Cornelia van der Bijl (known as Corry), the wife of Open Doors’ founder Brother Andrew, passed away on 23rd January, surrounded by her family.
Corry was born in March, 1931, and she and Andrew met in their youth, before marrying in Alkmaar, Holland, in June 1958.
An Open Doors spokesperson said, “We give thanks for her life and her faithfulness in serving the Lord,” and quoted the verse, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.” (Psalm 116:15)
In 1955, Brother Andrew, then a 27-year-old Dutch missionary, began his extraordinary ministry when he smuggled Bibles into Eastern Europe for the first time. He did so after reading Revelation 3:2 which exhorts us to “strengthen what remains and is at the point of death”.
This marked the beginnings of the ministry of Open Doors, that now works in more than 70 countries around the world.
It was in 1956 that Brother Andrew made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union in his iconic blue Volkswagen Beetle, which was to travel over 200,000 miles.
He smuggled Bibles, creatively hidden inside the VW, and would always pray, “Lord you made blind eyes see. Now I pray, make seeing eyes blind.”
That prayer is still prayed today as Open Doors staff deliver Bibles into dangerous places.
The world first became aware of his ministry in 1967, when Brother Andrew’s iconic biography, God’s Smuggler (written with John and Elizabeth Sherill), was published, and went on to became one of the best-selling Christian books of all time.
