Brother Andrew

Anne van der Bijl was born on May 11, 1928, in the Netherlands, in a poor family. His father was a blacksmith who had been disabled by an accident, and the family lived in a small house with little money. He grew up during the German occupation of the Netherlands and watched the brutality of the war. He left school early and learned a trade. He was not especially religious, though his family attended church.

In 1946 he joined the Dutch army and was sent to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, where fighting broke out. He was a soldier who was reckless, and he was eager for adventure. In 1949 he was shot in the ankle and sent to a hospital, where he was told that he might not walk again. Lying in bed, he read a Bible that someone had given him. He turned to Christ in the hospital and gave himself to the Lord. His ankle healed, and he returned to the Netherlands.

He went to a missionary training school in Scotland and later felt called to take the gospel to people behind the Iron Curtain. In 1955 he traveled to Warsaw, Poland, for a youth festival organized by the Communists. While there, he met Christians who were isolated and eager for support. He saw that the church behind the Iron Curtain was suffering and had few Bibles. He decided to go back, again and again, to bring them what he could.

He bought a small Volkswagen Beetle and used it to carry Bibles across the borders of Eastern Europe. At each checkpoint, he prayed that God would make seeing eyes blind. He often hid the Bibles in the car's frame or among his luggage, and he passed through again and again with the Scriptures in plain sight. He became known as Brother Andrew. In 1955 he founded Open Doors, a mission to support persecuted Christians, which grew into a worldwide organization. His first book, God's Smuggler, published in 1967 with the help of John and Elizabeth Sherrill, told the story. It sold in the millions and was translated into many languages.

He went on to carry Bibles to the Soviet Union, to China and into the Muslim world. He spent time in the Middle East, where he met leaders of groups regarded as terrorists, including Hamas and Hezbollah. He said he wished to share the love of Christ with them. This brought criticism from many Christians, who thought that he was naive or reckless. He defended his approach, saying that Jesus ate with sinners and that the church must not shun any people. He wrote of these experiences in later books.

He had faults of his own. He was a headstrong man who acted on impulse. He admitted that his work took him away from his family often, and his wife, Corry, bore much of the load. They had five children. He was also sometimes quick to criticize church leaders who he felt had grown comfortable.

He stepped down from the leadership of Open Doors in 2003 and spent his later years in the Netherlands and the Middle East, speaking and encouraging believers. He died on September 27, 2022, at the age of ninety-four. His life shows what a simple man can do who takes God at His word, and how the church of the free can stand with the church that suffers.