Andrew van der Bijl

So, Gunilla, would you tell us a little bit about open doors and what your role with them is?

So Open Doors, they serve the persecuted church and their history stretches back to 1955 here where Brother Andrew started smuggling Bibles in behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.

A global snapshot here.

It's a bit depressing, really.

What's coming out in February?

Well, the Brother Andrew cast album is what I'm working on now.

So that's what's next.

Awesome.

Praise the Lord, Brother Andrew.

Good morning.

Good morning.

providing support for those who are most vulnerable because they have decided to follow Jesus Christ.

It all began back in 1955 when our founder, Brother Andrew of God Smuggler fame, some of you have read that book.

There is a comic for those who read like I do.

But he started smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain.

Next slide, please.

Started back in 1955 by this guy when he was a lot younger, a 27-year-old Dutch missionary, Brother Andrew.

How many of you have read God's Smuggler? Come on.

Well, you can hear his incredible tale of smuggling Bibles to oppress Christians beyond the Iron Curtain.

If you want to help with some $10 Tim Hortons cards, you can pick some of those up and bring them on Sunday.

And you can give them to Brother Andrew.

You can give them to Brother Andrew on Sunday since I won't be here.

And those will be for our missionary guests to have breakfast and you know, just a little bit of stuff here and there while they're not getting fed other places by us as well, which we'll take care of them, but if you'd like to help with that.

Then I wanted to give you the missions giving update as of four o'clock this afternoon.

I want you to know that your prayers absolutely flood that space, your room, your home, your city, the state, the country.

Brother Andrew said, "There are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray." He said, "Our prayers go where we cannot." I love to imagine that my prayers are reaching people and souls that I'll never see, that lived in a different time even, past, future, present, that I don't know, have never seen, but I'm praying for them.

And it feels bigger than just praying for me or just praying for you.

And I love you, but I know you're praying, too.

So Christian Zionism has been very violent towards, uh, Palestinians.

And you know, uh, uh, I remember, uh, a missionary called Brother Andrew for, you know, maybe older generation will know him as the Bible smuggler, who came, uh, to Palestine, uh, for many years.

And he used to say about Christian Zionism, if it's a theology that, or any Christian theology that you cannot teach every people group as good news, then it's not- Mm-hmm ... good theology.

Yeah.

Church, listen to me.

Sometimes when we think we have it so rough, what you ought to do is you ought to read Brother Andrew, God's smuggler.

What you ought to do is pull out that Bible that I gave to y'all several months ago from the voice of the martyrs and start looking at the persecuted church.

There's some of those persecuted believers that are in China and I do believe in North Korea.