Brother Andrew

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brother Andrew 2007

Anne van der Bijl , called Brother Andrew (born May 11, 1928 in Sint Pancras , Netherlands ) is an evangelical missionary and founder of the Open Doors organization . He became known for smuggling Bibles into the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War , which earned him the nickname “Smuggler of God”.

Origin and Conversion

Anne van der Bijl was born the fourth of six children to a deaf farrier . In 1946, shortly after the Second World War , he joined the colonial army of the Dutch East Indies , which tried in vain to crush the Indonesian independence movement . Indonesia gained independence in 1949 .

In his book "Der Schmuggler Gottes" (The Smuggler of God) he reports that as a soldier he was exposed to severe emotional stress and was finally wounded in the ankle in 1949. During his rehabilitation he read the Bible extensively and became a Christian. From 1953 to 1955 he studied at the Bible Training Institute (now International Christian College ) in Glasgow , Scotland . In 1958 he married his wife Cornelia in Alkmaar , whom he called "Corrie" (after Corrie ten Boom ). They had five children.

Travel to communist countries

In July 1955, van der Bijl visited the People's Republic of Poland “to see how my brothers are doing”. By that he meant the underground church . He was traveling with a group to a communist youth festival so that he could legally stay in the country. During this time he encountered a Bible verse as a personal mandate: “Be awake and strengthen what is left, what was already dying” ( Rev 3,2  EU ). This call led him to various communist-ruled countries where Christians were persecuted behind the " Iron Curtain ".

In 1957 van der Bijl drove from the Netherlands to the Soviet capital Moscow in a VW Beetle . Because he could carry a large amount of Bibles and spiritual literature in it, an elderly couple who supported him had given him his new car. The "Beetle" would later become a symbol of the Open Doors organization he founded . Although he knew that importing religious literature was strictly forbidden in some of the countries he visited, he often placed the material prominently at border and police controls to express his trust in God's protection.

In the 1960s he traveled to the People's Republic of China after the Cultural Revolution had created a hostile climate against Christianity and other religions, during the time of the so-called bamboo curtain . When the repression of the Prague Spring by the Red Army in 1968 put an end to relative religious freedom in Czechoslovakia , he went there to encourage fellow believers and to distribute Bibles to Russian soldiers. He also made his first visits to Cuba after the revolution there in the 1960s .

The smuggler of God

In 1967 the first edition of his book "God's Smuggler" (German "Der Schmuggler Gottes") appeared in collaboration with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. In it he tells the story of his childhood, his conversion and his experiences as a Bible smuggler behind the "Iron Curtain". The book has been translated into several languages ​​and has sold over 10 million copies in total. The German translation appeared for the first time in 1977 and was revised and provided with original photos in 2014 for the 21st total edition (also called "2nd edition 2014" in the German translation).

The publication of his book promoted his concern to publicize the persecution of Christians , but this meant that he could no longer be directly involved in smuggling himself. He now shifted to expanding the organization to Latin America . He was seriously injured in an airplane accident in 1971. During the 1970s, he built bases in Africa and Asia, and 1,981 were due to the huge demand in a big action named " Project Pearl " ( "Project Pearl" one million Bibles) by ship to the People's Republic of China smuggled.

Africa and Middle East

When several African states came under atheist leadership in 1976 , he wrote the book Battle for Africa (German title "Kampf um Afrika") about the spiritual struggle on this continent and called on local Christian leaders in meetings to strengthen their communities. He also visited Lebanon, which was torn by the civil war there, several times and claimed: “The global conflict in the end times will focus on Israel and its neighboring states.”

After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Brother Andrew turned his attention entirely to the Middle East and the Islamic world, where he campaigned to support local Christians. In 1995 van der Bijl gave up the chairmanship of “Open Doors” and in 1997 was honored as “legendary” by the World Evangelical Fellowship .

"Light between the fronts"

Van der Bijl visited the Middle East more frequently in the 1990s. In his book Light Force (German title "Lichtbetween the Fronten") he reports on the Arab communities in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories , who expressed great joy about the visit of a fellow Christian from abroad because they differed from the churches in the western world largely ignored.

According to his book, he also visited some Palestinians whom the State of Israel had deported as suspected terrorists to an isolated mountainous landscape and preached the gospel to them . Together with his companion Al Janssen, he also visited PLO and Hamas leaders, including Ahmad Yasin and Yasser Arafat , handed them Bibles and questioned their militant motives in the conflict with the State of Israel.

Finally, in this book he introduces a project called Musalaha ( Arabic for "reconciliation") that seeks to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together.

Honors

  • 2014: Stephanus Prize for his commitment to persecuted and disadvantaged Christians.

Works

The works appeared in the original under the pseudonym "Brother Andrew", in German under "Brother Andrew".

  • 1967: God's Smuggler (with J. and E. Sherrill), German 1977: Der Schmuggler Gottes . 14th edition, Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus, February 2007, ISBN 3-417-20875-0 (formerly ISBN 3-417-20291-4 ). 2nd edition 2014 (21st total edition): SCM Hänssler im SCM-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Holzgerlingen, ISBN 978-3-7751-5390-4 .
  • 1974: The Ethics of Smuggling . Tyndale House Publishers.
  • 1976: Battle for Africa (with Charles Paul Conn), German: Kampf um Afrika. What the press is hiding from us . Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus, 1978, ISBN 3-417-12167-1
  • 1990: And God changed His mind (with Susan DeVore Williams), German:
    • Then God changed his mind ... because his people dared to pray . Open Borders, 1998, ISBN 3-9520707-0-X
    • God moves mountains - if we ask him. Experiences of the “smuggler of God” with the power of prayer . Gießen: Brunnen, 2005, ISBN 3-7655-1363-6 (Paperback: ISBN 3-7655-3897-3 )
  • 1995: Personally yours , German: For you personally. 40 messages from 40 years of service for the persecuted church . Open Borders, 1995, ISBN 3-9520707-2-6
  • 2001: The Narrow Road. Stories of Those Who Walk This Road Together . Baker Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8007-5793-9
  • 2002: The Calling (with Verne Becker), German: The order. The incomparable story of a world changer . Erzhausen: Leuchter Edition, 2003, ISBN 3-417-20628-6
  • 2004: Light Force (with Al Janssen), German: Light between the fronts. News from God's smuggler . Gießen: Brunnen, 2005, ISBN 3-7655-1878-6 (Paperback: ISBN 3-7655-3898-1 )
  • 2007: Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Turn to Christ? (with Al Janssen), German: Traitors of their faith: The dangerous life of Muslims who became Christians . Giessen: Brunnen, 2008, ISBN 3-7655-4019-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Open Doors Deutschland eV: How it all began. Retrieved November 9, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The “Smuggler of God” turns 90 , idea.de, article from May 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Andrew, brother
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bijl, Anne van der
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant missionary and founder of the Open Doors organization
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Sint Pancras , Netherlands