About Us - Page 18 - Open Doors

Our roots

Andrew van der Bijl, a young Dutch missionary, was invited to attend a Communist Youth Festival in 1955 in Poland. In his suitcase, he had a couple of Bibles meant for believers in Warsaw.

What he found behind the Iron Curtain, was a Church in desperate need of encouragement and Bibles. This is when God called Brother Andrew, as he is now simply known, through the words of Revelation 3:2, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die…”

Brother Andrew’s one-man operation quickly grew into a worldwide ministry. The work of Open Doors broadened to taking Bibles into China, Vietnam and later Africa and the Muslim World, and organising training seminars and practical aid for persecuted Christians. Under Brother Andrew’s leadership, Open Doors has gone, and still goes, where most Western Christians dare not go. His underground network of indigenous Christians has aided in the secret distribution of millions of Bibles each year, worldwide.

It is more than 60 years later, and Open Doors continues the work started by Brother Andrew, by continuing to deliver Bibles and Christian literature, training thousands of pastors and church leaders and providing spiritual and legal support for Christian prisoners. We also provide economic relief for their families and the families of martyrs.

If you would like to know more about Brother Andrew and the ministry of Open Doors, get your copy of God’s Smuggler from us.

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Our Mission

Open Doors Vision Statement

To strengthen and equip the body of Christ living under or facing restriction and persecution because of their faith in Jesus Christ, and to encourage their involvement in world evangelism by:

Providing Bibles and Christian literature, media, leadership training, socioeconomic development and through intercessory prayer;

Preparing the body of Christ living in threatened or unstable areas to face persecution and suffering; and

Educating and mobilising the body of Christ living in the free world to identify with threatened and persecuted Christians and to be actively involved in assisting them.

We do so because we believe when one member suffers, all members suffer with that member (1 Corinthians 12:26), all doors are open and God enables His Body to go into the entire world and to preach the Gospel.

Statement of Faith

We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Our work

Key to our ministry is to raise awareness and encourage prayer for the worldwide persecuted Church. We do so via a range of resources that are available to Southern African Christians, which alert them to the needs of the persecuted Church and encourage prayerful support.

Find out more about Open Doors