This year, Open Doors is entering its 50th year of serving persecuted Christians all around the world. With its HQ stationed in United States, Open Doors has reached out its hands to Asia, Africa, Latin America, former communist countries and the Muslim world, with the purpose to serve more than 200 million Christians, who are currently living under the tyranny of their oppressors.
When the Iron curtain was still hanging, Open Doors started with a vision that Brother Andrew received while he was in Warsaw, Poland. Duriing his visit in Warsaw, Andrew discovered that the Poland churches were very weak and they did not have sufficient number of bibles for easy access.
With this understanding, he came across a verse in the Revelation 3:2 of the bible. This verse gave him the inspiriation to stand and help the persecuted Christians, who lived in the most difficult areas of the world. "Awake, and strengthen what remains and is at the point of death."
As more co-workers were added to him, Open Doors started its first ministry of delivering Bibles through the Iron Curtain, which brought encouragement and help to those seemingly forgotten Christians. Today, this ministry has expanded to over 45 countries, with a staff of 350 strong, and has been providing Bible-based literacy classes, discipleship trainings, seminary trainings, vocational trainings and economic reliefs for those living in persecuted areas.
"Brother Andrew's vision for strengthening our persecuted brothers and sisters worldwide remains our core purpose as we work in dangerous countries throughout the world," said Open Doors USA President Dr. Carl Moeller. "There is more persecution now than ever before in such places as Iraq, Nigeria and North Korea."
"The Lord has enabled Open Doors to serve persecuted believers for 50 years. What a blessing! Our suffering brothers and sisters need the prayers and support of churches in the United States. But they also stand as a testimony to us of tremendous faith and trust in the Lord," he continued.
Rick Warren, Founding Pastor of Saddleback Church (CA), stated, "Fifty years of serving and strengthening persecuted Christians worldwide - that is the legacy of Open Doors. An important part of that legacy has been Open Doors' passion for motivating, mobilizing and educating the Body of Christ in the West to reach out to our suffering brothers and sisters."
In the near future, Brother Andrew states that that they are planning to increase the capacity of their ministries for those Christians living under constant of persecution, especially in the Muslim world. "Unfortunately, I think we (Open Doors) have a terrific future, because the conflict in the world is increasing. The inside influence we have in the Muslim world; that is absolutely the focus of persecution and threat to the world. We are very much involved with a lot of that, not as much as I wish we were, but we have made a start. So I think that as we grow with our contacts and are vocal and write about it, more and more Open Doors will become a resource for many other groups wanting to make an impact in the Muslim world and around the world."
