Visits To Communist Countries
In July 1955, he visited communist Poland, "to see how my brothers are doing", referring to the underground church. He signed up to a Communist youth group, which was the only legal way to stay in the country. In that time he felt himself to be called to respond to the Biblical commission "Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die" (Revelation 3:2). This was the start of a mission leading him into several Communist-ruled countries where Christians were persecuted - those behind the "Iron Curtain".
In 1957 Van der Bijl travelled to the Soviet Union's capital Moscow in a Volkswagen Beetle, which later became the symbol of Open Doors, the organization he founded. An older couple that mentored him had given him their new car, because it could hold several Bibles and spiritual literature. Although Van der Bijl was violating the laws of some of the countries he visited by bringing religious literature, he often placed the material in plain view when stopped at government checkpoints, as a gesture of trust in God's protection.
Brother Andrew visited China in the 1960s, after the Cultural Revolution had created a hostile policy towards Christianity and other religions. It was the time of the so-called Bamboo Curtain. He came to Czechoslovakia, when the suppression by Soviet troops of the "Prague Spring" had put an end to relative religious freedom there. He encouraged fellow believers there and gave Bibles to Russian occupying forces. During that decade he also made his first visits to Cuba after that country's revolution.
In 1976 some African countries came under atheist rule. He wrote a book about the spiritual struggle on this continent and in congresses called upon local Christian leaders to strengthen their communities.
Read more about this topic: Brother Andrew
Famous quotes containing the words visits, communist and/or countries:
“The soul is no traveler; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshiped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)