In 1955, a youthful Dutch missionary attended a worldwide communist youth congress in Poland, which was at that time part of the Soviet bloc. But he wasn’t a communist: he was a Christian.

His suitcase contained his Bible, a change of clothes and hundreds of leaflets entitled The Way of Salvation, which he planned to give away.

The trip was to change his life and begin a movement that would impact the world.

‘Thank you for being here’

Behind the Iron Curtain, he discovered churches that were isolated and alone. They were in desperate need of Bibles, support and prayer. He had found a group of Christians who believed the rest of the world had forgotten them.

One evening during that first visit, he was invited to speak at a Baptist church in Warsaw. He tells the story in his best-selling book God’s Smuggler: “At the end of my little talk the pastor said, ‘We want to thank you for being here. Even if you had not said a word, just seeing you would have meant so much. We feel at times as if we are all alone in our struggle.’”

That young man became known as Brother Andrew.

As the work grew he was joined by others and began a work of smuggling Bibles to believers in Communist countries. And today, Brother Andrew’s small Dutch mission has become an international ministry working in more than 70 nations to strengthen the Persecuted Church.

Open Doors still distributes hundreds of thousands of Bibles and Christian books every year. But we also train and support persecuted Christians in other ways.

“When I first discovered a persecuted church behind the Iron Curtain the need was for Bibles,” says Brother Andrew. “But as our ministry expanded, other needs emerged. Thus the strategies vary from country to country.”

Today, of course, the world has changed.

Brother Andrew travelled extensively in the Islamic world, talking to the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. He was among the few Western leaders to regularly travel to the Middle East as an ambassador for Christ to these groups. He also broke Christian religious barriers by preaching in Catholic and Coptic Orthodox churches.

Brother Andrew received many honours and awards in his lifetime. But perhaps the recognition that pleases him most is the copies of the KGB reports, which he obtained after the fall of the Iron Curtain. There were more than 150 pages about him, detailing his work in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They knew a lot about ‘Brother Andrew’, and yet they were still not able to stop his work.

He often has said, “Our very mission is called ‘Open Doors’ because we believe that any door is open, anytime and anywhere. I literally believe that. Every door is open to go in and proclaim Christ, as long as you are willing to go and are not worried about coming back.”

Brother Andrew’s story may be extraordinary, but he himself was always at pains to stress that it was simply because he followed God.

“The real calling,” he has said, “is not to a certain place or career but to everyday obedience. And that call is extended to every Christian, not just a select few.”

He would tell us as he has told many others, “The Bible is full of ordinary people who went to impossible places and did wondrous things simply because they decided to follow Jesus.”

Today, Open Doors has bases and staff all over the world. A new generation continues to smuggle Bibles into regions that are hostile to the faith. They still go wherever needed to show marginalised, isolated and persecuted Christians around the world that they are not forgotten and never alone.

On September 27, 2022, Brother Andrew passed away at his home in Hardervijk, Netherlands.

His passing is a great loss to Open Doors, yet today we celebrate the life he lived and are grateful for his powerful legacy. His life of prayer continues to impact the lives of generations, including those from the persecuted church. He was a real champion of faith and he finished the race set before him with great excellence.