23 February 2010
Then Phillip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Acts 8:35
If ever there was an unlikely candidate for success who defied the odds and succeeded, it was a man who is known to the Christian world simply as Brother Andrew. Today his organization has a presence in more than 100 countries of the world. He describes himself as “a stubborn Dutchman, the son of a blacksmith, employed by a Jewish carpenter.” He depreciates his accomplishments, saying, “I’m just an ordinary guy who has tried to listen for God’s calling in my life and then obey.”
And what have been Andrew’s qualifications for success? Because his school days were cut short when Holland was invaded by the Germans, he never attended high school or college. His only formal education consisted of a two-year missionary training course in Glasgow, Scotland where he was described as a “mediocre student.” Upon graduation, Andrew was told that there was no need for him to apply with the Worldwide Evangelism Crusade, whose school he had attended, because he was simply too weak to travel. Andrew said he was tempted to believe them, but he didn’t.
Eventually proving them wrong, Andrew has visited more countries than a dog has fleas. His fascinating odyssey, which is told in his book God’s Smuggler, with more than 10 million copies in print, began before he left the Glasgow school in 1955. In the basement where luggage was stored, Andrew found a magazine. He described it as “a slick publication with four-color photos of impassioned young people marching the streets of Prague, Warsaw and Peking.” The youths described in the article wanted to change the world. So did Andrew, but in a different way. The article concluded with an invitation to attend a Communist rally in Warsaw. Andrew went, but as a Christian.
A short while later, when Czechoslovakia was invaded by Russian soldiers, Andrew—now living back in his native Holland—filled his little blue Volkswagen with Bibles and headed for the Czechoslovakian border while practically everyone else was fleeing the opposite direction. His very presence was a tremendous encouragement to the Christians who took the Russian Bibles and gave them to the invading soldiers—many of whom were demoralized by such acts of kindness and love.
He’s convinced that if we don’t take the Word of God to our enemies, God will bring them to us. Eventually naming his organization Open Doors—a kind of symbolical statement for what he believes—men and women following in Andrew’s footsteps have taken Bibles into China, Russia, Siberia, the Arab countries and a long, long list of places where doors are closed.
What makes this man tick? Is he really too dumb to know that you can’t do what he has done? No! I’ve been privileged to know this man for most of his 50 years of ministry, and I respect his tremendous dedication and commitment to the cause of Christ and to touching the suffering, lonely men and women cut off from the rest of the world.
I admit that Andrew doesn’t think like most of the Christian leaders I know. When others run in retreat, he advances in faith. Perfect? No. He’s quick to admit that he and his organization have made mistakes, but he perseveres when others grumble complaints about the ethics of taking Bibles where governments don’t approve of this Book. But the reality is that God has approved of what he has done, and thousands and thousands of men and women who received a Bible because of his tenacity have been blessed and encouraged.
Unlikely candidates for success may differ many ways, but of them all one thing is true: Those who lack much trust much, and when God calls, they follow quickly and without giving him ten arguments why it cannot be done. Among these is the Dutchman still pressing on in his early 80s (born May 11, 1928) known as Brother Andrew.
Resource reading: Acts 8:34—40