Known as Brother Andrew in English-speaking nations, Andrew “Anne” van der Bijl (Dutch: 11 May 1928 – 27 September 2022) was a Dutch Christian missionary and the creator of the Christian organization Open Doors. Known for smuggling Bibles and other Christian material into communist nations during the Cold War, he earned the moniker “God’s Smuggler” for his actions.
Biography of Brother Andrew
Van der Bijl was born on May 11, 1928, in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, the fourth of six children of a poor blacksmith and an invalid mother. He joined the Dutch East Indies colonial army during the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s, and after being involved in a massacre of Indonesian villagers while serving as a soldier, he suffered a period of extreme emotional stress and was later wounded in the ankle during the fighting. As he recovered, he read a Bible that his mother had given him, and upon his return to the Netherlands, he began attending church and devoted himself to Christianity. In 1953, Van der Bijl attended the WEC Missionary Training College in Glasgow, Scotland.
Open Doors Ministry
While attending the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw, Communist Poland, in July 1955, van der Bijl met a Christian bookstore owner who informed him about the dearth of Bibles in the Soviet Union. The only legal method to enter Czechoslovakia was to join a government-run Communist tour, which he later deserted to meet with local Christian organizations. Van der Bijl established Open Doors, a non-denominational organization that aids persecuted Christians, later that year. Bibles and Christian literature were smuggled, Christian leaders were trained, and persecuted Christians received financial and other forms of help from Open Doors.
Van der Bijl drove a Volkswagen Beetle, which came to represent Open Doors, to Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, in 1957. The Whetstras, an elderly couple, had prayed about it and thought van der Bijl would need their new car, so they gave it to him. According to Karl de Graaf, an Amersfoort resident, God instructed him to teach van der Bijl how to drive. Philip Whetstra later invited van der Bijl to visit the Whetstras’ new home in Amsterdam when he was in a West German refugee camp.
As a sign of his faith in what he perceived to be God’s protection, van der Bijl frequently displayed the religious literature when he was stopped at police checkpoints, despite the fact that doing so was against the law in every nation he visited.
In the 1960s, during the so-called Bamboo Curtain era, Van der Bijl traveled to China after the Cultural Revolution had established an anti-Christian and anti-religious agenda. He traveled to Czechoslovakia at a time when there was little to no religious freedom due to the Soviet Union’s repression of the Prague Spring. He visited Czech Christians and provided the Russian occupiers with Bibles. He also made his first trips to Cuba during that decade, which was comparatively simple for him because Dutch nationals were not required to get a visa in order to bring Bibles there following the Cuban Revolution.
Bible smuggling was condemned as dangerous and ineffectual by a number of Christian organizations at the time, including the American Bible Society and the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, which pointed out that Bibles were “freely on sale” in many Iron Curtain nations. KGB informers eventually infiltrated Open Doors, and the KGB monitored van der Bijl’s activities.
God’s Smuggler
Together with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, van der Bijl published the first version of God’s Smuggler in 1967. God’s Smuggler is an autobiography that chronicles his early years, his conversion to Christianity, and his experiences smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. Van der Bijl stopped personally smuggling Bibles and Christian literature to other nations as a result of the book’s media attention. Instead, he focused on evangelism and fundraising initiatives in North America and Europe to promote Open Doors. It was released in 35 languages and sold over 10 million copies by 2022. God’s Smuggler was adapted as a comic book by Spire Christian Comics in 1972.
Brother Andrew Testimony
Having made multiple trips to Lebanon in the 1970s, van der Bijl turned his attention to the Middle East and sought to support the church in the Muslim world following the collapse of Communism in Europe. Van der Bijl made numerous trips to the Middle East in the 1990s. In his book Light Force, he describes how Arab and Lebanese churches in Israel, Lebanon, and Israeli-occupied territories were thrilled to have a fellow Christian from another country visit them because they felt that the church in the West was largely neglecting them. Similarly, van der Bijl and a friend, Al Janssen, paid visits to PLO and Hamas officials, such as Yasser Arafat and Ahmed Yassin.
Van de Bijl was given permission by Arafat to establish a Christian bookstore in the Gaza Strip. Van der Bijl also discussed Christianity at the Islamic University of Gaza while there. In the 2010s, van der Bijl also made travels to Pakistan, where he made an effort to speak with Taliban fighters. According to Van der Bijl, American evangelical Christians were excessively supportive of the US invasions of Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001. Having earlier prayed for Osama bin Laden, he also denounced the operation as “murder” and decried the assassination.
In 2007, Van der Bijl published his ninth book, Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ. On September 27, 2022, Van der Bijl passed away at the age of 94. He had been married to Corry, who lived from 1931 to 2018, for 59 years. They had five children and eleven grandkids and had remained in Holland. Open Doors operated in more than 60 countries at the time of his passing. Every year, the organization distributes 1.5 million Christian publications and materials, including 300,000 Bibles. The organization actively supports persecuted Christians worldwide by offering relief, aid, community development, and trauma counseling.
Books by Brother Andrew
- Brother Andrew; Sherrill, John; Sherrill, Elizabeth (2001). God’s Smuggler. Chosen Books.
- Brother Andrew (1974). The Ethics of Smuggling. Tyndale House.
- Brother Andrew; Conn, Charles Paul (1977). Battle for Africa. Fleming H. Revell.
- Brother Andrew (1981). Building in a Broken World. Tyndale House.
- Brother Andrew; Jackson, Dave; Jackson, Neta (1988). A Time for Heroes. Servant Books.
- Brother Andrew; DeVore Williams, Susan (1990). And God Changed His Mind. Chosen Books.
- Brother Andrew; Sherrill, John; Sherrill, Elizabeth; featuring Jars of Clay (2001). The Narrow Road: Stories of Those Who Walk This Road Together.
- Brother Andrew; Becker, Verne (2002). The Calling. Fleming H. Revell.
- Brother Andrew; Janssen, Al (2004). Light Force. Fleming H. Revell.
- Brother Andrew; Janssen, Al (2007). Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ. Fleming H. Revell.
