Book summary “God's smuggler”: summary

Introduction

You often feel that your life lacks a vital sense of purpose, driving you to seek escape through ambition or restless activity. You might carry deep emotional scars from past conflicts or personal failures that leave you paralyzed and anxious. The central idea of this book is that absolute surrender to God and unreserved faith replace human anxiety with radical freedom and fearless action.

You will discover how a young Dutch soldier transforms wartime trauma and spiritual hunger into a global mission of smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. The narrative follows your journey from a violent youth in occupied Holland through military brutality in Indonesia to total spiritual awakening. You learn how to trust invisible provision, build underground networks, and confront terrifying borders without weapons.

• How do you survive devastating psychological trauma?
• Can you learn to live entirely without financial security?
• What happens when you cross heavily guarded borders with illegal books?

1. Childhood and Wartime Suffering

Wartime deprivation and early acts of rebellion forged Andrew's psychological need for escape and adventure.

Childhood Fantasies

Growing up in a tiny house in Witte as the son of a hardworking deaf blacksmith, you imagine yourself as a spy or secret agent behind enemy lines. Elaborate fantasies of war and sabotage serve as your primary psychological escape from the restrictive and impoverished environment of your childhood. You target village figures and your older brother Ben in harmless acts of sabotage, driven by a deep craving for adventure and excitement.

Andrew placed a pane of glass on top of Mrs. Whetstra's chimney to cause the wood-burning stove to smoke out her kitchen, and he stole guilders from his brother Ben's piggy bank.

Your intellectually disabled older brother Bas possesses an extraordinary musical gift, playing complex hymns flawlessly by ear. Although Bas cannot talk, dress himself, or perform ordinary tasks, he crawls under the family pump organ while your deaf father plays clumsily. When Bas takes his turn at the bench, he plays the pieces with surpassing beauty and perfection, drawing crowds outside the house.

Bas would press himself to the baseboard of the organ to feel the vibrating wood, then take over the bench and play the hymns perfectly without ever having learned to read music.

As a boy, you successfully deceive your family for years by pretending to attend church while actually spending the time wandering in nature. By loitering around the church vestibule at the end of the service, you listen to congregants discuss the sermon, extract the text, and absorb key stories. You then use this gathered information during Sunday post-church gatherings over coffee and cigar smoke to trick your family into believing you had been present.

Andrew used overheard details about Luke 3:16 to make his family think he had listened to the entire church service.

Wartime Holland

World War II brings severe deprivation, forced hiding, and constant fear of razzias to your family and village. Following the 1940 German invasion of Holland and the bombing of Rotterdam, the family hides radios, shelters railroad workers and Jews, and endures extreme hunger as crops and electricity are commandeered. You and other young males frequently flee into the swamps and polders to escape German forced labor roundups.

At the end of the war in 1945, Andrew ran five miles to a Canadian encampment and begged for a sack of bread crusts to save his starving mother.

2. Military Service and Awakening

Brutal combat in Indonesia shattered Andrew's romanticized views and initiated a profound spiritual healing.

Seeking to break out of the monotony of village life, you enlist in the Dutch army at eighteen years old to fight in the colonial conflict in Indonesia. The Dutch East Indies had been Dutch soil for 350 years before the conflict erupts. You undergo rigorous commando training on the ship Sibajak, driven by the desire for thrilling action and a complete escape from your past. You embrace military life with ungrounded self-confidence, even attempting to drive heavy armored vehicles without prior experience.

During training, you tell an officer you can drive a Bren carrier, resulting in a wild ride that ended by crashing into a row of seven parked carriers.

The Indonesian Conflict

The brutal reality of guerrilla combat and civilian casualties in Indonesia destroys your romanticized view of war and triggers severe psychological trauma. Confronted with killing ordinary people rather than paper targets, you and your unit descend into extreme behavior, fighting and drinking like madmen to cope with your guilt and fear. You adopt a bright yellow straw hat as a reckless dare for the enemy to shoot you.

Following a chaotic village massacre where a young mother and her baby were killed by a stray bullet, you wear your bright yellow straw hat into combat as an invitation to be killed.

Your emotional bond with a captured gibbon reflects your own psychological imprisonment by guilt and your desperate need for liberation. You rescue the gibbon by surgically removing an embedded wire that had painfully cut into its waist as it grew. Later, after the monkey is brutally injured by a barracks mate, you nurse it back to health before finally releasing it into the jungle.

Jan Zwart abused your pet gibbon by slamming it against a wall, breaking its jaw, prompting you to nurse it back to health over ten days using sugar water and stitches. The monkey had a 3-inch-wide swathe of hair shaved around its middle during the medical care, and you spent 10 days of intensive nursing to heal it.

Hospital Recovery

A combat wound in your ankle ends your military career, leading to a period of recovery where you finally open your mother's Bible. You spend 2.5 hours in surgery required to sew up your wounded ankle after surviving 3 years in Indonesia. Hospitalized under the care of Franciscan sisters whose constant joy deeply impresses you, you begin reading the Bible you had stuffed into your dufflebag years earlier. Concurrently, correspondence with a Christian girl named Thile helps you confront your deep sense of guilt and spiritual brokenness. You celebrate your 21st birthday on the day the hospital ship sails for home.

A buddy mistakenly mailed an unfinished, brutally honest and vulgar letter from you to Thile, which instead of alienating her prompted her to send you a Bible study outline.

Sister Patrice shares a native method of catching monkeys to illustrate your inner spiritual trap. You must follow specific steps to understand the parable:

• Take a coconut and make a hole in one end just big enough for a monkey's paw to slip through.
• Drop a pebble into the hole and wait in the bushes with a net.

Sister Patrice uses the coconut-and-pebble story as a parable to question you about your inability to let go of your inner bitterness during your hospital recovery. Holding onto destructive habits or bitterness prevents a person from finding true freedom, much like a monkey trapped by its refusal to let go of a prize.

3. Surrender and the Step of Yes

Returning veterans from colonial wars often face social embarrassment and awkwardness from a public eager to forget an unpopular conflict. Andrew returns to his village in Holland with a permanent leg injury from the East Indies. The villagers look uncomfortably at his uniform and foot, reflecting the general sentiment that the war in Indonesia was unpopular and better left unmentioned.

When Andrew visits Mr. Whetstra and village acquaintances, they ask awkwardly if he hurt himself out there, quickly changing the subject because the impending independence of Indonesia makes returning veterans a source of social discomfort.

Complete personal surrender to God brought Andrew emotional healing, vocational direction, and deep inner freedom.

True personal freedom and spiritual transformation begin only when a person completely surrenders their ego and self-defense mechanisms to God. On a stormy January night in 1950, lying in bed while sleet batters the house, Andrew consciously lets go of his ego and tells God that he will follow wherever He leads without qualifications.

The Crisis Conversion

A secular workplace can serve as an immediate mission field for practicing faith through influence and relational engagement rather than aggressive proselytizing. At Ringers' chocolate factory, Greetje leads the female packagers in vulgar teasing and rough language. Instead of arguing religion, Andrew follows a prompt to talk about tulip scenery during a bicycle ride home, leading Greetje to break down, pray, and completely reform her life.

Employers often recognize and reward personal integrity and character growth, integrating spiritual zeal with professional advancement. Mr. Ringers calls Andrew into his private office, informs him of his high I.Q. score from psychological tests, and places him in the management training course while approving of his proselytizing efforts in the factory.

Eliminating costly personal vices can redirect vital financial resources toward self-education and personal development. Andrew stops smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and uses the saved money to purchase a German grammar, an English grammar, a church history volume, and a Bible commentary, forming the first library owned by his family.

You should follow specific steps to build your education and discipline:

• Calculate the weekly financial cost of personal habits like smoking.
• Redirect the saved funds toward purchasing essential study books and educational materials.
• Engage mentors, such as a former schoolteacher, to coach you in difficult subjects like English and grammar.

Factory Mission Field

Independent faith missions operate on spiritual calling and trust in God rather than institutional budgets and long academic prerequisites. Sidney Wilson introduces Andrew to the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, an English mission group that trains missionaries for two years without requiring traditional university degrees and trusts God for financial provision rather than relying on guaranteed budgets.

A total, unreserved commitment to God's will can coincide with dramatic personal breakthroughs and physical healing. While praying by a canal in September 1952, Andrew gives up all his yes, but excuses and takes a step of complete obedience. Immediately, his leg experiences a sharp wrench, old stitches push through the scar, and his long-standing injury completely heals, allowing him to walk long distances without pain.

You can claim spiritual breakthroughs by following direct instructions:

• Identify and strip away all conditional yes, but excuses regarding your personal limitations or fears.
• Make an unqualified verbal commitment to follow your spiritual calling unconditionally.
• Take an immediate physical step of action to demonstrate complete obedience.

Pursuing a radical, unconventional path often incurs the loss of romantic relationships, institutional support, and immediate acceptance. Thile writes a cold letter ending communication after her church's mission board informs her that the Glasgow school is unaccredited. Simultaneously, Andrew receives a telegram denying his admission due to a lack of vacancies, testing his resolve to follow his calling despite universal human discouragement.

4. Training and the Game of the Royal Way

Missionary training in Scotland tested Andrew's ability to trust God for practical needs without asking for money.

You begin your preparation by spending two intensive months painting headquarters and learning English at Worldwide Evangelization Crusade in London while waiting for a missionary vacancy. Andrew worked hard during Morning Quiet Time using an English Bible and dictionary, eventually speaking at evening devotionals despite language barriers. He painted the WEC headquarters building without taking a holiday for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and spoke for fourteen minutes using flawed pronunciation.

William and Mrs. Hopkins lived out radical Christian hospitality and financial reliance on God by giving away nine-tenths of construction profits and keeping their doors open to the needy. When Andrew moved in with them, he frequently found stray drunks sleeping in his bed and witnessed God constantly providing food through unexpected neighborhood gifts.

Glasgow Training House

At the missionary training college at 10 Prince Albert Road in Glasgow, students learned to rely on God as a living leader for all practical and financial needs rather than depending on impersonal rules. The school charged no tuition and paid no salaries, requiring forty-five young people to handle manual labor and trust God for their term fees and daily provisions at a total cost of ninety pounds for the year. Andrew made a covenant with God to supply his second semester fees without asking anyone, receiving an exact check from the Whetstras just in time.

Trusting for Provision

Missionary training tours in Scotland tested students' ability to trust God's provision under strict rules against mentioning money or taking up collections. Teams operated on minimal funds, gave away a mandatory tithe immediately, and experienced miraculous provision for their daily needs during the four-week evangelism tour that began with a one-pound banknote given to each student.

• Give away a tithe of whatever comes in within twenty-four hours.
• Never mention a financial need aloud.
• Never take up collections or mention money at meetings.

When Andrew's team desperately needed a cake for an impromptu tea party in Edinburgh, a package containing a chocolate cake arrived from Mrs. William Hopkins in London.

The Game of the Royal Way was Andrew's term for trusting God to supply practical necessities in a kingly manner without resorting to human manipulation or begging. You learned to distinguish between true needs and mere wants, refusing to compromise your faith by scavenging for money or borrowing from institutional funds. Needing a shilling for a registered mail visa renewal on December 30, 1954, he found a coin on the pavement right after giving away his last coin to a hungry beggar named Richard.

5. Behind the Iron Curtain

Early clandestine trips into communist nations exposed severe Bible shortages and inspired the Prayer of God's Smuggler.

You find that totalitarian regimes sometimes neutralize religion indirectly through a strategy of frustration rather than outright frontal attacks. In Prague, Andrew visited state-supported Protestant scholars who admitted their newly translated Bible manuscript had been ready since the war but unpublished, and the largest religious bookstore in the country could not supply a single Bible.

Warsaw Youth Festival

In July 1955, you board a special train from Amsterdam to Warsaw for a massive international youth festival carrying salvation booklets to counter communist literature. Uncle Hoppy provided fifty pounds sterling for expenses to support this outreach of twenty-six lead soldiers.

• 96 million - size of the worldwide communist-front youth organization
• fifty pounds sterling - amount provided by Uncle Hoppy for expenses
• July 15, 1955 - departure date of the train for Warsaw
• July 21 - reopening date of the Warsaw Bible shop

During his clandestine visits to Czech churches, young believers presented Brother Andrew with a silver lapel ornament shaped like a cup to remind Christians in the West that believers behind the Iron Curtain are part of the same body and enduring suffering. A group of forty young people in a Moravian church in Prague presented Andrew with a silver lapel pin shaped like a tiny cup before he returned to Holland.

The Cup of Suffering

Border crossings with restricted religious literature can be successfully navigated by relying on a specific prayer asking God to blind the guards to prohibited items.

Faced with the strict prohibition against bringing foreign printed material into communist countries, Andrew established the practice of praying specifically that God would make the seeing eyes of the guards blind to the hidden Bibles and tracts. You use this specific prayer before every inspection:

• 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.

At the Yugoslav border in 1957, when a guard lifted shirts in an open suitcase and exposed a pile of Croatian and Slovene tracts, Andrew engaged another guard in a conversation about the weather, and the first guard ignored the literature and returned the passport.

Even in educated city centers like Belgrade, decades of suppression and lack of printing resulted in entire congregations where almost nobody owned a personal copy of the Bible. During a packed service in Belgrade where the entire congregation stood to commit their lives to Christ, Andrew discovered that only seven people in the room owned Bibles, forcing them to adopt a specific sharing method:

• Establish a schedule of group study combined with individual use, allocating specific hours on designated days for each member to use the shared Bibles.

6. Expanding Borders and Partnerships

As the ministry grew, Andrew married Corry, formed strategic team partnerships, and began printing custom pocket Bibles.

You can travel across difficult borders with greater ease when you bring your spouse along. Border guards rarely suspect a married couple of running covert operations. When Andrew traveled with his pregnant wife Corry into Yugoslavia, border guards scarcely checked their luggage and recommended scenic routes.

Marriage and the Volkswagen

Andrew recorded a specific prayer for a wife on April 12, 1957. He eventually realized Corry van Dam was the unexpected answer to his prayers. They bought a house in 1959 during a severe Dutch housing shortage for ten thousand guilders. Philip Whetstra instantly provided the cash as a loan without signed papers.

Expanding a solo travel ministry requires forming a loose partnership to overcome physical limitations. Traveling over eighty thousand kilometers a year alone caused Andrew to miss family milestones. He sought an organism rather than a formal organization, relying on prayer to find Hans Gruber.

When two people cross a border together, you must follow a strict protocol:

• Limit talking to only one person at a time during border inspections.
• Keep the second person constantly in prayer regarding every detail of the inspection and the border guards.

Printing Russian Pocket Bibles

Standard-sized Cyrillic Bibles are bulky and difficult to conceal in large quantities. Discovering miniature, India-paper Ukrainian pocket Bibles proved that entire shipments could be concealed much easier. Major Bible societies were unable to produce a special edition, so the team decided to print five thousand pocket Bibles independently at a cost of three dollars per copy, requiring fifteen thousand dollars total.

Rolf joined Andrew and Hans full-time after feeling an inescapable compulsion from God. Rolf and Elena took the newly built van to England on their honeymoon to pick up the first order of pocket Bibles. The team successfully smuggled six and fifty copies of the new pocket Bibles into Moscow and delivered them to local contacts.

7. Global Outreach and the Open Doors Movement

The work evolved into a global organism supporting persecuted believers and engaging even the Islamic world through bold faith.

Open Doors operates in over 50 countries and serves millions of persecuted Christians. The ministry relies on an organism structure where every member prays for others by name. To filter out novelty-seekers, you must require candidates to meet a specific condition.

• As soon as your own ministry of encouragement is started behind the Curtain, get in touch with us.
• Let's see if we can work together.

Indigenous Missions

Behind-the-Curtain missionaries travel to neighboring nations to hold meetings and distribute literature. Everyday tourists can act as ambassadors of God by bringing single Bibles in personal luggage.

• Find the places where Christians meet to worship.
• Stand up in these services and speak just six healing words: Greetings from your brothers.

Facing Islamic Extremism

As Communism waned, Andrew shifted focus to the 1400-year-old Islamic world. You must confront opposition without fear and obey the foundational text.

• Do not be afraid of opposition or persecution.
• Go back to Father's Book and follow the example of the disciples.
• Actively fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations everywhere.

10 Key Ideas

1. Wartime deprivation and early acts of rebellion forged Andrew's psychological need for escape and adventure through elaborate childhood fantasies of espionage.
2. Sister Patrice used the parable of a native method of catching monkeys in a coconut trap to illustrate Andrew's inability to let go of his inner bitterness during his hospital recovery.
3. Complete personal surrender to God on a stormy January night brought Andrew emotional healing, vocational direction, and deep inner freedom through the Step of Yes.
4. The Game of the Royal Way was Andrew's term for trusting God to supply practical necessities in a kingly manner without resorting to human manipulation, begging, or borrowing from institutional funds.
5. Border crossings with restricted religious literature can be successfully navigated by relying on the specific Prayer of God's Smuggler asking God to blind the guards to prohibited items.
6. The team successfully produced and smuggled miniature India-paper Russian and Ukrainian pocket Bibles to conceal entire shipments much easier across difficult borders.
7. Spiritual transformation and effective ministry rely on following the Holy Spirit over cleverness, human calculation, or guaranteed institutional budgets.
8. Everyday tourists and behind-the-Curtain missionaries can act as ambassadors of God by bringing single Bibles in personal luggage to support indigenous fellowships.
9. Open Doors expanded its global outreach to engage the Islamic world by confronting opposition without fear and following the foundational examples of the disciples.
10. Believers must take an offensive posture to actively fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations everywhere despite global persecution and totalitarian regimes.