Palestine (MNN) — In 1992, the government of Israel expelled 415 Hamas militants to a Lebanese mountainside during the winter. Brother Andrew, famous for smuggling Bibles in to the former Soviet Union, brought them supplies.
Jack Sara, President of Bethlehem Bible College, says, “He was probably the first Christian to reach out to them with blankets with food parcels and tents. He just treated them as humans. He helped with bringing letters to their families, reaching out to their families in Gaza and elsewhere.”
Until his death, Brother Andrew was welcome in Gaza. He once presented a Bible to President Yasser Arafat. He once wrote, “There are no terrorists . . . As long as we see any person—Muslim, Communist, terrorist—as an enemy, then the love of God cannot flow through us to reach him.”
Work with Palestinians
1992 was also the year Sara first met Brother Andrew. “He was very much, I would say, involved in seeing that Bethlehem Bible College will continue to advance in its both training of students, but also outreach to the community around us.”
“When I wanted to go to seminary (I didn’t know this till after a while), Andrew was the guy who paid for my ticket to study in the Philippines for my Masters of Divinity.”
Brother Andrew angered many Christians in the U.S. through his gentleness. He mourned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and called the killing of Osama Bin Laden a murder.
Sara says Brother Andrew practiced “Aggressive bridge-building. He was a supporter of reconciliation work with Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews. He tried to help even those who would be looked at as fundamentalists or fanatics.”
Pray Christians around the world would learn from Brother Andrew’s gentleness and love.
The header photo shows Sara with Brother Andrew. (Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College)
