All
the way back to his training in Glasgow in
1953 with Worldwide Evangelism Crusade,
people told him, “You can’t do that.”
“The door may seem closed, but it's only
closed the way a supermarket door is closed.
It stays shut when you remain at a distance,
but as you deliberately move toward it, a
magic eye above it sees you coming, and the
door opens. God is waiting for us to walk forward
in obedience so He can open the door
for us to serve Him.” —from For the Love Of
My Brothers
He went to Cuba several times in the
60’s when most churches and seminaries
were still operating. I’d like to copy and drag
in an exert from his book. He was frequently
interrogated by authorities in his travels to
Cuba. This is a sit down he had with the Minister
of Culture.
“I know all about your trips to this country
and what you've been doing here,” he said
bluntly. He held up a thick file of police reports
on all the places I'd gone and the people
I'd seen on previous visits. “From now on,
you are not to preach here anymore.”
“I'd been issued this order many times in
my travels. But I refused to accept it. “If I am
not allowed to preach, sir,” I replied, “then
would you object if I asked questions of the
people?”
“Well…,” he said, pausing for a moment,
“I suppose there would be no harm in
your doing that.”
“Carefully I tried to bring him one step
farther. ‘And suppose the people wanted to
ask me a few questions? Can I answer them?’
“Still another pause. ‘I don't believe that
would cause any problems.’
“That was all the permission I needed.
Within his guidelines, I could basically say
whatever I wanted.
“In hopes of building a bridge to him, I
continued the conversation. ‘Sir, do you realize
that if the church in Russia had been truly
Christian, there would never have been a
revolution?’
“I certainly do,’ he retorted. ‘And I don't
have to tell you how pleased I am that many
Christian churches around the world are not
very Christian. Because of that, our revolution
will continue to spread. Nothing will
stop it. We have one aim—to win this world.
But you people often seem more concerned
with pie in the sky.’
He had a point there.
“I can only respect a Christian if he tries
to win me to his cause,’ he added with a
smirk. ‘But thankfully there are not too many
like that.’”
He worked for the Christians in Uganda,
Angola, South Africa, China, Lebanon, Palestine,
Poland and so many formerly Communist
countries of the Soviet Block. In their
Project Pearl, Andrew worked with Doug
Sutphen, they worked to bring a million Bibles
into China. They sailed a boat from Mindoro
in the Philippines to Fujian Province on
the east coast in 1981 on a three day journey.
With a tugboat that could hold 20 people,
the unloading crew, they towed a barge carrying
232 one ton blocks of Bibles. Each block
had 48 waterproofed boxes with 90 Bibles
per box. With motor powered rubber boats
the volunteers, mostly Americans, rendezvoused
with some 2000 Christians from the
Chinese side to bring the Bible blocks to
shore. From there they were broken up into
their boxes and passed on to predetermined
spots. The operation was in planning for a
full year.
