The church behind the Wall

The Berlin Wall appeared on 13 August 1961. Open Doors' founder, Brother Andrew, was one of the first to pass through Checkpoint Charlie. He has vivid memories of the impact of the Wall: "The flow of refugees from life under communist rule was stopped overnight. There was no way out, no one could escape. The result was a wave of suicides, including some evangelical pastors. They lost hope."

There was a clear ideological clash of values. One communist thinker said, "The responsibility of the communist is to be a militant atheist, an active fighter for the purity of Soviet ideology, for the complete eradication of religious prejudices."

In addition there was a regime based on rigid control. The church was isolated and under threat. Brother Andrew's colleague, Johan Companjen, explains, "Back then, the communists did not tolerate Christians at all. Christians felt totally forsaken. One pastor in Hungary said, 'No one knows where I am, not even my family. Thank you for coming.' Then he cried and cried. The police had closed his church and put him under house arrest."

But despite the threats, the arrests, the imprisonments, Brother Andrew's abiding memory is that the church showed strength: he reports that one pastor said, "Boxing makes us strong."

He never liked the term 'underground church'. As he explains, "You could always find them. A true believer cannot be underground; the church cannot be underground – it is called to boldly proclaim the gospel, not be intimidated by the enemy."

The origins of Open Doors come from Brother Andrew's determination
to play his part in strengthening this persecuted church. He began a stream of visits, taking Bibles through the checkpoints, praying that seeing eyes would be made blind.

Hundreds of thousands of Bibles were delivered. His conviction, then and now, was that Christians under this kind of pressure needed the encouragement of fellowship and the strength that could be found in God's Word.

At the same time he was moved to comment, "The persecuted church has so much more to teach us than we could ever teach them. To see the way they persevere under opposition, love God and forgive their tormentors is something we need to learn a lot more of in our society."