Message from the Pastor

There was a period from late 2022 to mid-2023 when it seemed like a whole generation of Christian leaders was taken from us. 

The news of notable preachers, visionaries and evangelists passing into God’s presence was a frequent occurrence.

Some among many were George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilisation, Charles Stanley from In-Touch Ministries, Stuart Briscoe from Telling the Truth Ministries, Jennifer Rees-Larcombe (author and founder of Beauty from Ashes prayer ministry) and the theologian and author Gordon Fee.  We can also probably add Queen Elizabeth II to this, given she often shared her faith to the nation in her Christmas messages.

However, the one who had the most impact on me personally was Andrew “Anne”’ van der Bijl, who was most famously known as Brother Andrew, the founder of Christian outreach to the persecuted church, Open Doors.

As a new Christian, reading Brother Andrew’s biography, God’s Smuggler and the Heroes of the Faith book about him inspired and moved me.  Hearing how from the horrors and near starvation of life in the Netherlands in the Second World War, and then a disastrous and shocking term of service in the Dutch military in Indonesia, Andrew first came to faith in Christ and then felt the call to minister to believers who lived under the oppression of communism.  Starting with nothing, he believed that God would use him, and eventually travelled to all the countries of Europe suffering behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, illegally bringing in Bibles and other Christian literature to a part of the Church which was in desperate need of God’s word and encouragement from Christians in countries where they were free to exercise their faith.

In the years since, his efforts have come to mean even more to me, married as I am to Maya, herself a citizen of Bulgaria, one of the nations Brother Andrew bravely visited in his mission.

Brother Andrew showed how a life previously filled with wickedness and violence could be transformed by the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to die for sinners, and that we can do great things for God if we give ourselves wholeheartedly to Him.

      Alan