In Christendom all over the world, Andrew Van der Bijl is known as Brother Andrew. Brother Andrew was known as God’s Smuggler because of his audacity in smuggling Bibles into countries behind the Iron Curtain. He died on September 27 at the age of 94.
His adventures as a Bible smuggler began after
a trip in 1955 to visit the underground church in Poland. Compelled to respond
to the summons by Jesus, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die,
for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.” (Revelation 3:2).
Over the
years he also visited the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia and Cuba. During this
time he began to pray, “Lord, in my luggage I have scripture
that I want to take to your children, when you were on Earth, you made bling eyes
see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those
things you do not want them to see.” Time and time again, Brother Andrew’s
prayer was answered as he was permitted into countries where it was illegal to
bring in religious literature.
When the Iron Curtain fell this missionary shifted his focus to the Middle East and
churches in the Moslem world. In the 1970s he visited the country of Lebanon a
few times, this continued in the 1990s and he also gave Bibles to renowned PLO and Hamas leaders Yasser Arafat and Ahmed
Yassin.
The founder
of Open Doors was moved by his belief that, “The real calling is not a
certain place or career, but to everyday obedience. And that call is extended
to every Christian, not just a select few.” Furthermore, Van der Bijl also
pointed out that, “The Bible is full of ordinary people who went to impossible
places and did wondrous things simply because they decided to follow Jesus.”
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