Brother Andrew, the Christian missionary author of God’s Smuggler, one of the biggest-selling Christian books of the last 40 years, has accepted an invitation to speak at Home Focus, HTB’s annual holiday week in July.

Born Anne van der Bijl, in Holland, he became known as Brother Andrew when he started distributing bibles illegally into Communist countries behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s.

In the 1960s he started distributing bibles and other Christian literature into China at a time when the Cultural Revolution had created a hostile policy towards Christianity.

Dangerous

Similar missionary sorties into post-revolutionary Cuba and a large number of Arab Middle Eastern countries followed.

God’s Smuggler, which told the story of trips into Eastern Europe driving his Volkswagen Beetle laden with bibles – sometimes in full view of border guards – has sold more than 10 million copies.

Now 79, Brother Andrew still leads the organisation he founded ‘Open Doors’, which has workers in 45 high-risk countries around the world. His most recent book is called Secret Believers: What Happens when Moslems Believe in Christ.

Brother Andrew will attend the first three days of the Home Focus week at Pakefield, Suffolk, which lasts from July 26 to August 2.