God's Smuggler: A Review

I have to admit that I’ve never truly considered the emotional value of a copy of a Bible before reading God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew. Sure, I’d pondered the spiritual value of a Holy Book; it is after all the Word of God. I spent a great deal of time thinking about the price of one of these treasures, continually taking one off of the shelf, then putting it back on, trying to decide whether or not the thirty Canadian dollars was actually worth the price of a pocket-sized New International Version translation. But after reading about Brother Andrew’s adventures behind the Iron Curtain smuggling Bibles and living entirely on the faith of the Lord, I’ve come to truly realize how blessed I’ve been. Reading this page turner revealed to me the importance of trusting in God, the true value of a Bible, and that God can take anyone of us, no matter the size of our sin, wash us clean and use us to glorify Him.

God’s Smuggler follows Brother Andrew from his time as a rebellious child in Nazi occupied Holland, to his time as a soldier in the Dutch Army fighting in the Indonesian War of Independence, to reading his own Bible, to hearing God’s voice, to becoming a missionary behind the Communist Iron Curtain. Brother Andrew’s testimony of how his mother desperately wanted him to read his Bible and how it took her death to actually get him to do it was heartbreaking and raw. His adventures and friendship with his pet monkey in Indonesia was a touching display of how this bitter young man truly had a love for all of God’s creation even though he himself did not realize it. And perhaps most poignantly, God’s Smuggler reminded me of how God can take a man who has literally fallen as far away from God as possible, not entirely unlike me, and can him into a powerful worker for the expansion of God’s Kingdom.

There were many atrocities in the War of Independence in Indonesia. There was massacre upon massacre, Dutch soldiers were getting killed off left, right and center and Indonesian civilians were taking the brunt of it. Brother Andrew writes of a time where he saw a village-dwelling mother and child, drenched in blood, killed by the same bullet. The break in his heart was so strong that it cracked his mind, and for his remaining time on the Indonesian front, Brother Andrew wore a bright yellow, straw hat instead of his regulation camouflage armoured helmet. This man was desperate for death, having seen and caused so much of it himself. He turned to booze, to women, to anything. And of course, nothing filled the hole caused by the hurt. The damage was done. And in God’s special way, instead of being killed as he had desired, Brother Andrew was shot in the foot, and transported home as a rejected soldier of a defeated army coming home from an inglorious war.

It was during his time of rehabilitation and searching for a future that Brother Andrew started to read the Bible his mother had given him, and over the course of a year it finally sank in, and he committed his life to Jesus. God didn’t hesitate to put his calling on him, and within another two years Brother Andrew had been called to missions, done his own missionary work at a Dutch chocolate factory and moved to England for missionary training. It was at this mission training facility, known as Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (WEC) that Brother Andrew learned to live on faith. Depending on what he calls “The Royal Way,” Andrew would always be in complete trust that God would provide for him from something as simple as toothpaste to something larger like school fees paid by their deadlines. He gives one testimony about a homeless friend of his who had come looking for him for the same amount of money that Andrew had been waiting on. As they were talking, there on the ground was the one British shilling they were both hoping for and what only Andrew could see. Instead of keeping it for himself however, he gave it to his friend, knowing that God doesn’t need or want us to be digging around in the dirt looking for extra change. He’s going to provide for us!

This would not only prove to be an important lesson for Andrew to learn as it would be the way his entire ministry would be funded and run, but it is also an extraordinary example set in front of those of us also living on faith. Money is an easy distraction, something that the worldly kingdom depends on entirely. It is easy to get discouraged or to even lead ourselves off the path that God has laid out for us, or to not even start walking along said path just because we feel like it isn’t something we can afford.

But therein lays the solution.

The truth is that a lot of the situations God has called us to probably are things we personally cannot afford. But God loves us right? When you’re in charge of a project or you’re a supervisor at you’re job, do you charge your workers the expenses of keeping your project or your store or your whatever running? Of course not! It becomes your responsibility because you are in control. The same goes for God. To quote Pastor Sam Song of Solomon’s Porch Church in Hong Kong: “If its God’s will, its God’s bill.” The beautiful thing about that is that God is the creator of all things, and therefore is the creator of money, and therefore will never run out of money because it’s all His. In trusting in the Father, we will be provided for as His children, so stay in accordance to His will and there is nothing to worry about! Brother Andrew’s life story is a testament to this fact.

Sometimes, when living on faith, we might be waiting for more than just money. Especially as Christians, because we know that true life doesn’t just come from food, money, things. No, we’re actually living off of the Holy Spirit and His guidance. Our personal times with God can keep us refreshed for the entire day, sometimes more. And one very powerful way to seek the Lord’s guidance and encouragement is through His Word; through The Bible.

But what if we didn’t have a Bible? I know that I personally probably wouldn’t be able to keep my faith as strong as it is right now without easy access to a Bible, because it’s not only a way for me to seek the Lord’s guidance, but I also receive a lot of encouragement through this book not only from my own time reading it but through Scriptures that others have read to or over me. After reading in God’s Smuggler of how Brother Andrew discovered the desperate need for Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, I realized that this was actually a weakness in my faith; because I’d been taking for granted the fact that I could read my Bible whenever I wanted.

The story that truly hit it home for me was when Brother Andrew was in a Russian controlled Ukrainian village near the Hungary border, and he was visiting a Baptist church there. When the pastor got up to speak, he first stepped down from the pulpit to borrow a Bible in the congregation to read from! After the service, Andrew met with this pastor and they had devotions. After a reading of the borrowed Bible and Andrew’s Dutch Bible, the pastor, in a broken and quiet voice said, “You know, Brother, I have no Bible.”

I was floored and heartbroken after that. The reason this pastor didn’t have a Bible of his own was because it was illegal for him to have one in the Communist Soviet Union. Fortunately Brother Andrew had one to give to this man, but the telling of this story did not fail to open my eyes to the importance of the Bible and the equal importance of not taking for granted how blessed we are for having such easy access to this amazing Book. It has stirred in me the desire to bring Bibles as gifts to people in all nations who are either in short supply or have none whatsoever, whether because of the government or because of poverty or because of whatever reason. The reason behind someone not having a Bible is much less important than the need it is for anybody who wants to have a Bible to read to have one. My eyes have truly been opened to this, and it is in my prayers and on my heart to become a Bible transporter like that of Brother Andrew and so many others. I just want to see God’s people have an easy access to God’s Words.


The thing that makes sin so terrible is when we realize how much we’ve actually sinned. It is so easy to believe that we’re completely unredeemable, that we’re too dirty, that our lives are worth nothing because we’ve fallen so far away from the Lord and now even He can’t reach us. But of course, this is one hundred percent untrue.

The first four chapters of God’s Smuggler tell the tale of Brother Andrew’s time as a rebellious youth pulling pranks on Nazi’s and as a twenty-something soldier fighting in Indonesia’s War of Independence. Through out the entirety of these four chapters, Andrew confesses his denial of the Lord, seeing how his faithful mother suffered with illness her entire life, and how he had become bitter towards God after the death of his already suffering, mentally unwell older brother. Upon witnessing the atrocities of war, Brother Andrew became obsessed with death, and with survival of skirmish after skirmish after skirmish, he would turn to anything that could distract him temporarily, i.e. alcohol, women, drugs, you name it. It took an injury and the divine will of the Lord for Andrew to lie in bed and read his Bible and upon doing so, after a marvellous revelation of what was actually done on the cross, received the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

In his early years as a Christian, Andrew was called to the mission field, experienced miraculous physical healings and even lead others to the Lord. He was accepted into missionary training, graduated from WEC and immediately began work behind the Iron Curtain, countries pressed down by the Communist Regime. Over the course of the rest of his life, Andrew experienced God’s hand and God’s love for His people, and literally did whatever he could to bless them and help them. Brother Andrew’s testimony is a shining light for all Christians and for me personally, a person who, in no way as extreme as Andrew’s, experienced bitterness and anger and sadness towards God. But if God can take someone who fell as far as Andrew did and turn him into a missionary truly living the adventure of Jesus, then surely He can do the same, if not even more, with someone like me. And that rule applies to all.

God’s Smuggler, in all of its excitement, its heartbreaking or touching moments, or its amazing miracles, is truly just a story of a simple man living an extraordinary life because he gave it all to the extraordinary One. There is nothing ordinary about God; He’s a supernatural Creator, with a heart for all of His people. If we’ll just give it all to God like Brother Andrew did, then amazing things can happen through us, for us, to us. If we just wait on the Lord, listen to His voice, trust in Him and do as He says, then maybe one day we too will write a book as exciting, hard-hitting and effective as Brother Andrew’s God’s Smuggler.