What Made Brother Andrew Fearless?

To discover the secret of fearless living, one needs to experience situations that cause fear. Smuggling a car full of hundreds of Bibles through the Iron Curtain would cause any of us to pause. Was it worth the risk? Brother Andrew, admitted that on more than one occasion he had to step back from a border and spend one or two days in prayer and fasting before he approached the border crossing to an atheistic Communist country.

Keep in mind why my friend took such risks. His Christian brothers and sisters were being brutally repressed under Soviet control. The one thing believers needed was a copy of the Bible, but authorities prohibited its printing or importation. There were some churches where there was not a single copy of Scripture available, even for the pastor. This, for Brother Andrew, was absolutely unacceptable. No government had the right to deprive people of God’s Word.

But if Andrew was caught smuggling Bibles, the consequences could be severe. How did he deal with the risk and fear. The following excerpt from his book God’s Smuggler tells about his first smuggling attempt:

Just ahead was the Yugoslav border. For the first time in my life I was about to enter a Communist country on my own instead of in a group invited and sponsored by the government. I stopped the little VW on the outskirts of the tiny Austrian village and took stock.

The Yugoslav government in 1957 permitted visitors to bring in only articles for their personal use. Anything new or anything in quantity was suspect because of the black market thriving all over the country. Printed material especially was liable to be confiscated at the border, no matter how small the quantity, because coming from out of the country it was regarded as foreign propaganda. Now here I was with car and luggage literally bulging with tracts, Bibles and portions of Bibles. How was I to get them past the border guard? And so, for the first of many times, I said the prayer of God’s Smuggler.

‘Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture that I want to take to Your children across this border. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.’

And so, armed with this prayer, I started the motor and drove up to the barrier. The two guards appeared both startled and pleased to see me….

One of the guards began poking around in my camping gear. In the corners and folds of my sleeping bag and tent were boxes of tracts. ‘Lord, make those seeing eyes blind.’

‘Do you have anything to declare?’

‘Well, I have my money and a wristwatch and a camera….’

The other guard was looking inside the VW. He asked me to take out a suitcase. I knew that there were tracts scattered through my clothing. I pulled the front seat forward and dragged the suitcase out. I placed it on the ground and opened the lid. The guard lifted the shirts that lay on top. Beneath them, and now in plain sight, was a pile of tracts in two different Yugoslavian languages, Croatian and Slovene. How was God going to handle this situation?

‘It seems dry for this time of year,’ I said to the other guard, and without looking at the fellow who was inspecting the suitcase. I tell into a conversation about the weather. Finally, when I could stand the suspense no longer, I looked behind me. The first guard wasn’t even glancing at the suitcase. He was listening to our conversation.

Every border crossing was different, but the Smuggler’s Prayer was the same every time. And each time, Brother Andrew saw God protect the priceless Scriptures in some unique way.

Seeing God work that way is a perfect antidote to fear.

You can order the latest edition of God’s Smuggler with my epilogue, “The Further Adventures of God’s Smuggler” here.

And if you haven’t obtained a copy of our new devotional, Fearless by Faith, you can do so here.