Brother Andrew
Brother Andrew (1928–2022). Born Anne van der Bijl on May 11, 1928, in Sint Pancras, Netherlands, to a poor blacksmith and an invalid mother, Brother Andrew was a Dutch missionary and evangelist renowned for smuggling Bibles into Communist countries during the Cold War. After limited schooling, disrupted by Nazi occupation, he joined the Dutch army at 17, serving in Indonesia, where he was wounded and began reading a Bible, leading to his conversion in 1950. In 1955, attending a Communist youth congress in Poland, he discovered isolated churches desperate for Scriptures, inspiring his lifelong mission based on Revelation 3:2, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains.” Using a blue Volkswagen Beetle, he smuggled millions of Bibles across the Iron Curtain, founding Open Doors in 1955 to support persecuted Christians, now active in over 60 nations. Andrew authored God’s Smuggler (1967) with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, selling over 10 million copies, and Light Force (2004), detailing outreach to Islamic groups like Hamas. He ministered globally, from China to Cuba, and was knighted by Queen Beatrix in 1993. Married in 1958 to Corry, with five children, he died on September 27, 2022, in the Netherlands. He said, “The real calling is not a certain place or career but to everyday obedience.”
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Brother Andrew shares a personal testimony of enduring severe back pain while studying in Scotland, finding solace in Oswald Chambers' book, 'My Utmost for His Highest.' He reflects on Chambers' insight that suffering is often a preparation for greater usefulness in God's hands. Inspired by this, Andrew reaches out to Chambers' widow, Biddy, who warmly welcomes him and shares the story behind the book's creation. This encounter deepens Andrew's appreciation for devotion to God and the legacy of faith. He emphasizes the importance of stepping beyond societal expectations and embracing God's calling.
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In 1953 Andy's back 'went out' while studying at the World Evangelization Crusade school in Scotland. He endured excruciating pain that seemed to never end. One comfort was reading Oswald Chamber's inspiring Christian classic, My Utmost for His Highest. One passage read, 'If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all, they are meant to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across.' Oswald Chambers enlightened Andy's suffering. Chambers himself died far too young from a ruptured appendix. He had been dead many years but Andy learned Chambers' wife Biddy - though quite old - was very much alive in southern England. In a letter to her Andy expressed what great comfort he got from her husband's book. She graciously invited him to visit. That's exactly what the bold young Dutchman did during Christmas holidays. She seemed as happy to see him as he was to see her. He learned Biddy was the one who painstakingly put the classic My Utmost for His Highest together from her own notes of what her husband spoke and wrote. What devotion to her husband and to Christ! When he returned to Scotland the school principal asked, "And where did you go during the holidays, Andrew?" "I spent the holidays with Mrs. Oswald Chambers." "What?" gasped the principal. "You can't do that!" Andy shrugged. He was never very interested in 'you can't do that' attitudes.
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Brother Andrew (1928–2022). Born Anne van der Bijl on May 11, 1928, in Sint Pancras, Netherlands, to a poor blacksmith and an invalid mother, Brother Andrew was a Dutch missionary and evangelist renowned for smuggling Bibles into Communist countries during the Cold War. After limited schooling, disrupted by Nazi occupation, he joined the Dutch army at 17, serving in Indonesia, where he was wounded and began reading a Bible, leading to his conversion in 1950. In 1955, attending a Communist youth congress in Poland, he discovered isolated churches desperate for Scriptures, inspiring his lifelong mission based on Revelation 3:2, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains.” Using a blue Volkswagen Beetle, he smuggled millions of Bibles across the Iron Curtain, founding Open Doors in 1955 to support persecuted Christians, now active in over 60 nations. Andrew authored God’s Smuggler (1967) with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, selling over 10 million copies, and Light Force (2004), detailing outreach to Islamic groups like Hamas. He ministered globally, from China to Cuba, and was knighted by Queen Beatrix in 1993. Married in 1958 to Corry, with five children, he died on September 27, 2022, in the Netherlands. He said, “The real calling is not a certain place or career but to everyday obedience.”