Open Doors
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| Open Doors | |
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| Founder(s) | Brother Andrew |
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| Founded | 1955 |
| Website | opendoors.org |
Open Doors is a non-denominational Christian mission supporting persecuted Christian believers in countries where Christianity is socially or legally discouraged or oppressed.
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[edit] History
Open Doors was founded in 1955 by Anne van der Bijl, a Dutchman more widely known as Brother Andrew, when he decided to smuggle Bibles to Christians he felt were being discriminated against in the then-Soviet Poland.
Brother Andrew continued this work in bringing bibles and spiritual literature to Christians in many of the Soviet countries and in 1957 was given a blue Volkswagen Beetle which was to travel over 200,000 miles and become the symbol of Open Doors. With this new car he was able to carry more literature. The work of Open Doors was expanding through the extension of its network throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
In 1967 Brother Andrew published his first book God's Smuggler. This book had a tremendous impact on many Christians in the West who, for the first time, read about the pain and deprivation of their brothers and sisters living in restricted countries. Brother Andrew then came to be known as 'God's Smuggler'.
Brother Andrew's one-man operation quickly grew into a worldwide ministry and in 1965 Open Doors began work in China. From 1978 it stepped up work in the Middle East and in recent years it has concentrated on supporting Christian churches in Islamic-ruled countries.
In 1981 Open Doors delivered one million Bibles in one night to a beach in China, a mission they named Project Pearl.
[edit] Current Work
Open Doors works in many countries around the world giving help to those Christian who are in most need of it. They are involved in
- Delivering bibles and other Christian literature
- Providing pastoral and discipleship training
- Conducting seminars on Christian living, family life and how to thrive under persecution
- Running Bible-based literacy courses
- Supplying equipment and vocational training to help widows, families of prisoners of conscience, the displaced, and the unemployed to earn a living
- Providing legal aid and spiritual and emotional comfort to prisoners and their families
- Financing and supplying equipment to pastors, churches, and Bible colleges
- Supplying printing presses, radios, cassette players, photocopiers, and A/V and transport equipment
- Sponsoring Bible colleges, reconciliation ministries and restoration centres for Christian refugees, widows and orphans.
Open Doors also work to inform and motivate the Church in the free world to assist persecuted Christians. The Organisation publishes a "World Watch List" that lists the countries with the strongest persecution of Christians. Currently North Korea is leading this list.
